Apolo articles

[Lori]

mtnme said:

Modify: Oh sure Lori, GND- you have a short attention span and it's all MY fault???

Of COURSE it is - how could it POSSIBLY be MY fault?

Christy, YOU are an Excellent idea to 'sticky' this thread!

[August]

It is a great idea, but do we still have the articles section that was on the front page? I'm not sure because when the front page started acting weird on me I didn't visit it as often.

[number1fan]

christy...thanks for making this a sticky!!!


mtnme... your banner!!!

[Lori]

This guy, Ron Judd, of the Seattle Times, is LEGENDARY for his great articles about Apolo, but this is an older one that I just remembered... Okay, I'm done now... (for tonight)

IN SHOW OF GRACIOUSNESS APOLO NEVER STUMBLED
By Ron C. Judd
Times staff columnist

SALT LAKE CITY — We knew he could skate fast.

We knew he was hip.

We knew kids would love his looks, fans would be blown away by his grace on the ice, and the television cameras would eat him up like Ben & Jerry's at an August picnic.

Everything else about Apolo Anton Ohno was a surprise.

Especially the way he handled adversity. For an Olympic athlete in a pressure-cooker situation, Ohno didn't skate around the edge of graciousness here. He redefined it.

Right up to his life-goes-on response to last night's double failure at the Salt Lake Ice Center.

Ohno's grand finale at the Salt Lake Games truly wasn't. The night began with his disqualification in the 500-meter final and ended with teammate Rusty Smith's stumble that cost the U.S. a medal in the men's 5,000-meter relay.

Ohno, 19, widely expected to be the overriding star of these Games, left with a gold, a silver, and worldwide acclaim — in spite of the dubious distinction of never having actually crossed the finish line first.

"How disappointed am I?" he would ask later. "I'm not disappointed at all. I got a gold and silver medal and another two awesome performances. This was definitely one of the highlights of my life."

And his disqualification after tangling with a Japanese skater in the corner could have gone either way. Did he deserve to be tossed from the race?


In the newspaper


Seattle's Apolo Anton Ohno has had an unforgettable Olympics, and to commemorate it, The Seattle Times will publish a poster of the short-track speedskater on Tuesday.
On Monday, we'll reprise the Salt Lake Olympics with a two pages of color photographs looking back at the best moments of the 2002 Games.



No hesitation: "Yeah."

Case closed. Olympics over. So long, Ohno?

Not just yet. Pause, if you will, to consider how remarkable it really is that the barely bearded one isn't just being nice. He really means this stuff.

You're probably every bit as uncomfortable as we are looking for advice from 19-year-olds with battle scars and multiple studded parts.

But let's be honest: From start to finish of the Olympics, Ohno has taught us all a few things, about his sport and about life. He provided something that the Salt Lake Games — desperately — needed.

Civility.

Who would have guessed that the XIX Games' poster-child for adult behavior would be a guy who came into the Olympics known more for his killer hair?

The truth is that most people expected Ohno to come to the Olympics and do one of two things: Choke, fail and disappear into the media morass. Or win one or more gold medals, get a big head, and lord it over everyone.

Neither happened. Quite the opposite, in fact.

When Ohno and three other skaters splatted into the wall at the finish line in his opening act, the men's 1,000 meters, most of us cringed. The less-than-tidy ending, which left Ohno with a silver medal, had international incident written all over it.

Little did we know that Ohno and his fellow banged-up medalists would be the standard bearers for we came, we saw, we got dumped — and we'll try harder tomorrow.

"Maybe," Ohno would muse later, "I should've been a little farther out in front."

The lesson would repeat itself three days later, when Ohno, maybe blocked, maybe not from passing Korea's Kim Dong-sung on the final lap of the 1,500 meters, would be awarded a gold medal, sending a sellout Salt Lake Ice Center crowd into joyous orbit. Afterward, Ohno, once more, was a picture of calm.

Unlike his South Korean opponent, Kim Dong-sung, Ohno stayed out of the foul/no-foul fray completely, asserting that he thought he'd been blocked, but it was a decision wholly up to the referee.

He kept his head while others around him were losing theirs, left and right. Ohno was the most visible American athlete in the Olympics, and he did himself and his nation proud.

Of course, if we had paid attention to what they guy said before the Games, none of this would have come as a surprise.

Way back when, he tried to tell us he loved short-track racing for the pure joy of it — the sport's high-octane adrenaline rush, its fast-paced, anything-can-happen uncertainty. He tried to tell us his personal "journey" was about getting here and going all out, not getting here and cashing in.

People thought he was just filling space on his way to an even bigger Nike contract. But he meant it. We know it now because he lived the words when they mattered most.

Apolo Ohno, from could've-been-hood to role model. Who'd have thunk it?

Last night, Ohno's relaxed attitude seemed to have spread to his teammates — most of whom were at each other's throats over that old race-fixing scandal when the Games began.

Nobody pointed fingers for the failure in the team relay. No hint of jealousy for cover-boy Ohno was to be found.

"He deserves all the attention he gets," said teammate Daniel Weinstein. "I mean, everyone was saying he's going to get four gold medals. I felt bad for him. Because four gold medals is virtually impossible."

Ohno leaves the Games, remarkably, the same way he came into them. At peace.

"This puts it all to rest," he said. "I came here, I believe I did an excellent job. So many people supported me — all my friends and family in the stands, and that's just an unbelievable feeling."

No grousing. No formal protest. No lawsuits. Just grace.

A life lesson from the last place we ever would have expected — a 19-year-old from Federal Way who seems drawn to controversy like lint to Velcro.

That's what makes his days here so memorable. And this is what makes the Olympics — in spite of every bone in your body occasionally protesting otherwise — still worthwhile.

Four golds? It was never meant to be. Two medals will do for Apolo Anton Ohno, unlikely statesman in an Olympics where nobody else seemed capable of realizing they call them "Games" for a reason.

Fifty years from now, his place in the history of the Salt Lake Olympics might have little to do with his determined grimace on the ice — and everything to do with his carefree smile off it.

That's more than a medal haul. It's a legacy.

[mtnme]

august said:

It is a great idea, but do we still have the articles section that was on the front page? I'm not sure because when the front page started acting weird on me I didn't visit it as often.

The articles section is still on the main home page, but the articles I posted weren't on them.
However, this page is zoomin' tonight- so All bets are off now!
They're being posted faster than I could check 'em!
If nothing else- this will make it easier for Lindsey to access articles she is missing to add to the home page

Modify: number1- I my sigie too- Lindsey is THE BEST!

[Lori]

Okay, I lied - I just realized I'm at 399 posts, so I wanted #400 to be one of my stash of Ron Judd articles - he B my hero!
(I have a few more!)

APOLO'S CREED: SPOTLIGHT BECKONS AGAIN FOR OHNO
By Ron Judd
Seattle Times Olympics reporter

For a decade, he has ruled the ice the way a dolphin owns the water. But Apolo Anton Ohno still has those days when he feels trapped beneath it, frozen in time.
One of them came in December, when Ohno, already enshrined as perhaps the single greatest star of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics — a precedent he is widely expected to uphold this month in Turin, Italy — did what he often does when he needs to clear his head: came home.
"Every time I come home, I'm like, 'God, I miss Seattle. I miss everything about it,' " says Ohno, returning from a sushi dinner with friends on Capitol Hill.
"Then I go back to Colorado Springs [where he lives and trains] and just forget. When I'm in Colorado Springs, I feel like I don't age. It's so weird. All I do is train. When I come home, I see all these huge major improvements, condos being built, everything changing. But I feel like the same 16-year-old kid I used to be.
"I see friends who say, 'Hey, I've got a kid.' And I'm like, 'A kid?' And he'll go, 'Well, yeah. I am 25.' "

Life in another dimension
The Ohno zone — Apolo's own mental and physical Olympic training camp — exists in a separate dimension.
"I feel like I go to space almost," he says. "It's really weird. Seriously."
For an elite athlete, suspended animation exacts a price. It also pays dividends.
Which is precisely what Ohno had in mind four years ago, when the lights shone brightest. It was then, after his now-famous Salt Lake Olympic gold and silver medals — both won in the spectacular, controversial fashion typical of his sport — that he and his father, Yuki, made a decision that could prove crucial to Ohno's Olympic sequel.
They decided Apolo would stay put at the campus-like Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. They decided he would focus on all the good things and stay away from the bad. It was, in a way, a rerun of a loving-but-firm nudge from Yuki Ohno, a single, Japanese-American parent who sent young Apolo off to speedskating camp at 14, partially to keep him off the streets of Federal Way.
This time, it kept him off Madison Avenue and away from the H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D sign. But the strategy has paid off just as spectacularly: Ohno has largely continued to dominate the short-track speedskating world for four years.

A near-perfect skating machine
In Salt Lake, Ohno at 19 already was displaying maturity beyond his years, on the ice and off. He had the good looks, athletic talent and just enough facial hair to become an Olympic poster boy. But all of those things made it easy to overlook the roots of the charisma that most endears him to fans: In a cynical world of big-time sports, Ohno's Zen-like, throw-it-all-out-there-and-see-what-sticks attitude was a blast of fresh, Rocky Mountain air.
It attracted legions of young fans who loved the guy for what he looked like, who he was, or, in most cases, both. And many of them have quietly followed their leader for four years, tracking his progress daily on Web sites such as Ohnozone.net.
They already know what the rest of the world is about to learn: The Ohno emerging at 23 from the Colorado deep freeze is no longer just a smooth-under-pressure kid. He's an unusually thoughtful young man off the ice — and an even more fearsome athletic specimen on it.

