Minutes after winning the men’s 500m, Victor Ahn captured his third gold medal of the Sochi Olympics (and the sixth of his career) as the anchor of the winning Russian team in the men’s 5000m short track relay.
Ahn, Semen Elistratov, Vladimir Grigorev, and Ruslan Zakharov set an Olympic record time of 6:42.100, with Ahn beating Team USA anchor J.R. Celski by nearly three-tenths of a second.
With the silver from the team of Celski, Chris Creveling, Jordan Malone and Eddy Alvarez, the U.S. short track skaters - and U.S. Speedskating as a whole - were able to earn a Sochi medal in the final opportunity to do so.
Chris Creveling, who started the relay for the Americans and avoided a crash between the Chinese and Dutch skaters in the very first corner, moved to the lead ahead of Russia with 15 laps to go. But with seven laps left, Russia moved ahead to stay.
MORE: South Korea’s Park Seung-Hi wins women’s short track 1000m
SHORT TRACK - MEN’S 5000M RELAY, A FINAL
1. Russia (Ahn/Elistratov/Grigorev/Zakharov), 6:42.100 - OR
2. United States (Celski/Alvarez/Creveling/Malone), 6:42.371
3. China (Dequan/Tianyu/Jingnan/Dajing), 6:48.341
4. Netherlands (Breeuwsma/Kerstholt/Knegt/Van Der Wart), 6:49.149
5. Kazakhstan (Azhgaliyev/Bekzhanov/Nikisha/Zhumagaziyev), 6:54.630
