U.S. Short Track Ladies win bronze in the relay

February 24, 2010—Vancouver, B.C.

Tonight, the U.S. Ladies Short Track team ended the 16-year drought for Olympic medals as they brought home a bronze medal in the 3000m Relay event. Not since 1994 have U.S. short track ladies brought home Olympic medals in any event.

The relay team, consisting of Allison Baver (Sinking Spring, PA), Kimberly Derrick (Memphis, TN), Alyson Dudek (Hales Corners, WI), Lana Gehring (Glenview, IL) and Katherine Reutter (Champaign, IL), skated against teams from Korea, China and Canada, and actually finished in fourth place—just off the podium. But when Korea was disqualified for impeding a Chinese skater, Team USA was awarded the bronze medal. China’s team set a new world record at tonight’s event with a time of 4:06.610.

“I feel like our team has done so much hard work to be the best we can at this event,” Reutter said.

Earlier in the evening, Reutter set an Olympic record in her 1000m heat with a time of 1:30.508, advancing to the quarterfinals on Friday night. Baver and Derrick (Memphis, TN) also skated the 1000m heats, but did not advance.

Apolo Anton Ohno (Seattle, WA) and Simon Cho (Laurel, MD) demonstrated some fast skating in their 500m heats, both advancing to the quarterfinals on Friday night. Jordan Malone (Denton, TX) was in a solid second place coming into the final turn when he fell and did not advance.

"The 500 meters is a totally different race,” Ohno said. “It's much faster than any of the other races. A lot of skaters are able to skate the 500 very well, but they couldn't hang in the 1000. It's going to bring a whole new depth of speed and strategy for these races."

“This is my first actual season racing as a member of the national team so no one really has any expectations of me,” said Cho. “I’m here to do my best and I try to consider myself a dark horse.”

Olympic Short Track Speedskating concludes on Friday, February 26 with the Ladies 1000m, the Men’s 500m and the Men’s 5000m Relay events. Racing begins at 6 pm (PST) at the Pacific Coliseum.