Men's short-track speedskating
Finals
> 500 meters Feb. 25
> 1,000 meters Feb. 18
> 1,500 meters Feb. 12
> 5,000-meter relay Feb. 25
Short-track speedskating is blindingly fast and often chaotic, with skaters racing in a pack — like greyhounds chasing a rabbit — around a tiny, hockey-rink oval. Flying around rubber pylons with the equivalent of razor-sharp, 17-inch knife blades on their feet, skaters are splayed out nearly perpendicular to the ice. When they lose an edge, the wipeouts are spectacular — and sometimes bloody.
From the time he was a young teen, Ohno displayed the rare physical grace and mental acuity to slice through this moving buffalo herd by turning on the jets at precisely the right instant.
He is even better at this today: Ohno's blinding bursts of passing speed are so smooth, they're easy to miss. They're also one of the great bits of controlled fury you'll ever seen in a sports arena. It is as if he flips some internal switch and gets a rocket boost that leaves no smoke or flames — only befuddled competitors.
This, coupled with another four years' international experience as the Guy Everybody Wants to Beat, has made the kid they used to call "Chunky" perhaps the most perfect human machine ever created for short-track speedskating.
"I'm right where I need to be," he says. "Physically, I'm improved. Mentally, I'm more consistent. I like to think I've improved in every way as a skater."
He has done it by treating every year since Salt Lake as The Year — the year that the world spotlight returns, the year that legions of fast young men in tights from Canada, Italy, Japan, Korea and China try stake their own claim to fame by taking him out, literally or figuratively, in front of a television audience in the billions.
Between the two Olympics, Ohno has stepped out of this training deep freeze only to take care of select personal matters: He bought his father a home in Edmonds with some of his endorsement money. He found a girlfriend, Olympic teammate Allison Baver of Pennsylvania. He went through two more coaches, and flirted with, but abandoned, a plan to move to Calgary, Alberta, to train. He did a lot of growing up.
"I've done what I need to do," Ohno says. "I feel good. I've been really blessed, and really lucky. But I still have these doubts in my head. I always do. Like, I could have done this or that. I just need two more months!"
Ohno says he has learned to drop some of his perfectionist tendencies, but he remains a preparation fanatic. After a final, December trip to the Seattle area, including a few peaceful days on the southwest Washington coast, he has spent the last weeks before Turin in Colorado Springs, honing body and mind.
"More than anything, I'm just preparing myself mentally for what's ahead," he says. "I already know it's going to be insane."

Staying within himself
How, exactly, does one do that, prepping the body for on-ice combat and the brain for the television lights, security guards, and even occasional stray death threat by some whacko jilted fan from half a world away?
"Every athlete does it differently," says Ohno, who actually spends quite a lot of time pondering these things. "For me, I've just got to be within myself, and focus on the things I need to do — the things that make me skate well. I don't worry about anyone else.
"You get in that zone where everything just goes into automatic. I was in such a zone at Salt Lake, it almost went by like a blur."
In Turin, he will race roughly every third day, competing in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters and the team relay. He will be a favorite every time he steps on the ice. That's a tough burden in a sport where the fastest skater often fails to finish — or gets disqualified by a referee.
"Oh man, it sucks!" Ohno says, laughing again at the unpredictability of his sport. "Are you kidding me? I'm on TV for like two minutes, and any one of those things could be the difference between getting a medal — or not. I'm human. Of course I feel that. That's where, hopefully, my experience and my mental toughness will come into play."
Fortunately, Ohno has been able to keep much of his sport's roller-coaster-ride emotion in check with a healthy sense of humor — and an uncommon knack for not letting it all go to his head.
He recalls one night in Salt Lake City, after winning his first medal, when he and a friend slipped out of their hotel to nab some cold cuts and cheese from a local deli. As soon as they walked out the door, Ohno's friend looked at him, wide-eyed, and said, "Run!"
"I look behind me, and there's like 40 people sprinting to catch up with us," Ohno recalls, laughing. "I'm thinking: Oh my gosh. What have I done?"

Something like a phenomenon
What he has done is create a phenomenon — a curious one, in that it has largely simmered, in a cocoon of admiration spun by his most ardent fans, below the surface for four years. To most of America, Ohno is a distant memory about to be stirred: The most that the bulk of the nation's press can think to say of him in Olympic previews is that the guy with the "soul patch" is back.
Ohno accepts that gracefully. His sport has not reached the kind of everyday American acceptance he and others hoped would follow the major television exposure in Salt Lake City.
But it has spurred another generation of young athletes to take up the charge. One of them, J.R. Celski of Federal Way, is an early bet to be the next Apolo Ohno — and he says he made his own switch from inline skates to ice blades specifically because of Ohno's television stardom four years ago.
That's what the sport — and the Olympics — are all about, Ohno believes: Youth. Feeling young, if not in the body, at least at heart.
"I don't ever want to feel old," he says.
When you freeze yourself in time, parts of the world slip by you. But that makes the thawing-out part all the more special.
For Apolo Ohno, the flame is about to be lit, the stage lights are coming up, the ice is dripping away.
As the temperature rises, he forgets about the four years that have taken forever but gone by in a blink. He forgets the sacrifices, the frustrations, the self doubts, the temptations.
He remembers that night at the Delta Center when he wore the gold medal and owned the world. And standing on the edge of what could be his final time in the world spotlight, he's allowing himself to say aloud the four words that have kept him going for four years.
"I want to win."

[jennaceeta25]

WOW- Lori and Number1, you must be stacked with articles! Bless you! Thanks Mtnme for making this thread..I haven't seen these articles ever.

Christy, thanks for making this a sticky!

[number1fan]

here's my last one of the night (promise)...having then all in one place is great, i have all my articles/links all over the place...plus we're sharing now too!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Launch of Apolo

He defies the image of Olympic golden boy, but pack speed skater Apolo Ohno of the U.S. could become the Games' biggest star
By S.L. Price


Gerard Rancinan

Here he comes, breaking out of a slouch, cutting short a yawn, slicing step by icy step into his moment. Here he comes, the U.S. athlete most likely to leave Salt Lake City with a fistful of medals, skating too far back in the pack, his calm sending his coaches into profane exasperation: Move your ass to the front! Get up there! Can he make his move, find the gaps, slip the traps? Will he fall as he did once in a four-lap time trial, sliding on both elbows and one knee into a curve, only to pop back up in traffic and into the race? Will he go spinning into the wall? Here he comes, long hair strapped under his helmet, skates sprinkled with glitter. Are you ready to care?

Here comes 19-year-old Apolo Ohno, the name summing up divine talent and ungodly trouble. Here comes the next U.S. Olympic hero -- so long as he can avoid a repeat of his 1998 meltdown, so long as he can handle the Nike-sparked, IMG-fueled, NBC-oiled hype machine. Here he comes, leaning into a turn at 35 mph, dragging behind him a sport that few Americans know and fewer care about. He's no one's idea of a hibernal darling. The Winter Games have usually celebrated middle-class pastimes, Norman Rockwell-style. The athletes who have taken the grand prizes (endorsements, gold medals, a lifetime's hold on our affection) most often have been mainstreamers from the moneyed sports of figure skating, hockey and skiing; even long-track speed skating gods such as Eric Heiden, Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen gave off that sweet Midwestern scent of white bread rising.

Now comes Ohno, a diamond stud in his ear, a whiff of scandal in his wake. He is a serious contender for four Winter Olympic gold medals, in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters and the 5,000-meter relay. Never mind that his sport, short-track speed skating, has been in the Games only since 1992. It's an exhilarating spectacle, the Olympic equivalent of Roller Derby. No U.S. man has been better at negotiating the anarchy of the 111-meter oval than Ohno, who won two gold medals and a silver at the 2001 World Championships and finished first on last season's World Cup circuit. "When focused, he's pretty much unbeatable," says the Americans' short-track coach, Sue Ellis.

Focus, however, is Apolo's Achilles' heel. He tends to get distracted, but then, growing up, he had plenty of distractions. His father, Yuki, a Japanese hairdresser, raised Apolo alone in Seattle after Yuki's marriage to Apolo's mother, an American named Jerrie Lee, soured, and she dropped out of their lives. Apolo, a latchkey kid, fell in with a crowd of petty criminals and juvenile delinquents. He always burned, he says, with "this mad energy." He dropped out of an honors program in junior high school because his friends thought it was uncool. A former coach says Apolo once claimed that he'd faced gunfire, but Ohno denies that and now prefers to cloak his past in vagueness. He often ends sentences with the prevailing teen evasion, "Whatever." He shrugs when asked about the mother who left him when he was a year old; he knows little about her and professes to have no interest in learning more about her. His father will have it no other way. "There's no story about her," Yuki says. "No story. It's insignificant to what he is now. We've got to keep it that way."

Meanwhile, none of Apolo's official bios, and none of the stories written about him since 1997 -- when at 14 he became the youngest U.S. short-track champion -- mention that he has a half brother. When the subject is broached, Apolo pauses and then describes the brother as "about 10 years older" and no factor in his upbringing. Asked if the brother lives in Seattle, Apolo says, "I don't know. You're not going to get hold of him." Asked if he speaks with him, Apolo says, "Not at this point."

He says this while sitting in a cafeteria at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Ohno is but weeks from his dominating and controversial performance at the short-track trials in Salt Lake City in December and only months from taking the biggest sports stage the world offers. He's in the elite, and that alone is testament to his father's will and fear. "It was a mystery," Yuki says of fatherhood during his first years with Apolo. "I was incompetent. I didn't think I could pull this thing off."

Then again, it wasn't Yuki's first attempt at defying convention. In the early 1970s the 18-year-old Yuki, the son of a university vice president, rebelled against the Tokyo academic life in which he was raised, defying his parents and moving to the U.S. After failing as an accounting student, he drifted into hairdressing and studied at a Vidal Sassoon salon in London. He traveled all over Europe and to New York City to work the hair shows. In 1980 he opened his Seattle shop -- Yuki's Diffusions -- married Lee and figured his peripatetic life might slow.

He had no idea. He and Lee split in 1983 -- Yuki will not say why -- and they agreed, Yuki says, that little Apolo would be better off with a father who worked 12-hour days and had no relatives to help him. His fashionista pals drifted off. "Everything changed," Yuki says. "I had to change the diaper. I was completely out of the circle. Those people don't talk about kids."

Sometimes Apolo would be in day care; sometimes he'd be sitting in the back of the shop watching his father mousse and clip. Customers still remember the little boy in his Halloween costume as night came down, waiting impatiently for his dad to close so they could trick or treat. Yuki tried everything to keep Apolo occupied -- choir, swimming, roller skating -- but the kid was a handful. He'd climb over a fence at day care, eat rocks and dirt. At eight he began taking care of himself after school, coming and going at will. His junior high school was rife with fighting; boys, proud of their time in juvy, plotted to blow up the toilets. Apolo spent afternoons by himself or, worse, with guys nearing their 20s while he hadn't yet reached his teens.

By the time he was 13, Apolo would be gone from home on weekends, flopping at the houses of friends, staying up all night. Sports weren't helping. He had graduated from in-line skates to ice and the short-track scramble he'd discovered watching the 1994 Olympics on TV. He quickly won three age-group titles. Yuki drove him all over -- into Canada, out to Chicago, silently hoping success would be enough to keep Apolo out of trouble. It wasn't. He and Yuki often fought, Yuki threatening to send his son to military school. Yuki could sense those delinquents sucking Apolo into a wasted life. "And he didn't know how bad those guys really were," Apolo says. "One guy was in the newspaper every week for the houses and cars he robbed. People got shot, people got stabbed -- or went to jail."

