Sochi: South Korea's Lee Sang-hwa lived up to her favorite's role in women's 500-meter speedskating, turning in the two fastest runs to win Olympic gold Tuesday.
Lee dominated the World Cup circuit this season, winning every event she entered, and kept up that form at Adler Arena.
She led after the opening heat and finished with an Olympic-record time of 37.28 seconds, beating the mark of 37.30 set by Catriona Le May Doan at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Lee's combined time of 1 minute, 14.70 seconds was also an Olympic record, beating Le May Doan's mark of 1:14.75.
The Russian crowd roared when Olga Fatkulina took the home country's second speedskating medal, a silver. The bronze went to Margot Boer, giving the Netherlands its eighth speedskating medal in Sochi.
