Apolo articles

[sk8on]

Apolo Anton Ohno eyes Vancouver Olympics

By Associated Press KEARNS, Utah (AP) -

For Apolo Anton Ohno, 2010 already is here.

He isn't sure how many Olympics he has left and wants to make the most of the Vancouver Games, especially if it's his last time zipping around the short track.

"I've been in this a long time. Olympic sports," said Ohno, who will be 27 in the winter of 2010. "It's not like professional sports."

Ohno is looking beyond the World Cup season, which opens this weekend at the Utah Olympic Oval. He is the defending overall champion and will compete to win each race, but placing will be secondary to how well he skates as he builds toward an Olympics 16 months away.

Ohno has starred at the last two Olympics and., barring injury, will be a U.S. favorite again in Vancouver. He is still young but hardly the brash 19-year-old of 2002 when his soul patch and bandanna were practically trademarks of the Salt Lake City Games.

Skating into his early 30s and the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, isn't something he wants to think about until after Vancouver.

"As much as I love the sport, there has to be a time when I've got to walk away," Ohno said. "It'd be nice if I could live in this fairy-tale land where I can skate and be 21 years old forever and be in great shape and never have an injury. But that's not life."

He considered leaving the free-for-all frenzy of short-track skating after winning a gold and two bronze medals at the Turin Games two years ago. He took a year off, skated the last half of the 2007 season and then left the ice for the ballroom as a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars."

His charisma and nimble feet made him the darling of the show, much like the Olympics. Ohno and partner Julianne Hough won the show's second season and Ohno spent the rest of that summer living in Los Angeles considering his options. He chose skating over Hollywood, wanting a chance to skate in an Olympics a few hours north of his hometown of Seattle.

"If the games weren't in North America, I'm not sure I can say I would have pushed for another games," he said.

Ohno said the rigors of dancing - and it was physically demanding - didn't use the same muscles, so he had some catching up to do when he returned to skating. He didn't want a long offseason to force him to start over again with his training.

"Any athlete at this level and the elite level knows really when they should turn the light switch on and off. It's been on all summer," he said.

Ohno was so serious about getting an early start on Vancouver that he moved to Salt Lake City about a year ago to train full time at the Utah Olympic Oval, site of the 2002 long track races and the new home of U.S. Speedskating. He said he hasn't stopped since, spending some 12-hour days working out this summer with Vancouver on his mind.

He said his main goal this season and the early part of next year will be scouting the competition he will face in 2010.

"The results this year are not so important as certain strategies we're going to implement," he said.

U.S. short-track coach Jae Su Chun said Ohno has always had the strength to win, but he has been trying to polish his stride, too.

"Long time ago when he was young, it was no problem, just skating with power," said the coach, a South Korean who took over the U.S. short-track program last year. "For 2010, he really needs technique and efficient skating."

Chun said Ohno could easily top his previous two Olympics if he can hone his technique and peak at Vancouver. He won a gold and a silver in 2002 and another gold and two bronze medals in 2006.

That ties him with Eric Heiden for the second-most medals in U.S. Winter Olympic history and one behind long-track skater Bonnie Blair's U.S. record of six medals. Ohno was two years away from being born when Heiden won five golds at Lake Placid in 1980 and was just a kid when Blair skated in 1988, '92 and '94. Now he's the old man on the team, a role he has been enjoying.

The next generation of U.S. skaters has been improving. Chun said that's pushing Ohno, who is removed from the days when nobody could challenge him.

Ohno will be 31 if he skates in the 2014 Games. But that will not be the only factor in deciding if he will compete then. He liked his moonlighting stint as a dancer and could have a future in the entertainment industry.

"From an age perspective, I could definitely do another games," he said. "But we'll see. I'd take some serious time."

www.komonews.com/sports/31058789.html

[aaosmts19]

Oct 15, 2008 17:19:49 GMT -5 sk8on said:

Apolo Anton Ohno eyes Vancouver Olympics
\
He said his main goal this season and the early part of next year will be scouting the competition he will face in 2010.

"The results this year are not so important as certain strategies we're going to implement," he said.

I found these to be interesting quotes...espeically about 'results' not being so important this year....

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Ohno's long, icy road
2010 Olympics may be his finale
By Jared Eborn
Deseret News

KEARNS — Apolo Anton Ohno has been around the block — or rather the rink — probably more times than anyone else on the U.S. speedskating squad.

A veteran of two Olympics and a winner of multiple medals, the reigning king of short track is a grizzled veteran compared to most of his teammates — and he's only 26.

And he's getting used to being asked, sometimes by himself, how much longer he plans on competing in the demanding sport. He said he's not exactly sure if he'll skate beyond the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, but that he is feeling near the top of his game and compared his training to a quote from an unnamed philosopher he recently read.

"It said a lion is at its strongest when it knows it's on its way out," Ohno said.

If so, speedskating fans might be in for a few loud roars this weekend as Ohno and the rest of his team open up the World Cup season at the Utah Olympic Oval on Friday.

