PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Short track skater Arianna Fontana, once a winner of five Olympic medals, finally realized her "gold" dream by winning Italy the first gold medal at PyeongChang Olympics on Tuesday, triumphing in the women's 500m final with 42.569 seconds.
Yara Van Kerkhof of the Netherlands took home the silver medal in 43.256 and Kim Boutin of Canada the bronze in 43.881. It's also their first time to stand on the Olympic podium. Vancouver silver medallist Elise Christie of Britain finish the fourth in 1:23.063.
Grabbing the Italian national flag in hand, the 27-year-old veteran, also the Sochi silver medallist of the event, burst into tears while celebrating the long-cherished championship with her coach, who jumped onto the barrier trunk and held her tight in arms.
"I trained very hard. I did some diet to lose some weight to get here really light, so that I can be fast. I did everything I could do to get here in the top shape," Fontana told Xinhua.
The sensational moment was also shared by more than 6,000 spectators, mostly the host South Koreans, who came to cheer for their "Genius" , world's No. 2 Choi Minjeong, but only saw the 19-year-old leave the rink after the final with a penalty for barring Fontana right before the finish line.
Fontana started strongly and took lead since the first bend in the five-woman final, followed closely by Boutin and then Choi. The South Korea surpassed Boutin in a lap to go. Then Christie took the chance to come from behind to overtake Boutin, but she immediately tumbled down to the ice, letting Van Kerkhof, who was trailing behind, become the third one to hit the finish line. Choi finished second but was soon disqualified for the penalty.
"When we started racing, I started feeling better and better race by race. And when I was in the final race, I was gonna lead from the beginning, and I knew Choi was gonna come in the end, but I knew that I just kept going and don't give up until the end," said Fontana.
China's medal hopeful Fan Kexin, a five-time world champion, and Qu Chunyu were also qualified for the semifinals, but were both ousted from the final because of penalty for barring other contenders.
"I have gone all out, I wanted to get into the final and win the gold medal so much that I could barely sleep over the past two days and I kept thinking what strategies I should take in different race. But my speed is not quick enough all through the race because I was afraid of body contact with other skaters, which is easy to bring me a penalty," said Fan, sobbing in the mixed zone.
"But I won't give up. I will compete in the relay race and I still have opportunity to battle for a gold medal, race by race, " she said.
The bulk of China' s gold medals at Winter Olympics came in short track speed skating with nine alone from women's event. Despite the bumping start, China still have its hope for gold medal alive.
Before the women's 500m final, China's Wu Dajing, Sochi silver medallist, made it through to the men' s 1,000m quarterfinals as No. 2 qualifier from the four-man heat. Other two Chinese Ren Ziwei and Han Tianyu, however, were both disqualified for barring other contenders.
Also on Tuesday night, China qualified for the men's 5,000m relay final scheduled for Feb. 22.
