Q1: What are your thoughts on the 1,500m semifinals?
AO: "In the semi-final, I thought I was in great qualifying position. My coaches, everybody. My tactics were good. The feeling was good. They take the top two from every single race to qualify for the next round which would have been the final. And, ah, setting up a pass on the Chinese skater and we just had a little bit of contact going into that corner. I don’t know if it caused me to go forward or back on my skates and just lost a lot of speed. We both had slipped and I just swung way too wide."
Q2: Did you hit his skate?
AO: "I don’t know what part of the contact was … I have to go back and review."
Q3: Why try to make the pass, why not stay in second and make the final?
AO: "Well, you know, it’s hard to tell what’s going on behind me. I wasn’t sure how close the guys where, being top two is a good position, but I was trying to play it safe."
Q4: What do you think of the result overall?
AO: "It’s disappointing. I wanted to make that final. In my heart, I felt that I could have been there. I’d brought everything to the table at these Games. I prepared myself mentally and physically to the best I can. I was really looking forward to trying to get on that podium for the United States, but today just wasn’t my day. It wasn’t supposed to happen and hopefully in the future races … there’s a lot more races in these Games.
"My Olympics are far from over and hopefully I can finish that perfect race."
Q5: Are you going to be hitting yourself in the head for making a little mistake?
AO: "Well, that’s hard to say because I can go back to every single race I’ve ever done and say I could have done something better even the times when I’ve won races. So I don’t know. I am going to go back and review. It sucks that I didn’t get in that final and even challenge those guys, but there is a lot of racing left.
"I just got to hold my head high. It’s hard to deal with, there’s a lot of racing left, and a lot of these guys have success right now; they’re kind of rolling on that cloud, but maybe now I’m a little bit of an underdog."
Q6: How do you stay philosophical about this sport when this stuff happens?
AO: "It’s hard. I’m a human being … it hurts. I’ve put a lot of time and dedication into this sport to not even make that final to even challenge those top skaters, it hurts. But at the same time, there’s a lot of racing left."
Q7: Getting trapped off the rink for the B final … Apolo had to jump over the rail to make the starting line for the B final.
AO: "I just think the volunteers weren’t sure. They just see this crazed skater come on the ice. They’re like, ‘Oh, who’s this guy?’ It could have been a fan or something. They didn’t even know what was going on."
Alison Baver on her relay and Apolo's 1,500m race
"It’s unfortunate that sometimes our sport’s not like long track because we would have … our time was a bit faster than the second group, but … we really wanted to be in the final."
"It really breaks my heart to see, to watch that. I know that he’s the best skater in the world and he really didn’t have the chance to show that tonight, but the Olympics aren’t over yet."