In 1995 Patrick Wentland, then a development coach for speed skaters at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, saw Apolo racing in the junior national team trials in Saratoga Springs. Wentland was impressed by the boy's precocious strength, and Yuki, seeing the coach's interest, sprang. He asked Wentland to admit his son, then almost 14, to the center -- even though the minimum age was 15, even though Apolo would have to move 2,800 miles from home.

No one that young had ever been admitted, but Wentland, in talks with the USOC, campaigned hard for Apolo. He wouldn't have been so persistent had he known that the kid had no interest in coming. In June 1996, weeks after Apolo's 14th birthday, Yuki dropped him at the entrance to the Seattle airport. Apolo didn't make it past the first pay phone. "I made a call, and I was out," he says. "I had it all planned. Dad told me, 'I know what's best for you, you need to listen.' He comes from that Asian background; he's strict. But I'm 14, I don't want to do anything anybody says. So I had a friend pick me up. I was gone."

After a week's standoff -- with Apolo at a friend's house, Yuki fuming at home where he'd received phone calls in which Apolo refused to say where he was, and Wentland wondering what had happened to the kid he'd gambled on -- Yuki played his final card. He called his ex-wife's sister in Portland and implored her to come and talk sense into his son. Impressed by such obvious desperation, Apolo returned home. Getting him to Wentland was another matter. "I practically have to tie him with rope into the airplane seat," says Yuki, who went along on the flight this time. After they arrived in Lake Placid, Yuki startled Wentland by assuring him that Apolo would pull some stunt to get himself kicked out of the center. Yuki's final words to Wentland: "Good luck."

Apolo's first month at the center was a washout. He had little interest in training, and whenever Wentland led a five-mile run to the lake, Apolo would drop out of the pack with a buddy and head for Pizza Hut. "I hated it there," he says. "I didn't talk to anybody. I didn't want anybody to help me. Then I thought, I'm having a good time skating, my dad's not here bossing me around, I'm young and I can do whatever I want."

It didn't hurt that in August Wentland handed out the results of the group's body-fat test. Apolo -- or Chunky, as he had been nicknamed -- came in last. "That got him," says Wentland, who would go on to become U.S. national coach in 1999. "He came up to me and said, 'I don't want to be the fattest, I don't want to be the slowest, I want to be the best.' He totally changed. Every workout from then on, he had to win. I'd never seen that kind of turnaround so fast. Even now, at this level, if he decides one day that he's not feeling right, he won't skate well. But if he knows that he can win, I don't care if all the other skaters are having the best day of their lives, he'll beat them."

Such determination, combined with Apolo's gift for decoding a race's rapidly shifting patterns, seemed a recipe for instant greatness. In 1997 Apolo, not yet 15, won the U.S. championship, though in this sport the typical athlete peaks at 24. He seemed fated to make noise at the '98 Winter Games in Nagano. At home in Seattle, though, he still hung out with his old crowd of troublemakers and battled with Yuki, and the prospect of carrying the U.S. short-track team proved a crushing burden. Undertrained, overweight and exhausted, Apolo finished 16th in a field of 16 in the U.S. Olympic trials and left Lake Placid shattered. "I wasn't sure I'd ever see him again," Wentland says.

Yuki and Apolo flew back to Seattle together, but instead of going home they drove 2 1/2 hours west to a cabin Yuki rented on the Washington coast in an isolated spot called Iron Springs. "You think it over," Yuki said. "If speed skating is not what you want to do, I want to know." Then Yuki drove away, leaving Apolo for eight days with no television, no phone, no car -- only some provisions, the gray ocean, constant rain and his own angry, confused thoughts.

So Apolo began to run -- barefoot -- on the rocky beach or along a narrow highway nearby. A massive blister grew on the bottom of one foot, but he pushed on. One day, as the rain pounded him mercilessly, he stopped in his tracks on the beach. What am I doing? he asked himself. He realized that if he didn't want to end up like his friends in Seattle, he had to get more serious about his life and his skating career. With the rain still falling, he took a deep breath and began to run again.

The following year Ohno won the U.S. title. Since then he has only gotten better, becoming American speed skating's big hope. Although Heiden, Blair and Jansen drew lots of attention during their Olympic reigns, "we [the sport] never had the chance to cash in," says U.S. Speedskating president Fred Benjamin. "Heiden immediately went to medical school [after winning five Olympic golds in 1980]. Bonnie does a few things, but she's not going out there [enough]. Dan's doing his thing, mostly for his sister's charity. We need someone to be seen."

Indeed, competition from hockey and figure skating has only eroded the gains made by the big three of American speed skating. "It's a dying sport," Wentland says. "If Apolo scores big in Salt Lake and comes across as the personality he is, we finally have a shot to get noticed."

Which may well be a mixed blessing. At the U.S. trials in December, Ohno scored big and drew plenty of notice -- but for all the wrong reasons. About a week after totaling an SUV with teammate and best friend Shani Davis beside him, Ohno steamrolled the field with a performance so crushing that eyebrows rose only when he lost. After he breezed through the first seven races, winning the 500- and 1,500-meter finals, Ohno finished third in the competition's last race, the 1,000 -- a loss that, to competitors Tommy O'Hare and Ron Biondo, all too conveniently allowed Davis to win and claim the sixth and final spot on the Olympic team. O'Hare charged that Ohno and Rusty Smith had conspired to fix the race, and in the walk-up to the Games the sport found itself degenerating into a nasty stew of intrateam tension, Smith's defamation suit against O'Hare and an arbitration hearing that could well have ended with Ohno's being kicked off the team.

On Jan. 24, though, an arbitrator ruled that there was no evidence to support the charge. O'Hare withdrew his complaint, and Smith dropped his suit. Ohno insisted that he had backed off in the race only because he didn't want to risk injury, but reports that three skaters had testified to overhearing a fix being discussed and that the race's referee, Jim Chapin, had testified that he saw irregularities in the 1,000 were enough to create a cloud sure to follow Ohno to Salt Lake City. "I'm very pleased with the outcome," Ohno says. "I knew the truth would come out. I was concerned because I was losing training time and losing focus, but I'm definitely getting back on track."

Here, then, comes Apolo Ohno to a sport and a network in need. Here's a beacon of cool for the X Games crowd NBC is so desperate to attract, a winter darling unlike any other. The last time someone this edgy blew out of the Northwest into the Winter Games, she had her main rival kneecapped. If at a time of flag-waving earnestness, Ohno doesn't fit the old mold, that's just too bad.

"Skating as well as I am -- that's special," Apolo says. "To be able to come out of that mess as I did is special. To be able to improve my relations with my dad is special. I'm happy with the way my life's going, the way I'm growing up as a person. Skating has changed me. I've had a lot of chances, and this is my time to shine."

Yuki's, too. Even though the bond between father and son frayed, it never broke. Through it all -- every fight, every long separation -- Apolo made sure never to go too far. Through it all, he continued to let Yuki cut his hair. Dad packs his scissors for every competition.

"I always end up in the bathroom, doing his hair," Yuki says. "Lately he wants to grow it longer, but I still cut it off."

Issue date: February 4, 2002

[mtnme]

I'm moving some of these from the Apolo news thread to hear. Sorry for those who have already read them recently
___________________________________________________

No Slip-Ups This Time AroundAfter Failed Bid in '98, Ohno on Short Track to Success

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 22, 2001; Page D01

A rebellious adolescent-turned-elite-athlete, a delinquent-turned-prodigy, a wayward-child-turned-prospective- Olympian, Apolo Anton Ohno grew up and achieved, almost against his will at times. But when Ohno failed to attain what he hadn't realized he wanted, he learned something: Losing hurt.

Raised by a single father, Ohno made his way fitfully from junior high to junior national champion, then suddenly found himself the very best short-track speedskater in the United States at age 14, a mere two years after taking up the sport. But then his dreams, just beginning to crystallize, evaporated in one disappointing weekend: Four years ago in Lake Placid, N.Y., the boy wonder of the U.S. speedskating team failed to advance to the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.


"The lifestyle I was living just wasn't healthy. It was overall just a bad lifestyle," says Apolo Ohno, who has his eyes on Olympic glory. (Douglas C. Pizac - AP)


Four years later, Ohno, now 19, has developed into a less troubled and more determined skater. Ohno easily qualified for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City by setting a world record and sweeping six events at this past week's Olympic trials. Back in 1998, Ohno was merely the best speedskater in the United States. Last year, he was the best in the world – at three distances. He won the overall World Cup title and individual titles in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters.

The road to this place, though, has been steep.

In the words of his Japanese-born father, Yuki Ohno, Apolo Ohno was "climbing back from the bottom of a cliff. Straight up."

During the long, quiet flight home to Seattle after his Olympic trials failure in 1998, Apolo Ohno was numb with disappointment. His father took him straight from the airport to a primitive cabin on Washington's rough coast, a place they had vacationed in better times. Yuki Ohno left his son there with his cat Tiggie, left him to untangle his mind. There was no television, no phone, no one to talk to but himself.

During one lonely day during that weeklong stay, Apolo Ohno left the cabin in his running shoes, seeking either escape or exercise, he wasn't sure which. As the water pelted his face, and the cold soaked through his shirt, his foot began to throb from a blister. Angry, frustrated, disgusted – with the pain, with everything – Ohno dropped to the side of the road and sat on a rock.

He sat and he thought. Then, he stood up and started running again. At that moment, he said, he knew his career had not died.

"I realized if I really desired to keep speedskating, I'd keep running," Ohno said recently. "I got up and kept running. It was the hardest week of my life."

His collapse in 1998 aside, in a sport that demands cunning, quickness and raw strength, Apolo has been exceptional and, at times, dominant. Unlike in the long-track version of the sport, short-track speedskating does not involve racing against a clock. On an oval that fits inside a standard hockey rink, skaters compete against each other, using slicing, cat-quick moves to gain advantages, cutting corners with such precarious leans they become almost horizontal.

During a recent test event in Salt Lake City that preceded the start of the World Cup season, Ohno seemed to lack his customary sharpness. After finishing what for him was a disappointing third place in a 1,000-meter final, behind Korean star Dong Sung Kim and China's Jiajun Li, Ohno wore a distant look at the postrace press conference. He ran his hand through his medium-length wavy brown hair, pushing it away from eyes.

"There's a long way to go to the Olympics," he said. "There are a lot of improvements I can make. I'm pretty happy with my results, but there is a long way I can step up."

His father, who watched from the stands, pointed out that Ohno had recently sprained his ankle and injured his lower back. During the race, Yuki kept his video camera trained on his son, lap after lap. Wearing a USA parka and thin gloves, Yuki leaned over the railing to get the best possible view. It was clear his son wasn't quite in top form. Immediately after the race, Yuki Ohno looked pensive, but then smiled, and then volunteered this:

"This is the battle he is fighting – it's mental. It's good for him. If he plays it cool, he can turn this whole thing around to his advantage."

