OHNO ... OH, YES! SPEEDSKATER WINS GOLD, BRONZE MEDAL.

Byline: PAUL OBERJUERGE

TURIN, Italy - It was time for Apolo Anton Ohno to do something meaningful or get the heck off of our TV screens.

Had anyone in the history of the Olympics gotten more hype with fewer convincing results?

He was the guy who was going to get four gold medals at Salt Lake City in 2002 ... and settled for one controversial silver and one very controversial gold.

He was prominent, again, in NBC's buildup to these Turin Olympics. There was his face, framed by a helmet, seemingly in every promotional ad. Every night he took to the ice, he was identified by NBC as one of its headline, prime-time attractions.

But in his two best races, the 1,500-meter short-track speedskating event, and the 1,000 ... he went out in the semis and was a badly beaten third, respectively.

So when he went to the line Saturday for the 500-meter final at the Palavela arena, it was high time for the kid from Seattle with the colorful name to prove he was more than a soul patch, a red bandanna and a public- relations campaign.

It was time to prove he was an elite Winter Olympics athlete.

Ohno delivered.

He skated ``the perfect race'' to win gold in the 500, his third-best individual event, then carried the U.S. to the bronze medal in the 5,000-meter relay to cap his night - and validate all the attention lavished upon him.

``When he took over with two laps left, I knew he was feeling good,'' relay teammate Rusty Smith said, ``and I knew we were in good shape.''

The U.S. was fourth when Ohno took over in the final laps of his fourth race of the night, but he quickly powered past Italy's Nicola Rodigari to secure the relay bronze.

To Ohno's credit, he seemed more pleased with the relay bronze than his own gold.

``The reason the relay is so special, it's four guys out there, and four guys fighting,'' he said. ``One guy can never win a relay. Not even two guys. It has to be all four guys with the same heart, the same passion in the race, and I saw all four guys fight out there.

``These guys can say they're Olympic medalists for life.''

And Ohno can say he's not just a lot of hot air.

He leaves Turin with a gold and two bronze medals; long-track skater Chad Hedrick is the only other American to win as many as three medals here.

The gold in the 500 was just plain surprising, especially to those grown weary of this, that or the other quirky short-track happenstance knocking Ohno out of contention - or awarding him with medals he didn't seem to deserve.

He had a few more curious moments Saturday.

He was third in the semifinals, apparently eliminated, after a bad decision to go wide late in the race. He was reprieved, however, when China's Li Ye was judged to have interfered with him and disqualified. That moved Ohno up to second, and into the final.

In the medal race, after two false starts by other skaters, Ohno appeared to be leaning forward as the gun went off, perhaps a false start of his own. It went uncalled.

It was a crucial moment, because Ohno's fast start allowed him to narrowly beat the five-man field into the first corner.

He never surrendered the lead.

He said he ``timed the start perfectly.'' He also said, ``I'vebeen searching my entire career for the perfect race, and that wasit.''

It helped that Korean rival Ahn Hyun-Soo was blocked behind a pair of Canadians for most of the four laps around the rink, and that Ohno never gave pursuers a crack of daylight to pass him.

He thrust both fists into the air and screamed as he hit the finish line, and soon had an American flag with him as he circled the arena.

``I don't remember anything of the race, to be honest,'' he said. ``It was just skating in the moment. All I remember is crossing that line, and actually that last lap, pushing with every single ounce of energy I had, everything was going into every single push.

``When I crossed the line, I could not believe it. It's amazing.''

For a kid with Ohno's fame, at least quadrennially, he said he lives an austere life while training in Colorado Springs, Colo., based in a small dorm room.

``I'm 23 years old, and I'd like to have a social life,'' he said, ``but that's pretty much out the window when it comes to an Olympic year.

``A lot of things you give up. But this is the reason why,'' he said of his two-medal evening. ``Everything goes into this. Days like this, you hope they last into eternity.''

Ohno won't last quite that long, as a competitor. He wouldn't even commit to 2010, when the Winter Games are in Vancouver, just across the border from his hometown.

``I don't know yet,'' he said. ``I have to figure out what my next journey is going to be. All these moments in my career and my life definitely made things very special. But I don't know. I'm just enjoying the moment right now.''

Well, and so are we. If he hadn't done something special, we were about to complain to the FCC about NBC using false advertising when it came to touting Apolo Anton Ohno.

``I came away today with two medals,'' he said. ``I couldn't ask for anything more.''

OK. And neither can we.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) U.S. speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno raises his arms in triumph after crossing the finish line to win the men's 500-meter short-track event Saturday.

(2 -- color) Apolo Anton Ohno can seemingly taste the gold medal as he rounds the final turn on his way to the finish line.

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press

(3) Apolo Anton Ohno fights back tears as the U.S. national anthem is played after his win.

Eric Gay/Associated Press