Katherine Reutter brings home a gold medal

During the final day of the ISU World Cup Short Track in Beijing, China, the U.S. Ladies brought everything to the table and won three podium finishes—including a gold for Katherine Reutter (Champaign, IL).

Both Reutter and Jessica Smith (Melvindale, MI) fought their way through the 1000m semi-finals to skate in the A Final. With four laps to go, Reutter took the lead and, despite desperate attempts by Korean skater Eun-Byul Lee to pass her, Reutter held her ground to win her first individual World Cup gold medal with a time of 1:32.047. Smith followed close behind and won the bronze medal in the same event.

The Ladies 3000m Relay Team, consisting of Reutter, Alyson Dudek (Hales Corners, WI), Allison Baver (Sinking Springs, PA) and Kimberly Derrick (Memphis, TN) skated a nearly flawless race and finished right behind the Korean team to capture the silver medal.

On the Men’s side, Apolo Anton Ohno (Seattle, WA), Travis Jayner (Midland, MI) and Anthony Lobello (Tallahassee, FL) earned spots in the 1000m quarter-finals. Both Ohno and Jayner advanced to the semi-finals but Lobello got edged out in his heat and could not advance. After the semi-final round, Jayner and Ohno both ended up in the B Final. Jayner skated a terrific race to win the B Final in a remarkable photo finish that edged out Canadian skater Francois-Louis Temblay by .006.

During the Men’s 5000m Relay, Team USA consisted of Ohno, Jayner, Jordan Malone (Denton, TX) and Simon Cho (Laurel, MD). A fall in the semi-finals set the team back and they could only recover to third place, landing in the B Final. Jayner, Malone, Cho and Jeff Simon (Las Vegas, NV) put together a solid 5000m relay to win the B Final, finishing fifth overall for the event.

Team USA finishes the first World Cup short track event with one gold, one silver and three bronze medals. They now travel to Seoul, Korea for the second event in the World Cup series.