Lee Takes Speed Skating Gold in Historic Win

In what will go down as one of the most historic upsets in speed skating history, Lee Seung-Hoon of South Korea took gold in the men's 10km race, with an Olympic Record time of 12m 58.55s, beating Ivan Skobrev of Russia and defending champion Bob de Jong of the Netherlands for silver and gold, respectively.

He becomes the first Asian speed skater to ever win Olympic gold over one of the longer distances, who have previously only thrived over the shorter, sprint events.

The most notable event however, took place in the final pairing, when the overwhelming favorite Sven Kramer of the Netherlands made the biggest mistake of his life when he accidentally failed to switch lanes, getting disqualified in the process.

Kramer, not noticing his error, continued to skate and coasted to the finish with a meaningless time of 12:54.50.

He stood up as he crossed the finish, pumping his fists, not tired at all. Less than 30 seconds later he realized, throwing his glasses away in disgust. It was his first loss over 10km in four years, since the 2006 Olympic race in Turin.

The incident happened with around 3 kilometers left to skate. Emerging from the inner lane out of a curve, he was dutifully crossing over on the straight to enter the outer curve, as he was supposed to do.

But his long-time coach, Gerard Kemkers, at the last second made a furious gesture with his arm towards the center of the rink, and like a good pupil, Kramer adjusted to enter the inner lane, again. The move probably netted him less than a second, time-wise.

Later in an interview Kemkers admitted that he hadn't seen from which lane Kramer emerged, because he had been occupied with writing Kramer's lead over Lee at the time on a small whiteboard, so he could communicate to his athlete that he was on gold medal course.

A similar mistake once cost Chad Hedrick a world title in 2006, also in a 10km race.

The mistake is not Kramer's. Skating a proper 10km is all about finding a good rhythm and sticking to it, and concentration on sticking to this rhythm occupies about 90 percent of what you do. When your coach gives you a clear direction, you follow it, you have to focus on just your skating strides.

Kramer was doing everything right, up until the moment of the gesture. The coach who trained him all his pro career, and with whom he has won countless World and European titles, set incredible world records and won Olympic Gold 10 days ago, let him down.

But Lee's triumph is all his own, and one cannot say that, all things considered, he isn't a worthy Olympic champion.

He skated faster than anyone ever had in Olympic history, he beat the defending Olympic champion, Bob de Jong, who had shown incredible form all throughout the year. And Lee did it all in just his third ever 10km race.

At 21, Lee used to be one of South Korea's most promising short-track skaters, but disaster struck for him in April 2009 when he failed to qualify for any short tracking events in these Olympics.

Not content to sit out Vancouver behind the TV in his native Seoul, he decided to switch to the long-track in pursuit of his Olympic dreams.

Since first stepping onto the long-track Lee has improved with leaps and bounds all season, already winning Olympic silver over 5km earlier these games, despite never finishing higher than fifth in an international meet.

With his gold in the 10km, he becomes the first Asian athlete to win over one of the longer distances. He began celebrating while Kramer was still busy, his coaches informing him of the blunder which gave him the gold.

While clearly delighted, his Olympic dreams having panned out more perfectly than he could've wished for, he celebrated quietly and respectfully, walking a lap of honor while draped in his flag, to the delight of the handful of Korean fans in the Richmond Olympic oval.

Ivar Ballangrud, Hjalmar Andersen, Ard Schenk, Eric Heiden, Johann Olav Koss...Some of the greatest names in speed skating. All were Olympic champions over 10kms. And now Lee Seung-Hoon can add himself to that esteemed list.

Lee has done the absolute impossible, winning Olympic gold when no one in the sport had heard of him five months ago. He's the speed skating equivalent of Buster Douglas, of the 1980 USA men's hockey team, he is the South Korean Miracle on Ice.