"I'm hungry every single year," he said. "I'm a competitor and I want to do my best. I want to be on the podium."

Podiums are very important to athletes like Ohno. Finishing on them can help attract sponsors and pay the bills. Not finding a spot on them can sometimes be the difference between qualifying for the Olympics and not.

In 16 months, Ohno will be hoping to find his way to the top step of the Olympic podium again. Vancouver is just an hour or so away from his hometown of Seattle, and he hopes to peak just in time to put on a show for what will be an almost-home crowd.

Considering that Ohno may not skate competitively beyond the 2010 Games, this weekend's events may be one of the last chances Utahns have to see the Soul-Patched One race in the state where he vaulted himself into the pop culture atmosphere.

Ohno, after splitting time between Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and wherever his dancing or endorsement interests took him, has now settled in Utah full time. The "Dancing With the Stars" champion — who won in 2007 with Utahn Julianne Hough — said he decided all the external fun and games was a bit too distracting and kept him off the ice too much.

With Vancouver in the not-too-distant future, Ohno knows it's time for focus.

His "offseason" has been busy and grueling — one filled with 12-hour days at the Oval refining and perfecting the technique he has become so familiar with.

"Any athlete at this level, an elite level, knows when they should really turn the light switch on and when they should turn it off," Ohno said. "And it's been on all summer."

That's good news to the other members of the U.S. team.

With Ohno often training on his own with his own coaches in the past, some of the younger skaters on the national team have not had the benefit of learning from the best.

"He's the strongest athlete in the world in speedskating," Ryan Leveille, also a member of the long track team, said. "Nobody is as strong as him. So just having him on the same ice, you learn by skating with him ... everybody wants to beat Apolo."

They also want to pick his brain and learn the tricks of the trade.

It's those tricks Ohno wants to work on for the next 12 to16 months. While winning is the primary goal, scouting his opponents is also high on Ohno's priority list.

Calling short track speedskating a chess game featuring attacks, counterattacks and winning moves, Ohno said he hopes to use this World Cup season to learn the best way to beat the Koreans, Canadians and anyone else the world lines up against him.

"It's a very strange sport," he said. "We work so hard, for so long, on a very small thing. All so we can be in position to make the right move at the right time."

Being in Utah, living near the oval and having the national coaches and team to use as resources has Ohno excited to see what he can do in a full season after jumping into the 2007-08 season only after his "Dancing With the Stars" obligations were over.

"It's the first time I was able to train in a long time," Ohno said. "There is no offseason, essentially. I trained hard."

The crowds at the Utah Olympic Oval will certainly be cheering loudly for Ohno. The fan club he's garnered over the years as a skater and dancer are as visible as they are audible and they will probably be out in force this weekend.

It might be one of few opportunities to see him before he finally hangs his golden skates up for good.

"As much as I love the sport, there has to be a time when I've got to walk away," Ohno said. "It'd be nice if I could live in this fairy-tale land where I can skate and be 21 years old forever and be in great shape and never have an injury. But that's not life."

Serious consideration to retirement, however, will have to wait.

Vancouver, he says, is all that matters for the next 16 months.

If you go

World Cup short track Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns

• Today, 10 a.m. — Preliminaries and qualifying rounds

• Saturday, 6 p.m. — Men's and women's 1,000 quarterfinals, semifinals and final
Men's and women's 1,500 semifinals and final
Men's 5,000 relay semifinals women's 3,000 relay semifinals

• Sunday, 3 p.m. — Men's and women's 500 quarterfinals, semifinals and final
Men's and women's 1,500 semifinals and final
Men's 5,000 relay final
Women's 3,000 relay final

- - - - - -

The picture that accompanied the article:



The other one is Apolo and Jeff sharing a laugh which has already been posted.

[A.O.Freak]

thanks BBB..well im off to the Airport,headed for SLC

[aaosmts19]

www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_10744082


He didn't train in vain
Ohno ready for victory dance
Short-track champ hasn't rested in preparing for the season

By Michael C. Lewis
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 10/17/2008 02:16:41 AM MDT

Apolo Ohno hasn't done any dancing lately.

Only skating.

One year after leaping back into short-track speedskating after a hectic summer spent thrilling fans with his performance on "Dancing With the Stars," the five-time Olympic medalist is ready to begin his long build-up to the 2010 Vancouver Games - perhaps his last Olympics - armed with the fitness and confidence that comes with having spent his most recent summer training rather than fox-trotting.

"It was the first time I was able to train for a long time," he said. "There was no offseason, essentially. I trained hard."

That's probably bad news for many of the nearly 200 athletes from two dozen countries who are expected to compete this weekend at the first World Cup event of the season at the Utah Olympic Oval. It's the first international short-track competition since the World Championships last March, and skaters from every country are eager to size up the competition.

"You don't really know where you square up," American Allison Baver said.

Even though he did little preseason training last year, Ohno rebuilt his fitness during the season and wound up winning the overall title at the world championships for the first time.

