ISU

Meng Wang of China won the Olympic 500m Short track final for ladies as she did last Winter Olympics. Canadian skater Marianne St-Gelais took silver to the delight of the home crowd. Italian champion Arianna Fontana won bronze.

At the Richmond Olympic Oval on Wednesday, Shani Davis from the USA won Olympic gold in the 1000m for the second consecutive Winter Games. Behind him, 500m winner Tae-Bum Mo (KOR) took the silver and Chad Hedrick (USA) won bronze.

Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko grabbed the Men’s Short Program and has his eyes set on a second consecutive Olympic title, but World Champion Evan Lysacek (USA) and Daisuke Takahashi of Japan are less than one point behind. It was an exciting competition with many strong performances, but some contenders crumbled under the pressure.

Korean skater Sang-Hwa Lee won the Olympic 500m Speed Skating event for the ladies. Lee defeated world record holder Jenny Wolf (GER), who took the silver, and Beixing Wang (CHN) who took the Olympic bronze medal.

Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao of China made history when they struck Gold in the Pairs event on Monday, winning China’s first gold medal in Olympic figure skating and ending Russian dominance in the discipline. Qing Pang/Jian Tong skated to the silver with a spectacular performance while Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany earned the bronze medal.

The 500m Olympic champion is Tae-Bum Mo from Korea. Japan’s Keiichiro Nagashima took the second place, and his team mate Joji Kato joined him on the podium for the bronze.

Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao of China took the lead in the Pairs Short Program, followed closely by Germany’s Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy and Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov from Russia.

22-year-old Martina Sáblíková (CZE) won the 3000m ladies Olympic Speed Skating at the Richmond Olympic Oval on Sunday. It was the first Olympic medal in Speed Skating in history for the Czech Republic. Stephanie Beckert (GER) (21) took silver beating her Canadian pair mate Kristina Groves (33) who won the Olympic bronze.

Dutchman Sven Kramer won the first speed skating gold medal of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in the 5000m Men's event. Long track debutant Seung-Hoon Lee (KOR) took the silver and Ivan Skobrev (RUS) won Olympic bronze at the Richmond Oval on Saturday.

The Pacific Coliseum will host, among other events, eight Olympic Short Track competitions; the Men’s and Ladies’ 1500m, 1000m and 500m as well as the Men’s 5000m Relay and the Ladies’ 3000m Relay with competition extending over five days, with at least one medaled event on each day.

With six Ladies’ and six Men’s Speed Skating Events at the Olympics, Speed Skating is one of the world’s most medalled Olympic winter sports, but the race to the podium is high-paced; a hundredth of a second can separate gold from silver.

The figure skating competition at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will start in Vancouver, Canada, on February 14. Canada is hosting the Olympic Winter Games for the second time since 1988...