Yuki Ohno said he came to the United States from Tokyo when he was 18. He studied accounting at Seattle City College but found the numbers too dry for his liking. He was a people person. He switched to cosmetology and knew he had found his calling. He spent a summer in London, living among artists in Chelsea, and then set up his own shop when he arrived back in Seattle. The son of a college vice president, Yuki Ohno had no family in the United States but, he said, was happy.

His business was successful, and he made many friends. He partied with other hairdressers, he recalls, staying out until all hours. He declined to reveal details about Apolo's mother, but it was at that point that he married, and his wife gave birth to a son. They were divorced when Apolo was 1. Yuki, then 37, had become not only a full-time hair stylist but also a full-time father.

Recalled Yuki Ohno: "It was a turning point in my life. I was the type of hairdresser that goes to parties and all those shows, wearing very flamboyant European label suits from head-to-toe. Everything changed.

"At the beginning, I felt I had no confidence. I thought, I'm the only male caring for a one-year-old baby, facing all the other mothers at day care. I was very depressed. But you just develop. You build up confidence."

Yuki Ohno took a job at a second salon to make extra money. When he wasn't working, he introduced Apolo to nature and sports. They spent weekends at Copalis Beach, about 130 miles outside of Seattle. The basic cabins there were steps from the frothing Pacific, forests of spruce trees, sand dunes and rocky trails.

At home, Ohno took up swimming and in-line skating. As a pre-teen swimmer, he became a state champion in the breaststroke. As an in-line skater, he also excelled, winning a national title.

But as he shined in sports, he declined in other areas. On his own for hours after school, he hung out with an older group of friends who preferred making trouble to just about any other pastime. They drank, smoked and plotted an assortment of mischief, including blowing up the toilets at a local school, Apolo Ohno recalled. "The lifestyle I was living just wasn't healthy," he said. "It was overall just a bad lifestyle. I was rebelling against my dad."

Apolo Ohno rebelled in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, but he and his father were, of course, stuck with each other. In the winter of 1994, they watched the Winter Games in Lillehammer together. For the first time, they saw short-track speedskating.

"We both clicked, simultaneously," Yuki Ohno said. "The next Christmas, Santa brought a brand new pair of skates."

Apolo Ohno joined the Tacoma Speedskating Club, but ice time was expensive – $135 per hour – and practices took place just once a week. Still, Apolo thrived in the sport. By the end of the year, he had broken the national 12-year-old age group record in the 1,000 meters twice at the Junior World Short Track Speedskating Championships in Milwaukee.

His performances got the attention of officials at U.S. Speedskating, the sport's national governing body. When he was 13, Pat Wentland, then the U.S. national team coach, saw him compete.

"You could just tell from his style and ability that he had potential," Wentland said. "He was very strong for his age, very agile."

Wentland was determined to get this talented skater into the U.S. Olympic Training Center residency program at Lake Placid, even though the minimum age for athletes there was 15. Apolo's father, aware that he was losing control of his son, thought the full-time supervision, and intensive training, would help him mature. The only one not thrilled with the idea? Apolo.

"The first month I was there," he said, "I didn't want to be there."

Wentland would send the speedskaters on daily five-mile runs that looped past a Pizza Hut. Apolo Ohno didn't like running, so he and another resident athlete always lagged behind the group as they neared the Pizza Hut, then ducked inside. On these daily departures, they managed to down a couple of pizzas in the time it took the group to return – at which point they rejoined the pack.

Wentland said he did not know about the stunt until years later.

"At first, since he had been taken from his home, he missed all of his friends," Wentland said. "He didn't want to be in New York. But all of the sudden, he just decided one day that he wanted to be the best."

A trigger, Wentland and Apolo Ohno agree, was a body fat test administered at the training center. Despite Apolo Ohno's talent, he finished dead last among about a dozen resident speedskaters, his body fat at about 12 percent, Wentland said. Most of the other skaters achieved 6 percent to 8 percent.

"I was mad about it," Apolo Ohno said. "I was the highest in the whole group. It had an immediate effect."

The results of the test, Apolo Ohno said, convinced him to cut out the daily pizza stops. He began working harder, and pined less for his friends back home. In March of 1997, less than a year before the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Apolo Ohno won the U.S. men's national overall title at 14, topping a 32-year-old second-place finisher. But if that title should have given Apolo Ohno confidence, both Wentland and Apolo's father saw him begin to wilt under the strain. As the team's best skater, Apolo Ohno was expected to place well at a pre-Olympic seeding event, securing a number of spots for U.S. skaters at the Olympics.

"It was more of a mental thing," Wentland said. "He was very concerned, very stressed."

At the world junior championships in St. Louis later that year, Apolo Ohno failed to reach the final. At the U.S. Olympic trials in January of 1998, he finished last among 16 competitors. "From that point on, through the season, he just fell apart," Wentland said. "He didn't want to deal with the pressure anymore."

Apolo Ohno watched himself crumble. He knew he was expected to cruise into an Olympic spot. He knew his father would have loved a trip back home to Japan. He knew this was the biggest event of his life. He also knew he would fail.

"By the time I got to the Olympic trials," he said, "mentally, I knew I was not going to make the team."

This time around, Apolo Ohno expects a far different ending to his Olympic story. He knew back in 1998, when he got up off that rock and kept running in the rain, that he would someday have another chance at an Olympic medal.

"I thought, if I really want to pursue this dream, this short-term pain for training is nothing," he said. "It's kind of like a cry-now, smile-later kind of deal."

For Apolo Ohno, later is February in Salt Lake City.

[mtnme]

(Moved here from Apolo news thread) This is an older article from before the 2006 Olympics, but still an interesting read.
___________________________________________________

As Olympics approach, Ohno sharpens focus

By Ron Judd

DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

A happy Apolo Ohno currently leads the World Cup standings.


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — It's well past noon when the most famous resident of the U.S. Olympic Training Center's Building 10 shuffles down the stairs and heads to the dining hall.

Rising late after a late-night flight home from a World Cup race in yet another winter-sports garden spot — Saguenay, Quebec — he looks sleepy and disheveled in loose sweats and flip-flops.

Thousands of rabid, young female fans around the world might find this difficult to accept, but closer examination reveals it to be nonetheless true: Apolo Ohno is having a bad hair day.

It's understandable.

Being chased around in tiny circles at insane speeds by squadrons of young, lightning-quick guys on Ginsu-knife ice skates is enough to eventually give a guy gray hair — or at least an unkempt 'do.

Relax, ladies. It's only temporary.

An hour later, Ohno, 22, is showered, changed and relaxing on a sofa in the lobby of the fenced-in, institutional training complex he calls home, ready to talk.
____________________________________________________

The Ohno file

Name: Apolo Anton Ohno
Occupation: Short-track speedskater
Birth date: 5/22/82
Size: 5-8, 165 pounds
Hometown: Seattle
Residence: Colorado Springs, Colo.

Recent career highlights: Arguably the world's top male short-track racer for past three seasons; 2003 World Cup overall champion (also champion in 1,000 meters); gold medal, 1,500 meters, and silver medal, 1,000 meters, at 2002 Winter Olympics.

Upcoming competitions: Budapest, Hungary World Cup, Feb. 4-6; Slovak Republic World Cup, Feb. 10-12; World Short-Track Championships, Beijing, China, March 11-13.

Little-known fact: Former Washington state breaststroke champion as a 12-year-old.

Guilty pleasure he secretly seeks to obtain: "A '64 Cadillac DeVille, with suicide doors."

Web site: www.apoloantonohno.com
____________________________________________________

The soul-patched one has a lot to say, and he starts with the big news.

"I'm pretty happy," says Ohno, the Seattle native who took up an obscure ice sport as a young teen, rode it all the way to the Salt Lake City Olympics and wound up at a lot of parties hosted by people like Elton John, Bill Clinton and Halle Berry.

"Last year I just wasn't happy with my performance," Ohno says. "For me to be able to enjoy the sport I have to be happy, one way or the other. It shows this year."

After four World Cup events this season, Ohno once again leads the short-track speedskating world in overall points, rebounding from what was to him a disappointing 2003 season even though he won the overall World Cup title. With a new training regimen, he says he's now laser-focused on the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

"Obviously, I'm still hungry," he says. "I want to win. The desire's still there."

The lone wolf


This can only be good news for the U.S. Olympic Committee, which looks 13 months ahead to Turin and drools at the prospect of the Ohno Show, Vol. II, being beamed into billions of homes worldwide.

Volume I was fairly memorable. Ohno, blessed with the sort of looks, athletic prowess and charisma that makes marketing execs stammer, was a scene stealer in Salt Lake, with the famous, stumble-across-the-finish silver medal in the 1,000 meters and that infamous 1,500-meter gold medal that still has the entire Korean peninsula in full snit.

When the flame is lit in Turin, the Koreans, along with the Chinese, Canadians, Japanese, Italians and everyone else irked by his success, will be coming after him — looking not to simply beat him, but take him out.

"It's going to be crazy," Ohno says. "And fun."

Fun?

Yuki Ohno, his dad and unofficial manager, isn't so sure.

"They have skaters whose only interest is to wreck him, make him fall so their countrymen will advance," Yuki says. "That's going to be the next Winter Olympics, no doubt about it."

Since the 2002 Games, opposing nations allegedly have conspired to foil Ohno through "team skating" — cooperating with team members in a race to block him out. It's illegal, but a tough call for officials asked to read skaters' minds. It often works, particularly for nations such as Korea and China that have seemingly endless stables of talented skaters.

"He always will be the lone wolf in the pack," his father laments. "He's like Lance Armstrong without the peloton."

A winning atmosphere


Ohno almost seems to get jazzed by this: It simply means, he says, that he'll need to be just that much tougher, smarter and luckier to repeat his Salt Lake medal haul in Italy.

He has launched a specific program to do it. It starts with a lifestyle that, for a guy with the money, fame and youth to do whatever he wants, will be seen by many as oddly monastic, especially for a sports star.

Ohno has chosen to remain a permanent resident of the Colorado Springs training center, where he lives in a small, dormitory-style apartment. It's a place he has called home for six years, and for an athlete, it's a fairly pleasant — albeit austere — cocoon.

Immediately downstairs is a full-time cafeteria, where he can eat what he wants, when he wants. Just outside are a full range of elite-athlete training facilities, gear and coaches. Many U.S. and even foreign athletes drop in at the center for intensive doses of training, physical therapy and rehab. Ohno is the most prominent of a handful of Olympians who live here full time. Many other training-center devotees live in private Colorado Springs homes.

