WORLD IS SAYING, OH, NO, TO U.S. STAR.

Byline: PAUL OBERJUERGE

SALT LAKE CITY - Maybe it's the scraggly soul patch. Maybe it's the ``too cool for school'' lassitude of the ultra-hip teen. Maybe it's the way every break seems to go his way.

Whatever it is, people love Apolo Anton Ohno. Or hate him.

Of late, world opinion seems to be leaning toward loathing. Sports Illustrated's pre-Olympics cover boy has become a lightning rod for criticism at the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games.

The latest? Ohno was awarded a gold medal in the 1,500-meter short-track speedskate event Wednesday when the Korean who finished ahead of him, Kim Dong-sung, was disqualified for interfering with Ohno on the final lap.

From the reaction in South Korea, you'd have thought Ohno had come out against kimchi, Korean unification and the Kia Sportage.

The U.S. Olympic committee reported receiving more than 10,000 e-mails, most of them from Korea, most of them complaining of Ohno's victory, some of them threatening. There was so much e-mail traffic, the USOC reported, that it crashed the organization's server for more than nine hours Thursday.

Ohno's crime? Overreacting, perhaps, when Kim cut him off on the last lap. Being theatrical about an infraction that wasn't all that dramatic. Nothing, that is, that Reggie Miller and 100 other floppers don't do every day of the NBA season. Guys trying to work the system.

``He should have won an Academy Award,'' huffed a reporter for Yonhap, South Korea's state-run news agency.

``I can't bear to watch any more of these unfair rulings,'' said Park Sung-in, head of Korea's Olympic delegation, not letting us know what the ``other'' unfair rulings might be.

And it's not just the Koreans. Some competitors aren't crazy about Ohno, either. Italy's Fabio Carta, fourth in Wednesday's race, said ``a rifle'' should be used on Ohno, and declared, ``Apolo is a great actor.''

Well, from what little we have seen of short-track speedskating, anything (and everything) goes. The rules seem sketchy, it has more crashes than NASCAR and the zany little competitors are working every angle there is to be worked. Including, in Ohno's case, throwing up his arms after nearly running up the back of Kim. To make sure the officials knew he was fouled.

Ohno got the call. It happens sometimes. And if you don't like it, criticize chief referee James Hewish, not Ohno. Ohno can't disqualify anyone.

What is a little weird is how Ohno already was ticking off people last weekend, when he was dragged down by a Korean competitor on the final turn of the 1,00-meter race, received a gash in his leg and crawled over the finish line to get silver.

He would have won gold if the Korean 15-year-old next to him hadn't tackled him, and it seemed to us that a guy with the presence of mind to bounce up and get across the finish line, with a six-stitch tear in his thigh, should be lauded. But the USOC got hateful e-mail for that one, too. Maybe because Ohno was passing too many people.

Admittedly, Ohno arrived in Salt Lake City under a cloud. He had that ``punk'' reputation to live down (from life just this side of juvenile delinquency) and then he was accused of conspiring to fix a race at the Olympic trials so that his club teammate and close friend, Shani Davis, could get into the Olympics.

Did he fix a race? He said no, and an arbitrator said there was insufficient evidence. Anyway, it didn't look good when his surprise defeat at the trials put his friend on the team, and some journalists arrived thinking Ohno was a sleazeball. Even as NBC and SI were beating the drum for him as a potential Olympic superstar.

That might be the biggest source of Ohno-loathing. The hype. For a 19- year-old in a goofy sport who stood accused of cheating. Like, why him? Because his name is Apolo Anton Ohno and the kids love him?

Again, that isn't Ohno's fault. From our perspective, he is a troubled teen whose mother left him when he was 1, not a good student, a kid once so tubby he was known as ``Chunky'' who found something he was good at, and it gave him direction and purpose. And, well, good for him.

Here at Salt Lake City, he's just trying to get to the finish line first in a sport that looks like bumper cars-meets-roller derby. He had a gold taken from him in the first race. He had a gold given to him in his second.

Hey, stuff keeps happening.

This isn't over, either. Ohno has two more events Saturday, the 500-meter race and the 3,000 relay. If things hold to form, Ohno will come out of it with a couple more medals - and a few thousand more hate e-mails.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Apolo Anton Ohno, the brash young Seattle skater, has made a less than favorable impression on many people in Salt Lake City.

Doug Mills/Associated Press