Li Wins Gold for China at Sochi

SOCHI, Russia—All Li Jianrou of China had to do to win the women's 500-meter skating short-track final, in the end, was survive the first lap. Going into the second corner of the race, Britain's Elise Christie initiated a crash that cleaned out three skaters. And in under 10 seconds, Li was on her way to China's first gold medal of these Winter Games.

Still, Li's success was hardly a surprise. China has now won this event four times in a row.

Christie crossed the line second, but was later disqualified for impeding. That meant that Arianna Fontana of Italy took the silver and Park Seung-Hi of South Korea won the bronze.

Fontana said that she had seen Christie try to pass her on the inside, but thought she had successfully blocked her. Once Christie kept attacking, however, "It was obvious that we were going to fall," Fontana said. "This is short track, so this is what happens."

Li's final time was 45.263 seconds. The gap to second turned out to be nearly six seconds, which is colossal in an event often decided by thousandths. But frequent crashes at speeds greater than 35 miles an hour add a degree of randomness to short-track skating that turns it into the Nascar of the Olympics.

Earlier in the afternoon, U.S. medal hopes in short-track speedskating seemed to take a major blow when a crash took the team out of the men's 5,000-meter semifinal. Late in the 45-lap race, Eddy Alvarez tripped over a Korean skater's outstretched arm and tumbled to the ice. But after the race, officials deemed that Alvarez was illegally impeded and sent the U.S. into the Feb. 21 final.

They will join the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Russia and China there. Canada surprisingly missed out on the final due to momentary calamity in the second semifinal.