"There are a lot of things about it that are nice," Ohno says. "But you're basically living in, like, small dorms. It's not exactly the ideal bachelor pad, you know what I mean?"

But the pluses outweigh that.

"I think it's easier to keep a clear head here," Ohno says. "I'm surrounded by world-class athletes 24/7. The intensity and the energy is always there, radiating off all the athletes, because everybody who's here wants to win, all the time."

He still dreams of and even surfs the Internet for his own pad. But little of the post-Salt-Lake cash has been spent on splurges. He did buy father Yuki, a longtime Seattle hair stylist who raised Apolo alone in Federal Way, a nice home in Edmonds last year. He also bought himself a Lexus — the fanciest car, it has been observed, in the Olympic Training Center parking lot.

But that's about it. Many of his friends don't understand his restraint, he says, laughing.

"I've been here since I was 16," he says. "If I stay here through '06, another year or so, it might be, like, a record or something. My friends always give me flak about that. They're like, 'When are you gonna move off? Your rims are getting dirty, man. You're parked outside!' "

On track to success


Seattle will always be home, but Ohno says he loves the training complex, partially for the built-in sacrifice it implies. Yet he almost left it all behind this past summer for greener training pastures in Canada.

Ohno still would have competed for America, but he became so frustrated with the state of U.S. speedskating that he was poised to jump ship to Calgary, Alberta, for training. It was mostly about coaching and stability.

The U.S. short-track team has introduced a new head coach every year since the Salt Lake Olympics. Ohno, who publicly protested last year's firing of coach Stephen Gough, has butted heads with his sport's federation numerous times.

It all reached a boiling point last summer. Ohno had a U-Haul truck ready to move him to Calgary, where friend and teammate Shani Davis trained under Canadian coach Derrick Campbell, a former champion racer, Yuki Ohno says.

U.S. Speedskating officials scrambled. The federation's president, longtime short-track skater Andy Gabel, quickly hired Campbell as U.S. Speedskating's short-track program manager. Campbell promptly relocated to Colorado Springs. And Ohno stayed put.

"We certainly would have been disappointed if Apolo would have left our programs," Gabel said last week. "But I think now we've turned the corner with Apolo, and the people we've brought in are the right people to lead our program to success. The results bear that out."

The people include new head coach Li Yan, one of the first great female stars of the sport in China. The results are, indeed, notable: Ohno not only has regained his past form, but the traditionally overmatched U.S. women's squad suddenly has begun moving up in world rankings.

Ohno says he likes working with Yan and Campbell, a "recent" athlete who understands the ins and outs of training and racing, and is quick to point out the success of his female teammates.

Of course, Ohno now has more than a passing interest in the success of the women's squad, his father notes: Apolo and teammate Allison Baver, 24, a fellow Olympian and training-center inhabitant, have been dating for more than a year.

Ohno insists it's not all that serious, says his father, who of course worries that a relationship would distract his son. "He doesn't have time for a relationship," Yuki says, almost wishing out loud.

Yuki shrugs. "Apolo just says, 'Dad, don't worry about it.' "

On to Turin


If Ohno has been distracted by anything, it appears to have been in a good way. The past summer of discontent is fully behind him, he says.

He intends to win the World Cup overall title again this spring, even without competing in the March team championships in Korea. Yuki says Apolo likely will skip that race, as he did another Korean event last year, because of Internet death threats from rabid fans still irked by the gold medal Apolo was awarded after the disqualification of a Korean skater in Salt Lake.

He intends to carry all that momentum straight into Turin, where another date with televised destiny surely awaits next February.

Ohno wants another gold medal, badly. But he's been around his crash-and-burn sport — in which racers skate on knife-edge blades at 40 mph — long enough to know he can do everything right and still see it all go bad in a fraction of an instant.

"You think, physically you've got all the tools," Ohno says, grinning at what must be a rash of on-ice memories. "Mentally you're like a rock. And then you go and slip, maybe you slip on some bad ice, and some, like, 14-year-old Korean kid goes whizzing by you. You're like, 'Are you kidding me?'

"You know, the kid weighs like 125 pounds. He's got the body of an 11-year-old schoolgirl. And he's physically one of the most talented athletes on the face of the planet. You're just like, 'Why? How does this happen?' "

Little accommodation is made here for moping. If Ohno ever feels self-pity welling up, all he has to do is look around. Beside him on the weight machines, on the track, in the training room and at lunch every day are athletes who have struggled for years, sometimes decades, just to live that dream of having a shot at an Olympic medal.

"They've given up everything they have toward the sport," he says, shaking his head in admiration. "Everything. I think that's unbelievable. I see all the sweat, all the emotions. I see how bad they want it, and the amount of pain they go through to achieve their dreams. I think it's awesome. I've always loved amateur sports because of that — because of the struggle.

"It's the stuff that makes amateur athletes special."

Ron Judd: 206-464-8280 or at [e-mail]



Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

[ohnoagain]

Wow, this is a great thread, thanks to all the great articles. Does anyone have one of my favorites they can bring over here when Apolo got the flu and Yuki had to come nurse him. I think it starts out "he still tastes vomit in his mouth",,,,,,not the most pleasant beginning, but one of my all time favorite articles of his determination.........thanks in advance.

[number1fan]

APOLO ANTON OHNO
Ohno Zone Interview, October 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ohno Zone: On behalf of all your fans, congratulations on your awesome comeback at World Cup 2 in Korea! With your ankle injury, being sick, plus all the hoopla surrounding your return to Korea it was an amazing outcome!

Apolo Anton Ohno: Aw thanks! That's nice. I was happy, I was really happy. 'Cause I just know my body had no fuel, so physically I think I overcame a lot. Mentally, it was a good test for me, given the situation, with all the hype and all the security.

Korea wasn't messing around with the World Cup. They really wanted to sweep [all the races]. So I was really happy to be able to come back strong the last day.

Editor's Note: Apolo overcame illness, injury, and disqualification in the first 2 days of competition to win the 1000m and 3000m races on the final day and with them the overall World Cup title for the weekend.


OZ: When did you start feeling sick and how sick were you? I can't imagine how you managed to do what you did.

AAO: I got sick on Tuesday (the day after arriving in Korea) but it didn't really start affecting my performance until about Thursday. Then I really started to feel it. I felt weak and stuff. Friday I felt horrible physically, I was so drained. I had nothing left. Saturday I actually felt better. I'm disappointed that I got disqualified in the [500m], 'cause I was feeling much better. Then Sunday it just hit me back hard again.

I was so sick, unbelievably sick. I think I still might have a bug or something. It was terrible. I couldn't even make it to the banquet. You know how they have a banquet after every competition? I went to the banquet and on the bus ride over, I was doing an interview. But as soon as I stepped inside the banquet hotel, I was in the bathroom for about 15 minutes. And then I got out of the bathroom and I sat down in the banquet hall for about 5 minutes and then I just had to leave. Till about 3:30 in the morning - it was horrible.


OZ: How is your ankle? How did you hurt it to begin with?

AAO: I don't really know what happened, I just know it's some kind of a sprain. I skated like one or two rounds [in the 1000m on the last day in China]. My first round was a joke because I barely beat the Mongolian guy. Matus [Uzak], the Slovakian kid, he took off from the gun. I was like, 'Oh sweet. Wonderful.' Because I couldn't go hard off the line. I should never have skated from the get-go. I just couldn't push with my ankle. When I did try to push, I injured it a little more.

It's still sprained, but it's not swollen or anything. I got some Chinese acupuncture at the rink, and that seemed to really help the swelling, but other than that, I don't know why it's not healing. It's a bit disturbing. But slowly [it's getting better]. It's real tight - it just feels like a sprained ankle.


OZ: Are you able to train normally now that you're back?

AAO: We're training hard now. But it still bothers me. I can't do certain kinds of sprints and stuff.


OZ: How do you feel overall, about your and the team's performances at the first two World Cups? Is everything on track?

AAO: I think so. You know, I wasn't very confident going into the competitions because of my physical training. But obviously, [the results] did show that if we're weren't on track, we're pretty close. So I think the plan is working. I had some good races, so I was really happy. There aren't many opportunities this year to get in good experience and race against those top guys, so it's pretty important for me to be healthy. That's why I was really bummed out about my ankle when I was in China.


OZ: Were there any surprises as far as other teams, other countries' performances?

AAO: Nope. I think everything was exactly what we expected, to be honest with you. I was surprised with the Chinese women's team just sweeping house the way they did. Did you see the results? That was pretty ridiculous!


OZ: Yeah! I thought the tables might turn in favor of the Korean women when they went to Seoul, but I guess not.

AAO: No... [the Chinese women] did even better in Seoul, I think. I don't know what the deal is with the Korean women's team. Their men's team is skating well. The Canadians just came [to Asia] from a week off, then they started training really hard while they were there, so we knew they weren't going to be at the top of their game, but still - it doesn't matter for them. They're gonna race pretty close to what they usually do. You could see they were physically flat. They were tired from training. But it doesn't matter. They're still going to race hard, they're not gonna give up. They're still going to try to win.

Just like when I was sick - I guarantee you, I felt the worst [on Sunday] out of everybody. There's no freaking way that anybody felt worse - there's no way. the Canadians [didn't really believe] I was sick!


OZ: Was returning to Korea your hardest mental challenge in your career so far?

AAO: Yeah - it's up there. In the past I've competed sick but I've never really been able to push [myself] like this. I was really happy. I really surprised myself with how I performed. I was so weak. I had like no food in my body for four days straight. I don't know if you saw any pictures, but I looked really nasty. My face got really skinny.


OZ: There were upwards of 30 DQ's all weekend. It seemed like a lot more than normal. What did the skaters make of that?

AAO: It was really tight. [Some of the calls] were pretty warranted. The cross-track JP [Kepka] did on Jiajun [Li] was pretty funny. We all had a good laugh! It might have been in the 1000m... I'm not sure. Jiajun was skating well all weekend... and he was passing outside, inside, outside, inside. He was passing JP on the inside and it looked like JP did a pivot in the straightaway!

[The refs] were calling it pretty tight, all competition. They didn't call it that tight for China, which is interesting.


OZ: How do the Olympic qualifiers work next month and what are the U.S. team's goals?

AAO: Basically, every country gets I think one skater [in each distance automatically]. You get two skaters if you place top 16 or something. Just like a regular World Cup, points are added up at the end. If you get all three guys in the top eight in a distance, overall that means that you can have three guys in that distance in the Games. Which means more team skating. Except in the 500.

We want to get three guys - that's the goal. It's going to be really hard. A lot of us are skating better so we'll see. We have a pretty strong team.


