VANCOUVER - It was barely a week ago that Apolo Anton Ohno insisted he wasn't thinking about making history.
Skating fast seemed more important. So important he created a new verb.
"I want to podium," he said. "I want to win races."
That philosophy carried Ohno into the record books on Saturday night as he won the seventh medal of his Winter Olympics career, more than any other U.S. athlete.
History took the form of a bronze in the 1,000 meters at the Pacific Arena, Ohno's second of the Vancouver Games.
Shani Davis also collected his second medal of the 2010 Games earlier Saturday, but it wasn't the one he wanted.
Davis and Chad Hedrick were supposed to battle it out for gold in the 1,500 meters on the longer track, but Mark Tuitert didn't go along with the plan.
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The Dutch skater pulled off an upset of the Americans in the 1,500 meters, relegating Davis to the silver while Hedrick failed to even make the podium.
In Ohno's race, Lee Jung-Su of South Korea won gold and teammate Lee Ho-Suk took the silver in a race that changed at the midpoint with a clutch of bobbles and shoving.
The contact forced Ohno to the back of the pack before he scrambled back at the very end for third place.
It was a fitting end to a night when - as Ohno had predicted - there would be no easy path to that podium.
Calling the quarterfinals "ridiculously stacked," he said: "They could be finals themselves."
Still, the favorites advanced to the semifinals in fairly orderly fashion.
Charles Hamelin, the world-record holder from Canada, stayed in front most of the way, as did the Koreans.
A cool Ohno hung back longer, waiting until the penultimate lap before tucking into second place.
At these games, he has exuded a confidence that comes from being "in the best shape of my life mentally and physically and I have no pressures," he said.
Ohno overtook Bonnie Blair, who won five golds and a bronze in a long-track career that spanned from Albertville in 1992 through Calgary in 1998.
Ohno started with a gold and a silver at the 2002 Salt Lake City games, and he added another gold and two bronzes in Turin and a silver in the 1,500 here last week.
Davis, the world-record holder trying to add to his gold medal in the 1,000, came around the final turn in the 1,500 with his mouth open and arms swinging, trying desperately to make up the gap on Tuitert.
He finished more than a half-second behind, still good enough for his second medal of these games and fourth of his Olympic career.
TV TODAY
• What: Men's hockey (U.S. vs. Canada)
• TV: 5 p.m. on MSNBC