But with only 16 months until Vancouver, he turned down several outside opportunities in recent months to concentrate on his offseason training - knowing that "everything is basically built this year. . . . It's very hard to make a huge jump, Olympic year."

So Ohno spent long days at the Oval, he said, often arriving before 7 in the morning and leaving after 7 at night after performing three multi-hour workouts, interspersed with short breaks to eat or rest.

"Any athlete at this level, an elite level, knows when they should really turn the light switch on and when they should turn it off," Ohno said. "And it's been on all summer."

That doesn't necessarily mean that Ohno will tear it up this weekend; he said he's "not looking to blow anybody's doors off," but rather to simply start strong, stay consistent throughout the season and experiment with different strategies and tactics against his top rivals.

"It's like chess," he said.

Except faster, of course, and a lot more dangerous. But Ohno is among the greatest short-track skaters in the world, so the chances are good that he will be on the podium this weekend.

He's not the only one to watch, though; aside from the other top international skaters, the young American team believes it is growing up and positioning itself for a strong showing in Vancouver and beyond. The women earned bronze in the relay at the world championships last year, while the men won the overall team title.

"We are so much closer in the relay this year, to taking home more than a bronze," reigning women's national champion Katherine Reutter said. "We have such a strong women's team. And not only are the girls on the women's team stronger, but we have a deeper team."

Same goes for the men, the skaters said, to the point that others can push Ohno during training - a luxury Ohno hasn't enjoyed since he was a newcomer before the 2002 Salt Lake Games. Part of the reason is the new coaching staff, led by Korean Jae Su Chun, who has overhauled the training program.

"Leading into the 2006 Olympics, Apolo was more or less on his own," said Baver, his former girlfriend and a two-time Olympian. "Now, it's just a whole lot different."

And this weekend might be among the last times that fans will get to see him compete in Utah. Though Ohno said the decision whether to retire after Vancouver "hasn't even come into my head," he also hinted that he will be ready to hang up his skates after his third Olympics. He talked about the grueling existence of an Olympic athlete and his eagerness to pursue other endeavors after his skating career, and in describing his sense of athletic maturity that has come with experience, he cited a quotation he recently read.

"It said a lion is at its strongest when it knows it's on its way out," he said.

If Ohno is that lion, then, watch out.

"Any athlete at this level, an elite level, knows when they should really turn the light switch on and when they should turn it off. And it's been on all summer."


Apolo Anton Ohno talks to the media during short track... (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune )

[aaosmts19]

www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2008-10-22-ohno-2010_N.htm

Speedskating icon Ohno aims to dance into 2010 Games
Posted 28m ago

Enlarge By Jeffrey D. Allred, for USA TODAY

Apolo Anton Ohno, left, practices at the Utah Olympic Oval this month. He will compete at the second World Cup of the season this weekend in Vancouver, site of the 2010 Olympics.

He has skated into Olympic history and danced into America's hearts. Life for Apolo Anton Ohno these days could be solely about cashing in on his fame and success, a Hollywood-based swirl of commercial and social engagements.

Instead, the five-time Olympic medalist and Dancing with the Stars champion lives alone in a house in Salt Lake City. He endures long training days at the Utah Olympic Oval. He subjects himself to the capricious and humbling outcomes of short-track speedskating — the bumps and spills and quirky thrills that spare no competitor, not even one of the sport's most accomplished champions.

Ohno, 26, considered staying away, allowing the self-described "perfect race" he skated for 500-meter gold at the 2006 Games to be his farewell. But the 2010 Winter Olympics are in Vancouver, where, as a teen, he would travel two hours north from his hometown of Seattle to learn the art of short-track speedskating from some of the world's best.

"It seems like in this small chapter of my life that I'm coming full circle," he says. "It's got to have some type of meaning, whether I win again or I get a medal or I don't place. Whatever it is, I feel like there's another purpose for me coming and doing my third Olympic Games."

There, he could become the most decorated U.S. Olympic speedskater. His five medals have him tied with Eric Heiden; Bonnie Blair won six. Ohno also could become the first U.S. short-tracker to medal in three Olympics.

Ohno says he feels "100% fulfilled in my quest for medals" and points out that achievements in short track and long track are hard to compare because short-trackers race in a pack and long-trackers race the clock.

But, he adds, "I'd like to be known as one of the greatest speedskaters who have ever skated, as an American. In short track, that's a very hard task, because our sport is volatile."

Ohno will take his first turns on the 2010 Olympic ice in Vancouver on Friday at this season's second World Cup.

Last weekend, in a World Cup at the Utah Olympic Oval, Ohno won bronze in the 1,500 meters and silver in the men's 5,000-meter relay. He lost an edge on a turn in the 1,000-meter final and fell, finishing fourth behind three South Korean skaters.

The result was a snapshot of Ohno's outlook for the 2010 Games: He'll have to contend with a phalanx of fast South Koreans, unforeseen pratfalls and a historically strong Canadian team on home ice.