OZ: Apart from yourself, do you know who is going to be skating individual distances at the European World Cups?

AAO: I don't know yet. JP and Rusty [Smith] will probably skate a 500, but I'm not sure. [With the relay team things are going] better and better. Our results in Korea (the U.S. men finished 4th) were just because everyone was so drained. That's the only reason why. Rusty fell on one exchange. But we're definitely not far off [the mark].


OZ: Leading up to Torino, what can we look forward to in terms of media and endorsements?

AAO: Oh, there's so much media! New endorsements? Ok... well, we have McDonalds, we have Roots... there is some really cool gear [from Roots] for the Games, the ceremonies and just for the athletes in general [to wear] around the [Olympic] Village. [Other sponsors include] Hilton Hotels, who redid my room - they're sponsoring the USOC as well. I'm also being sponsored by GE and Coca-Cola. I can't really go into details about Coke, but they'll be using my name, my image. I did some appearances earlier this year with them. And I have Land Roller too.

But I'm trying to keep everything pretty much to a minimum right now until the Games. I did a lot of stuff this past week [at the Media Summit].

(Note from Apolo's agents: Apolo's Hilton Hotels sponsorship is part of their "Competitive Advantage Program" and he participated in a media tour for Hilton by satellite last Thursday in Colorado Springs. The GE Healthcare sponsorship involves their portable ultrasound diagnostic equipment which he helped demonstrate at an appearance during the recent media summit in Colorado Springs.)


OZ: You really had no time to rest, as soon as you got back from Asia you had to hit the ground running!

AAO: Monday night, the night I got back, I had an appearance with GE, one of my sponsors, and then I was at Land Roller too. All day, Tuesday it was media, from 8 in the morning till 10 at night. And it was the same thing on Wednesday, with training. I'm still not even adjusted to the time change! Coming back [from Asia] is the worst [for jet lag].


OZ: Can we expect to see you in some new commercials too?

AAO: SURE!! ...But I can't go into details on them yet. I did a lot of media [this past week] during the Media Summit. I have a photo shoot with Land Roller this Sunday. I'm pretty tired from it all! [At least] I don't have to go anywhere, they're all going to come here [to Colorado Springs].


OZ: Do you feel the upcoming Olympic experience will feel different to you from Salt Lake four years ago?

AAO: Yeah. Everything is different, I think. The skating is going to be different, different dynamics, some different guys. Obviously the Games are going to be different because of where it's at, on foreign soil, so it's going to feel much different. I do have some things I have experience with so I'm happy to bring those to the table when I compete.


OZ: Thanks for your time Apolo. Please rest up and we hope you recover your full health quickly!

AAO: Thank you very much!

[number1fan]

Ohno Zone
Apolo Anton Ohno Interview, June 2004
Part 1-3

Part 1: The off-season and summer plans
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OZ: How has your off-season gone so far, Apolo? Are you training now?
AAO: The off-season has been going very well for me. I’m doing some new training… I did a lot of studying over the summer about training, about physical conditioning, mental conditioning. Right now I’m just having fun. The off-season is always the best time to train in Colorado. The weather is usually so nice. It’s a fun time to really grind and put some work in. I’m having a good off-season. It’s a lot better than last year. I’m happy so far!

OZ: Are you on the ice much?
AAO: Not much. I've always wanted to skate more in the summer, but sometimes there aren’t funds available, or depending on who the coach is, they don’t want us skating too much. We’re skating about once a week right now.

OZ: Have you taken any time off from training just to relax?
AAO: I took a little time off. I was disappointed with my results from Worlds. But I usually don’t take too much time off. I try to stay in good shape throughout the whole season. Mentally, though, I just relax -- I don’t have to worry about getting up at 6:30 in the morning and doing the whole routine.

OZ: How did you celebrate your 22nd birthday [on May 22]?
AAO: I went and did the Incline here – I was training. The Incline is part of this cog railroad, very old… a lot of Colorado natives and athletes know what the Incline is. If people ever come to Colorado you can see it, it’s like a strip of dirt that goes straight up the mountain… It’s pretty steep, it’s a good workout. That was my birthday! It was a pretty normal day.

OZ: Talk about your plans for August when you'll be visiting Air Force bases in Europe. How did that come about? What will you be doing on your visits?
AAO: Mostly it’s going to be a meet and greet with the troops and their families. I know some celebrities are gonna be there. It’s going to be kinda cool. When it came up, I immediately thought, ‘This is kind of a cool experience, to be able to go support the troops and visit parts of Europe.’ It should be an awesome time.

I bet you’ve never been to Europe in the summer.
No! [laughs]

OZ: Is there any truth to the rumor that you will make an appearance in Athens during the Summer Games?
AAO: I hope so. That would be awesome. Hopefully I can...maybe see a couple of events and be an outsider kind of looking in at the Olympics, in a sense. 'Cause even when the Summer Games roll around, everybody here, including myself, gets really excited about the Games. It's so powerful. I see a lot of my friends here at the training center who trained for Athens, I see them make the team. It’s really awesome to see, because I’ve seen them work hard for the past four years, I’ve seen them improve.

OZ: Do you have any other appearances planned in the States that we should know about?
AAO: Well there’s a couple, but they’re not finalized yet. Some of them are for the summer. I’m trying to limit some things. Hopefully some things back home in Seattle. I haven’t been to California in a while, so hopefully some things in California. We’ll see.

I just shot a commercial, and we have some promotional and media stuff we’re working on, leading up to 2006 and hopefully beyond. Hopefully we can get a good plan together and bring short track to the world again. We kind of lost it for a little bit, and it’s hard for just one skater to push, push, push to bring the sport up. Hopefully it will start getting to the place where I think it should be again.


Part 2: A look back at the 2003-2004 season
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OZ: What made you decide to go on your own* to Prague last winter to compete in World Cup #4?
AAO: Since we didn’t go to [World Cup #3 in] Korea, I really thought that I needed more racing. I just needed to compete against these guys, the top guys, because these national competitions are really not helping me improve or prepare for the World Cups.

Originally, we were supposed to go [to Prague]. That’s what we were told by the federation. We were all planning to go, and at the last minute they pulled out. I thought, ‘That kinda sucks, I was really looking forward to going, but that’s ok. I’ll go anyway, I’ll pay my own way.’ And it really set me up for [the final World Cup of the season in] Italy. I was prepared, I was in the zone, I was on the edge, and it really showed in my performance there. I was on point. It was the first time the whole season where I felt like myself again.

So it was very, very important for me to go and I’m very glad that I went. I realized some things about myself that I would not have if I didn’t go.

(Note: Teammate Allison Baver ultimately opted to compete in Prague as well.)

OZ: The past season had a lot of ups and downs. Is it fair to say that Prague and Italy were the highlights?
AAO: Oh absolutely. Absolutely.

OZ: What were some of the lows from your point of view?
AAO: Obviously Worlds. On paper, from a performance standpoint, the results were not there. I thought I was skating a lot better than the way it showed on paper. There were some mistakes, and I thought I should have adapted to some skaters… this is something I can learn from for the upcoming season. I’m very glad this happened this year. For the upcoming competitions I can really step it up and learn from this stuff. That’s what it’s all about.

As a spectator, the Worlds in Sweden was the worst competition I've attended, from the poor venue to the terrible injuries.
Sweden was embarrassing. I think everybody was embarrassed. The atmosphere was bad. Even people who usually don't say anything about competitions thought, 'This is not good.' Hopefully they can improve on it this year.

OZ: What is your take on it (specifically ice surface and injuries)?
AAO: I don’t know the details. I’m not really one to point fingers. I just know that [compared to] past competitions, everyone knows it could have been run better. With it being the World Championships, everybody had high hopes. We all think that short track is still up and coming – it’s improving very fast. Everybody who was involved, we just all have to learn from what happened there and improve on that for the next competition, and that’s really the only way to get back in the spotlight and get back to where short track needs to be in terms of attention, and becoming a serious sport again.

Hopefully with some of the new cut-proof [skinsuits] we’re getting and – it’s unfortunate that some of these good skaters got hurt, but sometimes nobody says anything until people get hurt. Hopefully this is going to [benefit] short track [in the future].

OZ: Describe what happened in your 1000m semifinal in Sweden.
AAO: Well, it was the last day and I knew that I had to pull off something spectacular to still be in contention with those guys, and just kind of shut down in the semifinal. I was feeling pretty good. I thought I made a decent pass. Personally, I thought that I shouldn’t have been disqualified, but obviously from the referee’s eyes or from their angle, they saw something different. I don’t know. I think that some of that aggressive skating, getting the call – I don’t know how the referees want to approach that, or what they want to do about that. It’s hard to go out there and skate [when other] skaters have a bulls-eye on you, and it doesn’t matter what place they get. Their goal is just to make sure you don’t make it out.

OZ: It seems like the Koreans perfected team skating last season. Did it seem that way to you too?
AAO: Oh yeah, I think they improved a great deal on their team skating. It’s just crazy to me that the whole world knows they team skate but the referees are still like, ‘Nothing’s going on.’ But again, that’s out of my control. I’m not really looking for a call. I’m looking to break that chain.

It’s a very, very hard challenge because you really have to be so much stronger and faster when you’re dealing with team skating. But I think I’m one of the few skaters that can contend with those guys, and I really think that if I can improve some of the things from last year and get back in the right mindset, that I can definitely be a threat again. I thought that at Worlds they were so focused on – not even, ‘What happens if Apolo gets to the final?’ – but more, ‘If he doesn’t get to the final, then we don’t have to worry about him.’ It’s very difficult, but hopefully I can improve.

OZ: What can you do to make it tougher for them to get away with team skating?
AAO: Physical conditioning, obviously, is big. Mental conditioning – I have to be tough, I have to be solid as a rock. Maybe I wasn’t as solid as I usually feel like I am, last season. I have a lot of improvements I want to make, and that’s a good thing. I thought I skated some really good competitions last year, and I still did pretty well*, considering some guys were having the best seasons of their careers.

(Note: Apolo indeed did pretty well, finishing the 2003-04 season ranked third in the world.)

OZ: Can you tell us a little about the skate problems you were having at the end of the year?
AAO: Oh! I switched boots like five, six times last year, [changed] blades all the time. It was just... not good. I kind of work on my own, sometimes I'll ask some people for their opinions, but it's basically just all on your own.

It's hard when you skate and train all day, and instead of resting in between workouts I was tooling with my skates and making phone calls and seeing if I could get new skates made. It was a hassle.

But I have new skates this year and they feel better already. So hopefully I can really improve.

