Ohno . . . Oh yes!

TURIN -- For four years, he'd heard from all of South Korea and a few other precincts that his Olympic victory was bogus. Apolo Anton Ohno had won a gold medal, but only on a disqualification that ranked as the second-biggest controversy of the Salt Lake Games after the pairs skating scandal.

Last night, in the boldest 42 seconds of his life, Ohno shocked himself and the rest of the short-track speedskating world by winning the 500 meters, the one event where almost nobody gave him a chance.

''I can't explain [it]," said the 23-year-old Ohno, after he'd led wire-to-wire to smash Korea's hopes of sweeping all four men's events. ''I've been searching my entire career for the perfect race, and that was it."

Less than 40 minutes later, Ohno came back to skate the perfect two laps to rally his teammates past the Italians for the bronze medal in the 5,000-meter relay, their first podium finish in the event since 1994.

''It's absolutely fantastic," exulted Ohno, who'll leave these Games with a gold and two bronzes to run his career total to five medals. ''To finish the Olympics like this with these guys -- there's nothing like it."

The two medals increased the American tally to 25, a dozen more than the record of 13 at an overseas Games that was set in 1994 and matched in 1998. The form sheet had the short-trackers winning three, as they did in 2002, but they didn't figure to come this way.

Ohno's best shot was in the 1,500 meters, which he'd won last time when Kim Dong Sung was disqualified for interference. When he failed to make the final, he was devastated. In the 1,000, where Ohno won silver in 2002 after scrambling up out of a four-man crash, he had to settle for bronze behind two Koreans.

His last individual chance was last night, and it wasn't terrific, not given the presence of Korea's Ahn Hyun Soo, who'd won the previous two races, and Canadian world champion Francois-Louis Tremblay. As it was, Ohno was fortunate to survive the semifinal after it appeared that China's Li Jiajun had edged him for second. But Li was disqualified for impeding another skater and Ohno advanced.

From there, everything worked perfectly for him. Ohno had the inside lane and after two false starts called on his rivals, he caught a flyer, grabbed the lead and never gave it up. Tremblay and teammate Eric Bedard boxed Ahn out and Ohno tore around the track four and a half times as if he were being chased by tigers. ''When I crossed the line, I could not believe it," said Ohno, who kept screaming ''Yes!" ''It was awesome."

This time, there was no video review, no protests from the Koreans. If Ohno had jumped the start, which he denied, his rivals weren't calling him on it. ''After the race, I saw on the screen the starting scene," said Ahn, who ended up third behind Tremblay. ''I saw how Ohno started and I thought I shall leave it to the referee. It was not my place to go."

After the Games they've had -- 10 medals, six of them gold -- the Koreans weren't going to be quibbling about another. Besides Ahn's victories in the 1,500 and 1,000, they also claimed the men's relay and three of the four women's races, including last night's 1,000, with Jin Sun Yu winning her third gold.

The US women, as expected, again came up empty against the fleeter Koreans and Chinese. Kimberly Derrick, whose grandfather died here Friday, took the line in tears and ended up disqualified in the quarterfinals. And Halie Kim went out in the semifinals after clipping skates with Korea's Choi Eun Kyung. ''I don't know what happened," shrugged Kim, who was happy merely to be here after struggling with an Achilles' injury all winter. ''It's short-track."

Ohno knew all about the random craziness that gives gold medals to unknowns and snatches them from favorites. He wasn't a sprinter, he acknowledged. ''But on this night, at this Olympics . . ."

The Americans had the goods to win a relay medal with Ohno, Rusty Smith, J.P. Kepka, and Alex Izykowski, but after two quadrennia off the podium, they weren't counting on anything. ''We were hoping we would," said Kepka. ''But it's always so crazy."

Midway through the race, it was clear the Koreans and Canadians would take the gold and silver. With two laps left, the Italians had the lead but Ohno was revving up for a final blastoff. In less than half a lap, the bronze was in the bag. ''Days like this," Ohno said, ''you hope they last for eternity."