"I would say he's probably the best he's been," Guy Thibault, high-performance director for US Speedskating, says of Ohno. "And he needs to be."
Ohno returned to the ice full time last season after winning Dancing with the Stars in 2007 and achieved a career first, an overall world title. He also won the 500-meter title at worlds.

"He's the most hard worker I've ever seen before, the most focused skater," says US Speedskating head short-track coach Jae Su Chun, who has coached South Korean and Canadian teams.

Chun, hired in the spring of 2007, has taken a technical approach in coaching Ohno, telling him that because competitors are studying and emulating him, he needs to alter fundamental things, such as the tempo at which he skates, to stay ahead.

Living a life that belies his celebrity is not new for Ohno. After the 2002 Olympics, where the soul patch that still graces his chin reached iconic status as he won gold and silver medals, he returned to dorm life at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Now, the man so famous he is recognized everywhere cooks his own meals (spaghetti with meat sauce, he says, is one of his specialties) and puts in 12-hour training days.

"If I'm able to be here consistently and set some sort of positive for my teammates, for the youngsters coming up and for the people who watch the sport and spread a certain message, then there's no reason why I should give that up," Ohno says.

[aaosmts19]

canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hOLGjh8XvcGIkLTtyrsq-PAecDcg

Skating in Vancouver like returning home for short-track star Apolo Ohno
1 hour ago

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Before there was Dancing With the Stars and his two gold Olympic medals, Apolo Anton Ohno spent many hours driving with his father from his home town of Seattle to Vancouver to compete in short-track speed skating competitions.

It was here the 12-year-old began to develop the speed, grace and ability that makes him one of the best racers in the world. It's also another reason why this weekend's World Cup short-track event, and the 2010 Winter Olympics, will be like competing at home for Ohno.

"This is where I came for many competitions," Ohno, 26, said during a news conference Wednesday. "I learned quite a bit from the Canadian skaters back then.

"That's one of the compelling reasons why I decided to make the decision to keep skating after 2006 (Winter Games). It's so close to my hometown. I love Vancouver as a city. I think it's one of the greatest cities in the world. They are going to be able to host an amazing Games."

The World Cup will attract 180 athletes from 25 countries and will be held at the Pacific Coliseum, the same venue that will host short-track and figure skating during the 2010 Games. Getting a taste for the building, and a feel for the surroundings, is a building block in Ohno's Olympic preparation.

"This competition is very important," said Ohno, a four-time Olympic medallist and the reigning world champion in the 500 metres. "It's going to be able to give me a mental mindset and I can drill myself with imagery.

"Everything from skating on the ice, being around this arena, going outside, seeing what the temperature is. I'm just making deposits in the bank. Hopefully, come 2010, I can make that big withdrawal."
Ohno is one of the biggest names in short-track speed skating. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and brought a gold and bronze home from the Turin Olympics. But he leapt into the realm of celebrity after winning the fourth season of Dancing With the Stars with partner Julianne Hough.

"My recognition level post the Winter Olympic Games, it strictly came from sports," he said. "Once I did that dancing show, I'm not kidding you, people at airports and restaurants would say 'hey, you're that dancing guy.' I would say 'kind of, it's something I did.'

"It's great for the sport, great for the Olympic Games. But I hope out of the 60 million people who watched that show, even half of them will start to watch the Winter Olympics. If that can happen I'll be smiling."

The World Cup, which begins Friday and wraps up Sunday, will give the strong Canadian team another opportunity to make itself feel at home in the Olympic venue. The Canadians held a training camp at the coliseum in the summer and team selections in the building this fall.

Charles Hamelin of Montreal said feeling comfortable in a building helps remove some of the tension from competition.

"It's the third time we came here," said Hamelin, who won a pair of silver medals in the season-opening World Cup last weekend in Salt Lake. "We know where to go, where the change room is, where to warm up, how the ice will be. It's like our ice."

Canadian athletes won six medals at the opening World Cup. Hamelin said the team is laying the foundation for a good showing come the Olympics.

"Right now the team is mixed," he said. "We have older skaters and younger skaters. I think the older skaters are trying to teach the younger ones how to race against the other countries.

"We are on a good way to the Olympics. To have a number (of medals) for the Olympics is difficult to tell. I can say we are on a good way to be able to accomplish the goal we have put for ourselves."

While Canadian skaters will be looking to win medals, the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee (VANOC) will use the event to test both the venue and 250 volunteers.

VANOC has spent $17 million upgrading the coliseum, home of the WHL Vancouver Giants, for the Games. That has included increasing the ice surface to international size, installing a boardless padding system around the track, updating the air circulation flow, adding new seats and generally cleaning up the building.

"We really want to make sure we provide the best field of play we can," said Tim Gayda, VANOC's vice-president of sport. "After that we start to look at all the different areas of the event. We look at how the building is run, how the building is laid out.

"There is a huge amount of learning all around, not just in sport but in terms of the overall venue management piece."

