李堅柔短道500米爲中國摘得首金
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.
中在短道速滑女子500米決賽中，中國選手李堅柔在順利完成第一圈後就已經註定奪冠了。進入第二圈後，因爲英國選手克里斯蒂(Elise Christie)失誤，三名選手摔出賽道，比賽開始不到10秒鐘，李堅柔就已經穩拿中國索契冬奧會首金。Still, Li's success was hardly a surprise. China has now won this event four times in a row.
不過李堅柔奪冠也很難說是意外，中國目前在這個項目上已經連續拿下四次冠軍。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.
克里斯蒂第二個衝過終點線，但因阻擋犯規被取消資格。意大利選手豐塔納(Fontana)和韓國選手 升智(Park Seung-Hi)分別摘得銀牌和銅牌。
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.'
豐塔納說，她看到克里斯蒂試圖從內道超越她，但認爲自己已經阻擋成功。但豐塔納說，就在克里斯蒂繼續向前擠的時候，很明顯我們都要摔倒，這是短道速滑，這種情況在所難免。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.
李堅柔最終以45.263秒的成績越過終點線，比第二名快將近六秒。在以千分之一秒計算的短道速滑比賽中，這一間隔相當長。但在選手滑行時速超過35英里（合56公里）的比賽中，碰撞屢見不鮮，這也讓短道速滑帶有偶然性，就像納斯卡賽車比賽(Nascar)一樣。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.
週四下午，美國在短道速滑比賽中摘得獎牌的希望似乎要落空。當時比賽中一次碰撞讓美國隊一度在短道速滑男子5,000米接力半決賽中被淘汰。在45圈的比賽接近尾聲時，阿爾瓦雷斯(Eddy Alvarez)被一名韓國選手的手臂絆倒。但比賽結束後，裁判判定阿爾瓦雷斯受到違規阻擋，美國隊因此得以晉級2月21日的決賽。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.
美國隊將在決賽中與荷蘭、哈薩克斯坦、俄羅斯和中國對壘。加拿大隊因爲在半決賽中出現意外而無緣決賽。
