Ohno extended his American record by winning his eighth Winter Olympics medal.
But the night belonged to the Canadian skaters, who walked away from two men's races with three medals: two gold and one bronze.
Ohno tussled with Canadians in both of the finals he skated in, and he lost out in both races. Ohno was disqualified from the 500-meter final for making contact with Canada's Francois-Louis Tremblay around the final turn.
Replays showed Ohno's hand touching Tremblay's side before the Canadian went skidding to the wall.
Ohno, running last and trying to find room as the skaters approached the finish line, said he put his hand up so he wouldn't run into Tremblay.
Canada's Charles Hamelin won the gold medal in 40.981 seconds, the first of two golds he captured Friday night. Ohno crossed the line second, but was thrown out of the race, awarding South Korea's Sung Si-Bak the silver and Tremblay the bronze.
Sung also fell during the race, losing the edge of his skate as he led coming around the final turn. But he skidded across the line anyway.
It was a chaotic finish -- but that's just short track speedskating, as they say.
The contact between Ohno and Tremblay was minimal, but skaters have been disqualified for less. Ohno said there was just no space to move up, and so he tried to squeeze in anyway.
He wasn't happy about the disqualification.
"You know, it's the head Canadian referee out there," Ohno said, "and there were two Canadians in the race."
Ohno already had two medals here, including a silver he won in the 1,500 meters Feb. 13 when two South Koreans fell. Ohno then took bronze in the 1,000 meters on Feb. 20 for his seventh medal, passing long track legend Bonnie Blair for the most ever among Americans at the Winter Games.
Now he has eight.
But, still, the night belonged to Canada.
Hamelin and Tremblay returned to guide the Olympic hosts to a gold in the chaotic 5,000-meter relay. The Canadians held off South Korea and Ohno's American team to finish with a winning time of 6 minutes, 44.224 seconds.
Canada's team also included Hamelin's brother, Francois, and Olivier Jean. But it was Tremblay's job to finish the race out.
"Our strategy was called 'Operation Cobra' which was where Francois-Louis had one minute and 10 seconds rest before he did the last two laps and the last two laps were very good," said Charles Hamelin.
The gold marked Canada's 10th of these Olympics, the most of any country. Canada still trails the U.S. and Germany in the overall medal count.
The American team -- Ohno, J.R. Celski, Travis Jayner and Jordan Malone -- ran fourth for much of the race until they moved into third position with two laps left.
In the final lap, Ohno briefly lost the third spot to China, but got it back when the Chinese skater stumbled. The Americans finished .052 seconds behind the silver medal-winning South Koreans.
Ohno said his disqualification earlier in the night fired him up. He wouldn't speculate, however, about his retirement, which has been rumored to be coming after these Olympics.
Friday was "definitely [my last race] for Vancouver," Ohno said. "But I'm not looking past tomorrow."
© 2010