[aaosmts19]

Interesting comments about how the ice can change when there are alot of people in the rink.....

===================

www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=901508

Ohno set to dance back into Olympic spotlight
Cam Cole, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, October 22, 2008



VANCOUVER -- Some figure it's just his name that stays in your head: Apolo Anton Ohno.

Cool name. What sport is he in, again?

Others think the whole package - articulate, engaging, gifted, good-looking, with "that little moustachey thing" as Catriona Le May Doan called his soul patch Wednesday - has raised the still modest profile of short-track speedskating to levels it never could have achieved without a charismatic American to carry the ball.

Some think his 2007 victory in the fourth season of Dancing With The Stars, with professional partner Julianne Hough, was the kind of breakthrough, crossover-into-the-mainstream moment that few Olympic athletes ever achieve. Others wonder if it was like one of those commercials during Super Bowl that makes you laugh out loud, but later you can't remember which product it was promoting.

Le May Doan, who made her legend on the big ovals but competed on hockey rinks growing up, doesn't think it matters why you know Ohno's name.

"Either way, he's made a profile, so if people search what he's done, if it's Dancing With the Stars, then they find out he's a short-track speedskater," said Doan, the fastest woman on ice for two Olympics in a row, winning the long-track 500 metres at Nagano and Salt Lake City.

"He has done a lot of stuff in the U.S. and he's given a big name to it in Canada, too - and around the world. He has fun with it, he's well-spoken, he's a good guy . . . but you get him on the ice, and he's brilliant."

On the ice at PNE Coliseum is where Ohno will be this weekend. A double Olympic gold medallist with six world championship titles to his credit since 2001, he'll be competing on the 2010 Olympic ice surface for the first time, trying to soak up as much atmosphere as he can, in a city he knows well.

"This is where I came for many competitions - in Burnaby, Vancouver, all over, starting when I was probably 12," said the 26-year-old from the Seattle suburb of Federal Way, whose father Yuki, a high-fashion hair stylist, used to drive him to club competitions north of the border.

"We became very familiar with the drive, put it that way. That was one of the compelling reasons why I made the decision to keep skating after 2006. (The 2010 Olympics) is close to my hometown, and I love Vancouver as a city, I think it's one of the greatest cities in the world, and they're going to host a beautiful Games. And I think short track speedskating is going to be one of the most exclusive tickets in the Games.

"So this competition is very important. I can kind of drill myself with imagery. The press conference, the hotel, jogging downtown, just getting on the ice, being in this arena . . . I'm just making deposits in the bank, and hopefully come 2010 I'll be able to make that big withdrawal."

He makes eye contact, he smiles frequently. The cameras love him. It's no big stretch to see how the Dancing With The Stars judges took to him.

"That was a short little career, much different from being an athlete," Ohno said.

"My recognition level, post-2002 and post-2006 Olympics, was strictly from sports and a few other activities, but once I did that Dancing show, I'm not kidding you, people in airports, restaurants, will say, ‘Hey, you're that dancing guy, right?' I say, well, kind of. That's something I did.

"But look, it's great for the sport, it's great for the Olympic Games, and I hope that for the 30 . . . whatever, 60 million people who watched that show, if even half of them start to watch the Winter Olympic Games, I'll be smiling."

If they've been watching the last two winter Games on American TV, they've seen plenty of Ohno, not always winning but almost always being centre-stage: even his crashes, even the official protests surrounding his wins and losses and clashes - many of them with angry Koreans - have panache.

Asked whether, in the larger context of the sport, the weird things that have happened in his career are above, below or about average, he smiled.

"You know, I think the sport kind of brings that upon itself," said Ohno. "That being said, in the Olympic Games, when you reach a quarter, semi or final in a short-track race, anything can happen, any given Sunday. That's what makes the sport so exciting. If you ran the same race over three times, you'd probably get three different winners."

Which makes it kind of hard to forecast accurately. A skater can be in perfect form for a year leading into the Games, and wiped out in a second by a five-man pileup.

"I think it's a testament to the athletes who are consistently making the finals in a sport that's so volatile, and that changes up and down so much. The guys who are continuously making the podium obviously have some kind of edge," said Ohno.

He'd love to have the edge the Canadians stand to get from training frequently in the Olympic venue for the next 16 months.

"Man, I wish they'd let us get on the ice with them. Who do I talk to about that?" he said.

"It's a definite advantage. But it's hard to duplicate the environment of an Olympic Games, the number of people that will be here, all the hot air they produce, changes the environment drastically. And that's the funny thing about short track. You watch the guys throughout practices leading up to the event, and the ice will change from Monday to Saturday, depending on how many people are here, how many lights are turned on. There's a lot of variables."

Not the least of them is the pressure of competing at home in an Olympic Games.

"It's a different level of expectation, each athlete will handle it differently," he said. "That's going to be a big test. To come to that big stage, for all the world to see, and try to perform on that one day."

Ohno handled it at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. The Canadian skaters might get a small taste of it Sunday.

