The Front Row with Tim Dahlberg Feb. 23, 2010

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Apolo Anton Ohno had to know it was going to come down to this. The South Koreans were too good not to be there, and he certainly wasn't going to be kept off the starting line in what could be his last Olympics.

The Canadian brothers alongside them in the 1,000-meter short track final Saturday were little more than a bonus for the home crowd. Charles and Francois Hamelin were good enough skaters, but they weren't going to intrude on this drama.

Ohno's attempt to become the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian was just part of it. Sure, he was going for a record seventh medal - he won No. 6, a silver, in the 1,500 last week - but the South Koreans had even more incentive to win.

It's been that way for eight years now, with Ohno having to battle a country as well as the ice. Short track isn't a sport where grudges usually last long, but South Koreans have hated him since he won a gold medal in Salt Lake City when one of their countrymen, who finished in front of him, was disqualified.

Nothing personal on his part, it seems awfully personal on theirs.

Lee Jung-su was so unhappy to have Ohno with him during the victory ceremony last week that he couldn't even enjoy his gold medal in the 1,500.

"Ohno didn't deserve to stand on the same medal platform as me," Lee was quoted as saying. "I was so enraged that it was hard for me to contain myself during the victory ceremony."

Now they stood at the same starting line, along with Lee Ho-suk, who was holding a grudge of his own. Lee Ho-suk was one of two South Koreans who lost medals in the 1,500 when they wiped out in the final turn, which they blamed on Ohno being too aggressive.

Surely this wasn't going to end well. Not in short track, where even friends don't mind wiping out other friends to get to the finish line first.

Amazingly enough, it did.

Everyone who started finished standing up. Everyone but the Canadians won medals.

And everyone but the home fans who filled the Pacific Coliseum got to go home happy.

"Another historical night," Ohno said. "I raced my heart out today."

For a time it looked as if that would not only get him his seventh medal in three Olympics, but one made of gold. The South Koreans, though, were quicker midway through the race and Ohno had to recover from a slip that put him in last place. He passed Charles Hamelin on the final backstretch to win the bronze behind the South Koreans.

Ohno was smiling just the same. With good reason, since the third-place finish moved him past Bonnie Blair with seven medals, the most ever won by a U.S. athlete in the Winter Olympics.

"I would love to have gotten gold," he said. "I thought I was going to. Life doesn't turn out the way you expect. I feel amazing about my performance tonight. I can't wait to watch the tape and see how I came back from last place to win bronze."

Asked if he was the greatest American Winter Games athlete ever, he said:

"How do you answer that? I don't put labels on myself. I consider myself an athlete on my third Olympic games, working my heart out. My goal was to come out and put my heart and soul into the Olympic games and I've done that."

He's not finished. Ohno has two races left, and a chance to set the bar even higher if he hangs the skates up after these games, as he has hinted he will do.

The South Koreans will have a say in that, too, of course. They've won both men's short track races and, if it weren't for the last-second wipeout they blamed on Ohno, they would have won five of the six medals given out so far.

At the age of 27, Ohno may be in the best shape of his life but he is hanging on in a young man's sport. Lee Jung-su is seven years younger and, no matter how Ohno works at sculpting his body, he will be at a disadvantage as time goes on.

So far in Vancouver, though, he has been good enough. Not to win, maybe, but to win a medal.

On this night, the South Koreans accomplished what they set out to do, finishing 1-2 and feeling so good about themselves that they had nothing bad to say about their dreaded rival.

But Ohno did what he set out to do, too. And, as he left the rink, he gave each of the Lees a pat on the shoulder.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@)ap.org