TURIN, Italy, Feb. 18 - The inevitable question about 2002 was posed to Ahn Hyun Soo during a postrace news conference Saturday night: How upset were the people of South Korea, his home country, four years ago when the American Apolo Anton Ohno was given the gold medal after South Korea's top short-track skater, Kim Dong Sun, was disqualified?

Just as the question was posed, Ohno walked into the room. Ahn and his interpreter chuckled. The interpreter turned her head and said to Ohno, "We were just talking about you."

Ohno grinned, walked to his seat behind the table and gave Ahn two congratulatory pats on the back.

What Ahn went on to say about 2002 was pretty much irrelevant. The exchange had been proof enough that what happened at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City was a thing of the past. A half-hour earlier, Ahn had put to rest any lingering controversy by proving he was the best short-track skater in the world. He took the gold medal in the 1,000 meters at the Palavela, and his teammate Lee Ho Suk won the silver. It was a repeat of their 1-2 finish in the Olympic 1,500 meters a week earlier.

Ohno took the bronze, and -- though it was not the ideal outcome -- the medal made up for his disappointing eighth-place finish in the 1,500.