[musicalmom]

Volunteers warm up for 2010 dutiesThis weekend's short-track event lets people practise for big day
John Colebourn, The ProvincePublished: Thursday, October 23, 2008

Like some of the international athletes now in Vancouver, Mykle Ludvigsen is a little nervous about this weekend's pre-Olympic short-track speed-skating competition at the Pacific Coliseum.

But unlike the 180 top-ranked athletes here to compete, Ludvigsen is one of the many volunteers learning what it takes to run a world-class event.

"I'm not a speed-skater so as a volunteer you are a bit nervous," he said yesterday as the world's best practised for the Samsung ISU World Cup short-track events that run tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.


View Larger Image
Jessica Hewitt talks with a teammate during training for World Cup short-track speed skating this weekend at the Pacific Coliseum.
Arlen Redekop, The Province

The boards for hockey have been taken down and replaced by a boardless padding system to help prevent injuries if a crash happens.

The ice is being closely monitored so it will be the exact hardness and temperature as the ice during the Olympic Games.

Hundreds of volunteers are getting a first taste of working with elite athletes at a world-calibre event. The Coliseum is the official Olympic competition venue for short-track speed skating and figure skating.

Ludvigsen, who works in corporate communications, took time off from his job to begin his volunteer services that will prepare him for the Olympics in 15 months.

"I think it is a fantastic sport," he said, as speed skaters made practice laps on the ice, each time coming perilously close to losing an edge. "It is so fast live."

He said VANOC staff have made it easy to learn about speed skating.

"They are extremely well prepared, from my perspective as a volunteer," he said.

Tim Gayda, VANOC's vice-president of sport, said the pre-Olympic events at the Coliseum are being used as a training ground to make sure everything runs smoothly at the Olympics. Timed practices have been taking place to see how fast volunteers can switch the Coliseum from a speed-skating venue to one for figure skating.

"One of the big things for us is the transition between the figure-skating setup and the short-track setup," said Gayda. "They will have to do it in 15 minutes. They did test their times yesterday."

During the Olympics, the changeover of sports will happen 30 times at the Coliseum.

Gayda said they are hoping to sell about 4,500 tickets on each of the competition days.

Olympic gold medal-winner Catriona Le May Doan, who still holds the Olympic record for the 500 metre speed-skating race, said the Canadians at this weekend's event will benefit from the experience when they race at the pressure-packed Olympics.

"I look at this Canadian team and they are young," she said. "This is who you are going to see in 15 months and they are going to be on the podium."

Having a pre-Olympic event will hopefully help the speed skaters deal with the pressure, she said. "This is a perfect test for them," she said. "It's going to be tough for them competing at home in 15 months."

For more information go to www.vancouvershorttrack2008.com

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[bubblebuttsbabe]

Oct 22, 2008 19:45:32 GMT -5 aaosmts19 said:

www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2008-10-22-ohno-2010_N.htm

Speedskating icon Ohno aims to dance into 2010 Games
Posted 28m ago

The picture that went along with that article:


L to R: Apolo Ohno, Anthony Lobello, Charles Ryan Leveille

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Oct 23, 2008 6:46:05 GMT -5 aaosmts19 said:

Interesting comments about how the ice can change when there are alot of people in the rink.....

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www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=901508

Ohno set to dance back into Olympic spotlight
Cam Cole, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Picture(s):


H. O. T. :]

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www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=a22e4bf8-0bef-419f-baa1-68ae5f0cfde4&p=2




Apolo Ohno on dancing, nature, fame

The Province
Published: Friday, October 24, 2008

Seattle native Apolo Ohno, one of the biggest names in the speedskating world, is in town for this weekend's short track World Cup event at the Pacific Coliseum. The 2007 Dancing With the Stars winner took some time out to perform a microphone mambo with The Province's Marc Weber.

Q: Which was more exciting, winning your fifth Olympic medal -- been there, done that -- or winning Dancing With the Stars?

A: They're two totally separate arenas. You get a chance to compete once every quadrennial in the Olympics, so that has much more merit and value in a sense. But the show was hard, it was fun and I had a great time.

Q: How did you end up on the show?

A: The show's production team approached my management. My first answer was, "No way in hell," and then my manager convinced me. Look, nobody wants to go in front of their high-school graduation class and dance, let alone 30 million people, so it was hard.

Q: Your father, Yuki, still runs his high-end hair salon, Yuki's Diffusion, in Seattle. Any big names come through there?

A: Before I was born. But once little Apolo was born ... I was a little monster running around. He used to have people from London [Yuki trained at Vidal Sassoon in London] fly all the way over.

Q: Does he still cut your hair?

A: He does. He hasn't cut it in a while, but hopefully he'll cut it this weekend.

Q: If you get it cut somewhere else, he knows, right?

A: Oh, he knows. And I know. I don't feel comfortable. Like I cheated him or something. My dad's my No. 1 fan. He's been awesome.

