李坚柔短道500米为中国摘得首金
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米决赛中，中国选手李坚柔在顺利完成第一圈后就已经注定夺冠了。进入第二圈后，因为英国选手克里斯蒂(Elise Christie)失误，三名选手摔出赛道，比赛开始不到10秒钟，李坚柔就已经稳拿中国索契冬奥会首金。Still, Li's success was hardly a surprise. China has now won this event four times in a row.
不过李坚柔夺冠也很难说是意外，中国目前在这个项目上已经连续拿下四次冠军。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.
克里斯蒂第二个冲过终点线，但因阻挡犯规被取消资格。意大利选手丰塔纳(Fontana)和韩国选手 升智(Park Seung-Hi)分别摘得银牌和铜牌。
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.'
丰塔纳说，她看到克里斯蒂试图从内道超越她，但认为自己已经阻挡成功。但丰塔纳说，就在克里斯蒂继续向前挤的时候，很明显我们都要摔倒，这是短道速滑，这种情况在所难免。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.
李坚柔最终以45.263秒的成绩越过终点线，比第二名快将近六秒。在以千分之一秒计算的短道速滑比赛中，这一间隔相当长。但在选手滑行时速超过35英里（合56公里）的比赛中，碰撞屡见不鲜，这也让短道速滑带有偶然性，就像纳斯卡赛车比赛(Nascar)一样。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.
周四下午，美国在短道速滑比赛中摘得奖牌的希望似乎要落空。当时比赛中一次碰撞让美国队一度在短道速滑男子5,000米接力半决赛中被淘汰。在45圈的比赛接近尾声时，阿尔瓦雷斯(Eddy Alvarez)被一名韩国选手的手臂绊倒。但比赛结束后，裁判判定阿尔瓦雷斯受到违规阻挡，美国队因此得以晋级2月21日的决赛。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.
美国队将在决赛中与荷兰、哈萨克斯坦、俄罗斯和中国对垒。加拿大队因为在半决赛中出现意外而无缘决赛。