OZ: So what kind of boots and blades are you using now?
AAO: You’ll see! [sneaky laugh]

OZ: I don't know skates. I won't have a clue when I see them!
AAO: That’s okay, you’ll see. They look cool. They’ve got some very cool technology.

OZ: So, is it that you don't want to name the brand, or you don't want to describe what they look like?
AAO: Both. It’s a little surprise! The guy that I work with, I’m really, really good friends with, and I spent some time with him in the off-season. I actually went to his house and we spent a lot of time on this pair of boots. Hopefully these will be the ones that will help me reach my potential in Torino and beyond, and in this season.

OZ: I look forward to seeing them. I know they won't be plain black boots.
AAO: No, no.


Part 3: A look ahead to the 2004-2005 season
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OZ: At the end of the World Championships in March, you mentioned that a lot of changes were in store before next season. What did you have in mind?
AAO: I’m still learning about myself, my physical potential, my mental potential, I’m still growing. I’m only 22 years old. Every year, I get done with a competition and I try to improve for the next season. A lot of the athletes last year improved a great deal. Many countries did, too. So I think the sport itself is rising, in terms of depth. Hopefully I can step that up as well.

This season I’m really focused on myself and my goals. I’m really not going to get involved in any of the petty little things that I was involved in last year, because it really got me nowhere. I was fighting for things that I thought were right, and it was important to do at the time. But this season, it’s starting to get closer to the Games, and I need to concentrate on the specific goals at hand.

This is my dream, and I love skating so much. I love it so much. I’m already in a healthier state of mind. I have a little more confidence, which is kind of funny, coming off of last season, but it’s okay. I’m watching ‘The Lance Chronicles’, getting pumped up.

OZ: Are you planning to keep training in Colorado Springs?
AAO: I really, really hope so. I love training in Colorado Springs. I like the group we have here. But last season I was dealing with a lot, from the federation to just small, nitty-gritty problems. But this season has been better already. I’m not going to let any of that kind of stuff bother me this year, so hopefully you can see a new face and a new skater this year – much stronger and more like myself.

I only had a couple of competitions last year where I thought I skated like myself, which were Prague and Italy. The rest of the time I just felt off. I was always battling something, whether it was the federation or whatever. I never really felt like I had a chance to focus and skate to my potential the entire season. It took a lot out of me. It really did.

This upcoming year is a new season and I already have a solid plan. The distractions that I had last year were hard on my mind but will not take place this season!

OZ: How disruptive is it to have a new coach for the third season in a row?
AAO: We have the highest turnover rate of any business in the country! From a business standpoint – I just finished a business class last semester, and I was like, ‘Wow!’ It really opened my eyes to a lot of things.

We need to have a great coaching staff that is involved with the athletes, so that the team can bond with this person. It will create an atmosphere and game plan for the upcoming seasons. This has not been the case in the past and I hope that it will change.

Right now we need to get these guys going, including myself. We have to improve, ‘cause [other] teams are improving quickly, in terms of training and in terms of technique. We have to step it up.

OZ: You're in a class by yourself as far as short track in the U.S. How does that make you feel – extra pressure, since you're expected to win everything all the time? Or less pressure, because you do win all the time?
AAO: There is pressure. But the only pressure I really feel is from myself. All the pressure everyone else puts on me is really nowhere near the pressure I put on myself. I really have very high expectations of myself. I shoot for the sky, just like anybody should. We all should shoot for – not our limits, but our potential. I think I can reach [it], all the time, any day of the week. It just comes down to a little bit of luck, maybe, in short track, a little bit of good timing, and some boots that work and some blades that work.

OZ: What would you change about the sport if you could?
AAO: In terms of team skating, it’s starting to get dangerous. The protective gear and obviously, how the competitions are run – [they need to be] a little more consistent.

The sport has grown from what it used to be in the mid-90s to late 90s. It’s even grown from 2002. I just want to see changes made to the sport to make it better, to make the sport more enjoyable, make it safer. The speed is going to go up, no matter how small they make the rink, what they’re trying to do with the blades. Guys are going to keep going faster and faster. Hopefully they can start implementing some of those padding systems* – that’s going to help out a lot.

(Note: The Calgary Olympic Oval has a unique system of crash pads that move upon impact, breaking a skater's crash, as opposed to the more usual rigid pads backed by the hard boards of a typical ice rink.)

OZ: Speaking of making the rink small, there was a proposal sent to the ISU to make the track smaller -- instead of 111 meters it would be reduced to 100m. One of the reasons given was that it would lead to slower speeds around the corners, which would presumably make falls less dangerous. What do you think of this idea?
AAO: I don't think that's going to happen. Any time you go down with another skater and they have skates on their feet, I think it’s going to be... dangerous. I think short track [rinks] are small as it is – very small, in terms of the track size. I don’t really know where they want to go with that or how they want to approach it.

OZ: There are some new faces in Colorado Springs this season. Who do you see as the up and coming U.S. skaters?
AAO: It’s hard to tell, because I’ve really never seen these skaters skate before. I know when I came into the program, man, I was just blown away by the stuff I did not know. But then I really started to learn and became hungry for knowledge about the sport. That in itself really was amazing.

It’s too early to tell right now. Even to see who’s going to make the first World Cup team, it’s too early to tell. Some guys are in awesome shape right now, then a month later they’re not skating very well. We’ll see. We’ll see who can tough it out and who improves a lot. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of improvements, though. I know there’s a whole 'nother world out there of skaters in the U.S. and hopefully we can find those people and get them training in a good training group.

OZ: One big issue with the U.S. team is lack of depth. What does it take to build that depth in the U.S. program?
AAO: [Skaters] have to be taught the correct way from the beginning. I know that for many years the way a lot of skaters were taught is not the right way, and you can see it in the technique and the way they race. It’s very easy to distinguish a skater from Canada or Korea from a U.S. skater when you go down the line. Those guys are just on a different level.

I know that we can improve. If we’re skating as well as we are now, without the knowledge that they have, we can really surpass that. It’s going to take time, and hopefully we’ll get who is passionate and who knows their stuff. That’s what it comes down to.

OZ: As far as you know, is your first competition going to be the fall World Cups?
AAO: Yeah, in China. Before every single set of World Cups there is going to be a domestic trials now. I don’t know why they did that, who thought of that idea. It’s a really bad idea. In my opinion, we compete so much as it is anyways. The travel alone is very demanding on our bodies and minds, so I don't believe that we need to be racing domestically because the difference internationally and nationally are like night and day. Hopefully the skaters can have a chance to discuss this with US Speedskating and get some things changed because it doesn't help our international performance.

OZ: What are your goals for this coming season?
AAO: Well, performance-wise, I want to compete very, very, very well -- obviously. I want to be top three consistently. But on another level, there’s a lot of things I want to learn this upcoming season. It’s a stepping-stone to the Games. We don’t compete that much during the Olympic year, so this year, it’s good to get a lot of international competitions in, race against these international guys.

[number1fan]

Ohno Zone
Apolo Anton Ohno Interview, June 2004
Part 4-5


Part 4: The 2006 Games and beyond
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OZ: Obviously you're focused on 2006 right now, but is there any possibility you will compete at the 2010 Games in Vancouver? It's virtually your backyard. I feel bad asking you this, but we can't help wondering!
AAO: Sure. I think they’re gonna do an awesome job in Vancouver, I really do. I just have a gut feeling that it’s gonna be spectacular. No matter what, I want to be there, either way, if I'm skating or I'm not. I'm going to be at the rink, either way. I may not be in the heat box, but I will be there, no matter what happens. You can guarantee that.

It’s really too early [to know if I’ll still be skating], but I would love to be there. I’m young. I’m having a great time and I’m growing every day.

OZ: So you’re not tired of this at all?
AAO: No. No. It was hard after last season. It made me double-check some things and look over, but like I’ve said, this is a journey for me. This is just one of the paths I’m taking, and I’m enjoying it. Win, lose or draw, it doesn’t matter. I’m here and I’m enjoying it and that’s the most important part for me.

OZ: Looking to 2006, how would you approach the Olympics differently than you did in 2002?
AAO: I think my approach would not be that much different. I’m still looking to perform well, but at the same time, I’m going to enjoy the Games. I was so incredibly, extremely focused for the last Games that it’s hard to remember some things. I was just in the zone, the intensity was just radiating from me. That’s obviously where I have to be, because at the Games you have to step it up. It’s not like Worlds, it’s not like a World Cup. It’s like nothing in the world.

It took Marc Gagnon many, many years to finally get his gold medal – and he was one of the best skaters in the world, ever. So, like I said, it’s a different competition and luckily for him, he got it together, and he performed like everybody knows Marc can. Hopefully for me, I can do the same.

OZ: How do feel about the ISU’s new Olympic qualifying rules?*
AAO: I’m still kind of looking it over. I haven’t really made my decision on it yet, on what I think is going to be right or wrong. I’m not sure yet, to be honest with you. Hopefully this will be better, but I know there’s gonna be [potentially] three skaters [from one country competing in individual distances], so that is going to make it different, because before it was only two, so [concerns] about team skating [weren’t as strong]. But now this is a whole new thing in the mix.

(Note: The ISU Congress of June 2004 decided that 'qualification for the Olympic Games in Short Track will be through results of two World Cups held in Europe during the season of 2005/06. A country may qualify up to three skaters in each distance (must have three skaters in the top 8 in that distance in overall classification for the two World Cups to do this); the number of skaters from each country for each distance is based on that distance's results.' Previously, a special Olympic qualifying event was held, and no country could qualify more than two skaters in each distance.)

OZ: Do you know why they decided to change that rule?
AAO: I don’t know why. I’d like to know!

OZ: Have you officially been approached to participate in the international sports festival being planned for the Seattle area next summer?
AAO: Not yet, but that’s gonna be awesome. I’m telling you, that is gonna be awesome, if that goes through. And I will help them with that campaign. I’ll help them promote that, as a Seattle native, a Seattleite.

OZ: You would be the marquee athlete at that event.
AAO: That’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be awesome.

Everyone will be excited to see that – short track in the summer!
I know… it’s awesome. I always thought that we should have a short track tour in the summer. We’d just get the top eight, top ten guys from Worlds, or top two from each country, and just go tour the United States and have competitions all over the place. I’ve been pushing for that for years. But we’ll see if anybody listens!


Part 5: Fans and just for fun
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OZ: Do you ever visit your fan sites online, or is it too weird?
AAO: Well, it is weird, ‘cause they’re talking about me! You know, it’s a little weird. Honestly, I’m really busy. But sometimes, you know if somebody tells me to go somewhere, or somebody sends me a link, I’ll go check it out, sure. Sure. I mean, that’s why short track is so popular with a lot of people, is because we have strong fans. I’ve always said, the fans are the best in short track.