Q: Such a neat part of your story is the part about your dad, when you were 14 or 15, driving you to a remote cabin in Iron Springs (Wash.), and leaving you there for a week after you finished dead last at the '98 Olympic trials. Can you reflect on that time?

A: It was a defining moment, basically a life-changing decision. My dad, who's Japanese, kind of tough love, he said, "You have a choice here. You can sacrifice everything for one goal and maybe get an Olympic medal, or you can go back and choose a different type of lifestyle." That's the Japanese way of full dedication. There was nothing to do there, but it was beautiful. It was tough love, but it was probably the best thing my dad could have done.

Q: Most people who live in the Pacific Northwest have a connection to nature, but did that instill in you an even deeper attachment to the environment?

A: I still feel most at peace, at my best, when I'm in nature and when I'm in this area. Look, there's no car that can duplicate that feeling, nothing that can duplicate nature.

Q: After the controversy at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 [Ohno won gold in the 1,500m after South Korean Kim Dong-Sung was disqualified for blocking him] you were the most hated athlete in South Korea. Can you describe the scene in South Korea in 2005 when you made your first visit there since the incident?

A: It was crazy. It was insane. We'd heard there was going to be a lot of press but we didn't expect, at minimum, 100 guards standing shoulder to shoulder creating a barricade. It hurt that so many millions of people were making a decision not on their personal belief but on something that was being manipulated. I grew up around a very large Asian population and I consider myself very close to the Korean culture. So when I went there my goal was not only to skate well but to also share my story and my personality, and by the time I left I had two fan clubs. Now it's totally different.

Q: Excuse the bastardizing of your name, but if you could have dinner with either Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies, or Yoko Ono, who would you choose?

A: Carl Weathers, absolutely. I'm a guy who likes guy movies. And he's one of the ultimate badasses.

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www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=dadb29aa-a62f-4d1f-95c2-80ae3495bf66


Apolo Anton Ohno (right) of the U.S. trains with team mates while preparing for the ISU World Cup short track speed skating at the Pacific Coliseum.
Andy Clark/Reuters

Successful speed skaters master art of deception
World's best combine physical strength with a cat-and-mouse game

Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, October 24, 2008

They call it speed skating for a reason. Long track sprinters have been clocked at 50 kilometres an hour.

Even on the tight-cornered, 111-metre oval of the short track arena, skaters routinely hit 40 kilometres an hour.

Throw in three - and sometimes five - other competitors in the pack-style racing of short track, however, and it's not always the fastest man/woman who wins, but often the smartest.

If you're in the crowd this weekend when World Cup racing goes at Pacific Coliseum - qualifying heats begin this morning - keep an eye on the tactical game within the game.

Sure, strength, technique and explosiveness are critical, but the top skaters are the ones that have best figured out how to attack, when to attack and the art of deception.

"Deception does play a big part," says Michael Gilday, a Yellowknife native who earned his way onto the Canadian World Cup squad this season. "It's almost like the art of war. You might have to trick someone into thinking you're going to accelerate really fast.

"There's a thing called the heat track where you just sort of go a little bit wider and it sort of cuts [another competitor] off a little bit, makes them dump a little bit of speed. They have to work a little bit harder.

"It's a cat-and-mouse game for sure."

For short track neophytes, this World Cup, a pre-Olympic test event for the 2010 Games, will feature men and women skating three individual distances - 500, 1,000 and 1,500 metres - plus a 3,000-metre relay for women and a 5,000-metre relay for men.

In qualifying, four to six skaters mass start, with the top two advancing.

In the finals, the 500 and 1,000 pit four skaters; in the 1,500 there are six.

Passing, particularly at the speeds the skaters are travelling at, is risky. Overtaking skaters are responsible for any collision or obstruction. Those occasional collisions are why the athletes, skating on razor-sharp 17-inch blades, wear kneepads, shin pads, helmets and high-tech, cut-resistant racing suits.

On-ice judges are responsible for disqualifying skaters who try to use subtly placed elbows or other body parts to block, or who don't maintain a straight line from the end corner to the finish line.

Whatever the strategy employed, skaters say that to win, it's crucial to be no worse than second or third with four or five laps to go.

"Especially in the longer races, tactics might be more important than your strength and power," says Canadian veteran Olivier Jean of Montreal. "We've seen a skater winning races - overcoming a lack of fitness, or maybe you're sick - by having a really good strategy, working well, being in the right place at the right time so they're not wasting energy.

"You have to know when you want to go hard, when you want to slow down."

Jean says it's critical to know your opponent's tendencies. That's why skaters spend hours poring over video of top skaters trying to determine when they like to attack in the longer races or where they might be apt to leave that sliver of an opening to make a difficult inside pass.

"You always look at who you're going [to face] before a race," Jean says. "You always need to have an idea what people usually do. He usually goes outside, or inside. Everyone has their own style."

Given that the best skaters will sometimes employ different strategies, both Jean and Gilday say it's also important to trust your own game plan and instincts.

"You have to feel it, you have to know 'whew, alrighty I'm in trouble, I've got to pass right now,"' says Jean. "I hear someone taking speed, I've got to go right now.

