Harvard student Dan Weinstein ’03 -’04 and the rest of the U.S. Olympic men’s short-track speed-skaters made their first stride towards Olympic Gold with a first-place finish in a 5000-meter relay semifinal heat on Wednesday night.

Apolo Anton Ohno, the 19-year-old skating sensation, anchored the relay and electrified the sellout crowd of 15,394 when he burst away from the second-place Italian team with about seven laps to go. He finished off the victory by gliding across the line on one skate, punching a fist in the air.

The American team of Weinstein, Ohno, Ron Biondo and Rusty Smith—the 2001 World Championship gold medalists—will now prepare for the relay final on Feb. 23. The Canadians, who won the other semifinal heat, are expected to be the toughest competition.

Weinstein, who placed 17th in the 500 meters at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, only qualified for the relay team this time around. Ohno and Smith are the U.S. entrants in each of the three individual speed-skating events—the 500, the 1,000, and the 1,500. Ohno and Smith both advanced in their 1,000 heats, and Smith set an Olympic record in the process.

The U.S. has never won a men’s short-track speed-skating medal since it became an Olympic sport in 1992, but Ohno and the relay team have the potential to make this year a clean U.S. sweep.

In addition to high expectations, Ohno has had to deal with the burden of race-fixing accusations from the U.S. Olympic trials. Tommy O’Hare, a 1998 Olympian, accused Ohno and Smith of working together during the trials to make sure their friend, Shani Davis, made the team at O’Hare’s expense. Biondo backed up O’Hare’s claims.

An arbitrator ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to support the charges, and O’Hare withdrew his complaint. Biondi admitted that the team was distracted as it trained in Colorado Springs during the process.

“At first, things were tense in Colorado—I can’t lie about that,” Biondo said. “It was a tough situation with the arbitration going on and all. It was tough to skate those first couple of days.”

But Weinstein said the controversy is behind them now that the Olympics have arrived.

“It was just a disagreement,” he said. “I don’t see any lost friendships or anything like that. We left that behind in Colorado.”

The team tapped knuckles before the relay and hugged each other after Ohno finished the race ahead of the Italians.

“As soon as the gun went off, all our guys came together,” Ohno said.

Smith insisted that he’s getting along just fine with the other skaters, including Biondo. They’ve been eating together and hanging out as a group in the Olympic Village.

“We all know what we have to do,” Smith said after the team practiced yesterday at a small rink on the University of Utah campus. “Hard feelings aside, we’re the world champions representing the United States in our home country. We’ll do what we need to do.”

Biondo, who fretted that he would be shunned by Ohno and Smith, has a different view now that they’re all at the Olympics.

“I’ve been with these guys since I was 10 years old, so a week or two or 10 days isn’t going to be a problem,” Biondo said. “Everyone talks about it, but I believe it is completely behind us. We’re looking for medals now.”

—Material from the Associated Press was used in the compilation of this story.