OZ: How do you feel about the fan support now? What would you like to see more of, less of?
AAO: I think the fans are doing a great job. Hopefully we can bring more excitement to the sport, bring our championships to bigger, better venues, host these big events [the way] they should be. I think that will attract a lot more fans and the fans will have a good time as well.

Hopefully if Vegas goes 100% through this year, that’s gonna be a good thing. If the guys who are going to be running it can get some things together, and get the whole plan in order, then [World Cup #3 in Vegas] is going to be an awesome time.

I would like to have a little competition circuit and have big companies sponsor it, we fly all over the place and then the fans can go see these competitions. We can come to their hometown, to California, we can go to Seattle, we can go to the East Coast, the Midwest, all over the place. It would be a good thing.

OZ: What do you think about gambling on the races in Vegas?
AAO: [Feigns surprise] Oh, there is going to be gambling? Of course . That’s a good thing. Short track is similar to horse racing, but it’s not, because it’s real, human, live people racing against each other. Hopefully [gambling] will bring more attention to the sport, and I think it will. I think it will.

OZ: What's the best thing about having fans at competitions?
AAO: It's the support. It's the fact that we know we have people that are supporting us and supporting... the way I compete, I go to a foreign country, and you guys show up. The feeling that I get is pure energy!

It really... it makes me feel like... it's almost like having a team, that supports your team. You go some place where you feel uncomfortable, but then you see these people, these familiar faces, that want you to do well, and they're there because they love the sport, and that's awesome. It's really cool.

OZ: If you could change one thing about your life today, what would it be?
AAO: Change? I don’t think I’d change anything, no. I never want to change anything, because everything that happens happens for a reason. Either I learn from it, or it makes me the person I am today. Everything that happens – good, bad – it all happens for a reason. Whether you can see that in the light right now, or five years from now, you can always look back and say, ‘Wow, you know, maybe that happened because, look where I am today.’ I look at my life as something that I just enjoy. Sure, we all get mad, angry, sad… but that’s the way it is. I’m just having a good time.

OZ: Do you think you have changed since 2002?
AAO: Absolutely. I think that I’ve matured a little bit. I think that I look at things with a little different perspective, but at the same time, I’m still the same goofy kid. [giggles] I really am. I still work hard, I still love the sport, I still have fun with my buddies. I’m still a 22 year old living in a dream. Really.

OZ: When you were younger, we know you used to sing. If you were on 'American Idol', what would you choose to sing?
AAO: What would I choose to sing?! Oh… I wouldn’t be a part of American Idol! I can’t sing! I can’t sing!

OZ: Well neither can most of the people on that show!
AAO: Which is true, you know. Which is true. I don’t know what I’d sing! I’d probably be the guy they caught for lip-synching, because I’d be so nervous. Really! I’d be incredibly nervous to be singing. I can’t sing!

OZ: So do you think you’d be put through to the next round?
AAO: No! You know how when you watch tv, they show the contestants that were really bad? I’d be in the rejected column, and they’d be like, ‘Oh man, this guy came in once. You should see this guy’s hair, it was down to his shoulders, we didn’t know what was going on! This guy just walks in and he’s singing, and we kicked him out immediately. Then we had to bring him back and had him sing for us again so we could videotape!’ [Laughs]

OZ: So you do watch some reality tv then?
AAO: Not too much. I really don’t watch too much tv. Even though I wanted a new tv, which is on

. But I really don’t watch too much tv.

OZ: So what do you do to get away from the OTC for a break?
AAO: I go out and get some exotic food, I don’t know. You know, I love food, so that’s always an experience for me. I hang with my friends, talk to my dad or just plain chill out.

OZ: No low-carb diet for you, right?
AAO: No – a controlled diet. I don’t believe in no carb diets. I believe people can be much healthier with some carbs, at least. The right kind of carbs, you know. It’s all about knowledge, knowing about what to put in your body. Knowing not to eat, like, five Snickers bars at World Championships in Poland. I mean, I didn’t do that! Okay, I did. But anyway! [laughs]

I like to just relax. I’m usually so beat up from training anyway. I don’t really go out too much anymore, which is weird. Turning 21 and 22 and growing up the way I did, but I’m pretty relaxed, I think. I’m more of a chill-out, hang out with people guy.

OZ: Have you seen any good movies lately?
AAO: I saw ‘The Last Samurai.’ I really like that movie. I don’t know why. That’s the last one I’ve really seen.

OZ: What's your favorite city/country to compete in?
AAO: I love competing in Japan.

OZ: Is that because of your family connections?
AAO: I think so. It feels good when I go there. It just feels really good when I go there.

OZ: Have your grandparents seen you compete there?
AAO: My uncle has seen me compete. My grandparents, no.

I love competing in Italy, every time. Italy is awesome. They really do it well. I would like to see more competitions in new places in Europe. Maybe France, maybe Germany. Just different places.

When the World Cup schedule for next season came out, I was thinking, ‘How come they never go to France or Germany, because they have teams, so why not?’ It’s strange.
I would like to see that. I think they will. Hopefully soon.

OZ: Out of all the active skaters today, pick your dream relay team. (You can't be on it.)
AAO: I pick the Dream Team? Five guys or four guys? Okay. Out of all active skaters, you said?

OZ: Yes. If you have to throw in someone who’s not skating anymore, like Marc, you can do that. But just one!
AAO: Oh, I can do that? Okay, we’ll use Marc [Gagnon], Jonathan Guilmette, Hyun-soo Ahn, and Li Jiajun. That’s like a 6:06 [5000m relay time] right there. Or that’s like a 4:24 in the 3000m. [laughs] Those are very sarcastic numbers, but with those strong skaters new world records would be easy!

OZ: How about for women? Same rules apply.
AAO: Let me see here. For women, [Eun-kyung] Choi, Yang Yang A, [Chun-sa] Byun, and Meng Wang. That would be real crazy. I don’t think I’d like to race them! From what I saw of Meng Wang in the 500 meters in Italy, go 8.8 or 8.9, with both arms on her back in the 500 final, I was really happy I didn't make that race! I was really happy that I did not have to race against those girls! Those girls, they’re so fast!

Many thanks to Apolo for sharing his time and thoughts with us, and to everyone who submitted questions for him to answer!

[number1fan]

APOLO ANTON OHNO
The Official Ohno Zone Interview - 2002

The contents of this interview have not been edited or altered in any way. These are the direct responses as we received them.

Dear Apolo, Thank you so much for taking the time to answer questions for your fans at www.ohnozone.net. Janey Miller has been kind enough to pass these along to you on our behalf. Please answer them at your convenience - we know you're a very busy guy! We have tried to avoid anything too personal, but of course, please only answer what you feel comfortable with. You have already met many Ohno Zone fans, such as myself (Noelle) in Washington, DC in April and Molly (I think you recognize her now!) and many others. Thank you for being so accessible to your fans. It is very much appreciated. You are welcome at any time to contact us at the Ohno Zone directly although we understand that you most likely prefer to communicate via Janey.
-Noelle and Todd

1. What does a typical day of training involve? How do you vary your training according to season?
AAO: Typical training day = wake up around 7:00 a.m. get a light breakfast, head off to the rink at about 7:45 for ice practice. Ice starts at 8:45 until 10:45 get back to the training center around 11:30 get lunch at noon. Rest until the next workout at 2:30 till 5:00, then head to sports medicine for ice bath and recover/massage. Get dinner around 7:00, 7:45 sharpen skates watch skating videos, then I have some free time for school work, friends, phone calls……etc etc.

2. Which competitions coming up next season are you likely to be competing in? Will you be at the World Cup in So. Korea in the fall, and what kind of reception do you expect to get there?
AAO: The US team is planning on attending 4 out of 6 world cups this year, since we had great success Olympic Year, we are going to follow the same competetion schedule, we will skip the first 2 World Cups, and train right through them to get ready for the Winter World Cups, this lets us train a little longer since most of our team has been out of shape in the off season (especially me!!)

3. Training at the Olympic level requires a lot of hard work and sacrifices. What are the biggest sacrifices you have had to make in order to get where you are today?
AAO: The biggest sacrifices…hmmmm…I would have to say giving up a normal life, and friends, I had to move from home at the age of 14 years old, right when you start making those life long friends. Though I already had a lot of loved ones back at home its always hard when you move away. My life is no longer normal especially since the games, I can't go anywhere without being recognized by at least 5 people. Its great to see how much reaction I get now!!!

4. You have had your share of disappointments and setbacks in your athletic career (such as not qualifying for the 1998 Winter Games). How do you put things like that in perspective, and what kind of advice would you give others about handling adversity?
AAO: As far as my not making the 1998 Nagano Games, my thoughts are the same, = I would not be this strong without my failures. That's one of my biggest comebacks, is that I do comeback much stronger than before and with fire. I think about that feeling after 1998 and how I could have done so much more, to know that is to accept that I made many mistakes, and the only thing that I could have done is learn from them. That's a life long lesson, not just in skating. Everything is a challenge in life, either it school or sports, or life in general, its hard to look at everything like that, but once you do, its amazing.

5. What is the coolest thing you have done since the Olympics ended? Who is the coolest person you have met?
AAO: That's a pretty hard question to answer as I don't really know the coolest thing I have done since the Olympics, they have all been very important, fun and I will remember then as long as I am alive! The coolest person has got to be the people who have been touched by me, and I know this when I look into their eyes, that's just the greatest feeling in the world!

6. You have mentioned before that you would like to go to college. Will you be able to do this while you are training, or will you wait until after the next Olympics? Any idea yet what you are interested in studying?
AAO: I think that I will need to do school work while training, it's a great balance, but most importantly I am always focused the most on my skating. I really don't have a set plan on which route I intend to choose, but I am leaving my options open, as my recent success has opened many new doors for me.

7. Your grandparents and family in Japan must be very proud of you! Do you manage to see them regularly?
AAO: I do not see my grandparents and my family in Japan very often, I wish! I love them very much as they do me, they have supported me like my father has in mind and spirit, and when I do see them I feel as if I have reached a new level…..When I was in Japan for the 1 week I felt like a new person, they have that effect on me. In their world material things do not matter, that's such a big step for anybody to take.

8. Between your travelling and training, you have a very busy schedule. What do you like to do on the rare day off when you have free time to do whatever you want?
AAO: Ha!! Day off is my favorite word sometimes. It depends on what I have planned, most of the time I just like to lounge with my friends, relax, go outside enjoy the mountains in Colorado, ect ect.

9. Is there anything else you would like to add, or to say to your fans?
AAO: To my fans, thank you for supporting me before, through and after the Games. It has meant so much to me to know that many people have taken such interest!!