Asian athletes dominate XXI Winter Olympic GamesBy Sandsha Nicholas Andreyev

The XXI Winter Olympic Games in Vancou-ver are the pinnacle of physical competition andgive countries the chance to shine in wintersports. This year, many Asian countries showedtheir dominance in events such as short trackspeed racing and figure skating. However, thetrue story of the 2010 Winter Olympics lies inthe achievements of the different Asian athletesand even athletes frommixed heritage like TeamUSA’s Apolo Ohno.In ladies’ figure skating, Yu-Na Kim from

South Korea won gold and Mao Asada fromJapan won silver. In men’s figure skating,Daisuke Takahashi of Japan won bronze. Inpairs’ figure skating, Xue Shen and HongboZhao won gold and Qing Pang and Jiang Tongwon silver. Both pairs were skating for TeamChina.South Korea dominated this year’s men’s

short track speed racing with Jung-Su Lee win-ning the gold medal in the men’s 1,500m shorttrack. Jung-Su Lee and Ho-Suk Lee, also forSouth Korea, won gold and silver respectivelyin the men’s 1,000m race. Apolo Ohno won sil-ver in the men’s 1,500m race and bronze in the1,000m race. South Korean skater, Si-Bak Sungwon silver in the men’s 500m race. Even thoughSouth Korea had very strong individual skaters,they did not win the men’s 5,000m relay. TeamSouth Korea earned a silver medal in the event.

In women’s short track, China has proven tobe the dominate power. Meng Wang won goldin the women’s 500m and 1,000m races, whileYang Zhou won gold in the women’s 1,500mwith Eun-Byul Lee and Seung-Hi Park, bothfrom South Korea, winning silver and bronze re-spectively. Seung-Hi Park also won bronze inthe women’s 1,000m.China also won the gold in the women’s

3,000m relay race. The Chinese victory in thewomen’s relay race was unexpected as the ref-erees disqualified the four-time defending cham-pion South Korean team for interference. TheSouth Korean team originally came in first, butwas eventually disqualified as a South Koreanracer’s skate tapped the skate of a Chinese racer.This was China’s first gold medal in thewomen’s relay race.Asian athletes have become the competitors

to beat in many fields of expertise. Two Asiancountries were in the top ten of this year’sOlympic Medal count with South Korea, with14 medals, and China, with 11 medals, comingin seventh and eighth place respectively.While Asian athletes have improved their ex-

pertise there are also athletes that play for othercountries and have Asian roots. The most no-table example of this would beApolo Ohno, themost decoratedAmericanWinter Olympics ath-lete of all time. Ohno’s father, Yuki Ohno, isJapanese-born.Apolo Ohno won a gold medal for 1,500m

and a silver medal in 1,000m speed racing in the2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, in the 2006Olympics, he won a gold medal in 500m andtwo bronze medals in the 1,000m and 5,000mteam relay. Including the silver medal in the1,500m and the bronze in the 1,000mrace fromthis year’s Olympics, Ohno has won sevenmedals in total, thus earning him the title of mostdecorated American Winter Olympics athlete.

Associated Press

Hideki Matsui wins 2010 WorldSeriesʼ Most Valuable Player AwardBy Ji Won Yoon

When the New YorkYankees won 7-3 againstthe Philadelphia Philliesduring Game 6 of theWorld Series, there was nosurprise to the minds of allthe fans and players as towhom would win theWorld Series Most Valu-able Player Award. Withsuperb playing during eachgame and a record-settingperformance during Game6, Hideki Matsui becamethe first Japanese bornplayer as well as the firstfull-time designated hitterto win the award.Matsui’s baseball career

started in May 1993 whenhe played for the YomiuriGiants in Japan. After play-ing ten seasons for theYomiuri Giants, he came to

the United States andstarted playing for the NewYork Yankees ever sinceMarch 2003. AlthoughMatsui has been part of theYankees for seven seasons,his first World Series windid not come until the 2009season.Matsui was a major fac-

tor in the Yankee’s winagainst the Phillies as hisperformance was the rea-son the Yankees ultimatelywon theWorld Series. Mat-sui finished the series 8-for-13 runs, earning him his.615 batting average. Healso broke the previousrecord of most RBI in aWorld Series clincher byearning six RBI. In addi-tion, Matsui had a total ofthree home-runs by the endof the series. His most im-portant home-run can be

said to be against pitcherPedro Martinez in the sec-ond inning, which helpedthe Yankees gain a 2-0 leadover the Phillies in Game 6.Nothing could go wrongfor Matsui as he finishedoff the game with a mon-strous record and the titleofWorld Series Most Valu-able Player.Matsui is a role model to

every Asian sports com-petitor as he proves thatAsians can succeed in asport that is dominated byWesterners. He had contin-ued success throughout hisseven seasons with theYankees and contributedgreatly to the team’s suc-cess. However, Matsui isleaving the Yankees andjoining the Los AngelesAngels of Anaheim for the2010 season.Continental Airlines

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