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Sven Kramer won the gold medal in the 5,000-meter long-track race and set an Olympic record in Vancouver on February 13, 2010.
The 23-year old reigning world champion and world record holder in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m and the team pursuit showed to the world that he has the heart of a champion. Huge Dutch crowd, which include crown Prince Willem Alexander, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, and 2008 Olympic gold medalist, hockey star, and Kramer’s girlfriend Naomi van As, cheered for him and this makes him really pressured but helped him boost his confidence.
He secured the victory with a time of 6 minutes, 14.60 seconds which is 2.35 seconds faster than South Korea’s Seung-Hoon Lee and 3.45 seconds faster than Russian Ivan Skobrev.
Lee won a surprise silver medal. He become the first South Korean to ever achieve this feat. He wasn’t able to earn a spot on the South Korea national short track team so he converted to long track in September 2009. This is a very notable accomplishment for South Korea which is currently on the top five teams in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Skobrev who won the bronze medal gave Russia its first medal in the Winter Olympics. He said in an interview that he tried to beat Kramer but KramerAs of February 16, Russia is currently tied with Croatia on the 17th place.
USA participants wasn’t able to reach the top ten. Chad Hedrick was on the 11th place with 6 minutes, 27.07 seconds, Shani Davis was 12th with 6 minutes, 28.44 seconds, and Trevor Marsicano was 14th with 6 minutes, 30.93 seconds.
Read More:
- 2010 Winter Olympics Medal Standings
- Women’s Hockey Standings – updated 2010 Winter Olympics Women’s Hockey standings
- Men’s Hockey Standings – updated 2010 Winter Olympics Men’s Hockey standings
IMAGE CREDIT: latimes.com
[...] Netherlands’ Sven Kramer Wins Gold In 5000m Speed Skating [...]