U.S. women speedskaters get a bronze after all

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada — 

With 16 bodies scattered everywhere, there is nothing about a 3,000-meter short-track speedskating race that favors certainty. But the U.S. women’s team had latched onto the idea that a medal in the Wednesday race was fairly inevitable.

Then, halfway through the event, they were out of the picture almost literally, skating half a lap behind the leaders with no chance at all.

“I was thinking, this hasn’t really happened to us before,” team member Alyson Dudek said.

So imagine what’s on South Korea’s minds. The four-time Olympic champion in the relay finished first . . . and then saw a fifth straight gold medal vanish in a disqualification for impeding a Chinese skater. The U.S., completely obliterated in finishing more than seven seconds behind China, thus backed into a bronze.

The U.S. women huddled by the wall of the oval and appeared clearly dejected after an emphatically disappointing result. Then, suddenly, they sprang off to take a victory lap with the American flag.

The pep in their step hadn’t escaped them later. Katherine Reutter bounced on her toes behind a curtain, just before the podium ceremony. As they made the rounds, they simply shrugged at the fickle nature of the sport.

“Was the race a little bit fluky? Maybe,” Reutter said. “But we did everything to deserve it. We got the bronze.”

Said Dudek: “That’s part of our sport. You gotta love it.”

Meanwhile, in the men’s 500-meter preliminaries, U.S. skaters Apolo Anton Ohno and Simon Cho advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals while Jordan Malone crashed out of his heat just before the finish.

Ohno, who will seek at least an eighth medal in either the 500-meter race or the relay on Friday, sneaked in front of Canada’s Olivier Jean to win his prelim and get an inside lane position as he moves forward.

“I’d like to think I have more” speed than four years ago, Ohno said. “I’m going to need more if I’m going to make the final.”

In women’s 1,000-meter preliminaries, only one of three U.S. skaters advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals. Reutter moved on in record fashion, setting an Olympic standard by finishing her heat in 1 minute 30.508 seconds.

“Yeah, and this one held up for a little bit, too,” she said. “You get drug tested after an Olympic record, and last time I was in the test and I was like, really? I only had [the record] for three minutes. Did it really even count? Today, I hope it holds up and I don’t mind being drug tested.”

Her teammates weren’t as fortunate. Allison Baver was disqualified after a second-place finish in her heat, and Kimberly Derrick finished third in her heat. So neither advanced.

bchamilton@tribune.com