"The goal is to never be in trouble. By that I mean, if the speed is fast and you're fifth in the pack, it's hard to go back in front."

Says Gilday: "Tactics are very important. You definitely want to see who's in your race and know they may do this or that. You set your race plan according to how they're going to race, but you don't want to get too caught up in it.

"Ultimately, you want to be able to race your own race, no matter who's there."

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www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=dc03f0a8-588f-4a31-bcbd-9da9f7c4e970

Speed skating: Apolo Anton Ohno dethroned as Canadian takes gold
Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, October 25, 2008

Charles Hamelin of Montreal passed American Apolo Anton Ohno on the first turn of the final lap Saturday to claim a victory in a thrilling and controversial men's 1,000-metre final at the Samsung ISU World Cup short track meet at Pacific Coliseum.

It was the first gold medal of the season for Hamelin whose brother, Francois, took the bronze medal.

Ohno, who had grabbed the lead with five laps to go in the nine-lap race, crossed the line in second but was disqualified after the race for what the officials called "cross-tracking." He appeared to nudge Hamelin in the turn, but didn't see it that way.

"I got hit twice, I had the right of way because I was in the lead," said Ohno. "Charles kind of hit me twice. I thought for sure he was going to be disqualified after the race, but it's out of my control."

Hamelin, of course, saw it differently.

"He ran into me twice."

Hamelin said the race was a terrific showcase for the sport as it goes through a pre-Olympic test this weekend.

"To have a race like that, it is pretty much what you want. A lot of action, a good finish at the end, with some Canadians on the podium."

Ohno, who grew up in Seattle, also said the race had all the elements fans crave.

"I think this sport is amazing, its very high speed. its got everything people love about performance and extreme sport, hopefully we can get more people to come out here and watch."

A crowd of 2,718 took in the Saturday afternoon finals. Repechage racing resumes Sunday morning. In the afternoon, there are 500- and 1,000-metre quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, plus finals in the women's 3,000-metre and men's 5,000-metre relays.

Hamelin's win was one of the few bright spots for the Canadian team on Saturday. Olivier Jean of Montreal, Michael Gilday of Yellowknife and Jessica Hewitt of Kamloops were all disqualified in semifinals in the 1,500 metres.

Gilday, skating in seven-man heat, was last with four laps to go. He made a strong move into third, then tried to pull of a risky inside pass of Jeff Simon on the last lap, wiping out the American in the process.

As the rookie Hewitt said on Friday when she was disqualified in a 1,000-metre heat, Gilday was not unhappy with his disqualification.

"It's sounds funny to say, but I was happy . . . because of the way I followed my race plan," said Gilday, competing in just his fifth World Cup. "I'd already done three 1,500s this morning coming through the repechage, so I was a little bit tired. Hindsight's 20-20, maybe I should have gone outside on him. It didn't work this time, but next time hopefully it will."

Gilday says trying difficult passes and getting disqualified is all part of the learning process.

"Everything you learn here is put in the memory bank for when we come up [to the Olympics.]"

China and Korea dominated the podium on the first day of finals.
World record holder Wang Meng of China captured the women's 1,000 metres ahead of compatriot Liu Qiuhong and Yang Shin-Young of Korea, while Zhou Yang of China took the women's 1,500 metres ahead of Koreans Jung Eun-Ju and 16-year-old phenom Shin Sae-Bom.

Lee Jung-Su and Sung Si-Bak went one-two in the men's 1,500 metres, with Jeff Simon of the U.S. third.

Picture:


Charles Hamelin

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news.opb.org/article/3378-seattles-apolo-ohno-dethroned-pre-olympic-test-event/

Seattle’s Apolo Ohno Dethroned At Pre-Olympic Test Event
BY TOM BANSE

Vancouver, BC October 27, 2008 12:03 p.m.


At a pre-Olympic test event this weekend, Seattle native Apolo Ohno was bested by Korean and Canadian skaters.

Vancouver, Canada put on a short track speed skating World Cup, offering a preview of the 2010 Winter Games. Correspondent Tom Banse was there and has this report.



Speed skater Apolo Ohno says it’s been more than ten years since he competed so close to home in the wild, unpredictable roller derby on ice.

Apolo Ohno: “I grew up in the Seattle area. I spent a lot of time back and forth from Vancouver to Seattle, vice versa. It’s kind of where I learned to skate.”

Ohno led the U.S. relay team to a gold medal at his homecoming. But otherwise he was kept off the World Cup podium by younger competitors.

No matter, the 26-year-old made mental notes for a more successful return 16-months from now. That’ll be his third Winter Olympics.

Apolo Ohno: “The venue is very good. I think once we have a packed house it will be pretty amazing.”

The Vancouver 2010 organizing committee is holding a series of test events like this one all through the winter at its newly built or renovated Olympic venues.

World Cup competitions in biathlon, ski jumping, snowboard and bobsledding are among those to come.