Apolo articles

[bubblebuttsbabe]

LINK: www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/articles/2009/02/26/are_they_athletes_or_criminals/?page=1

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Are they athletes or criminals?
New doping rule drawing criticism
By John Powers
Globe Staff / February 26, 2009

While Olympic athletes are used to having blood and urine samples taken even when they're not competing, the World Anti-Doping Agency's new "whereabouts" rule has them exasperated. Telling testers where they can be found no longer is enough. Now, athletes have to provide three months' notice of a one-hour window between 6 a.m.-11 p.m. when they'll be available, day by day, updating the information whenever their plans change. If they miss three tests in 18 months, they can be punished.

"Why not just have a GPS chip in our skin and they can just figure out where we are?" said Lindsey Vonn, the world's best skier.

Though the new rule has been denounced as unreasonably intrusive, it's aimed at making it harder for athletes to duck tests by giving vague times and places. The question is where the line should be drawn between fighting doping and allowing athletes some privacy.

"Sports today has to pay a price for suspicion," said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who supports the new rule.

This price, athletes say, is invasive, making them feel like felons who have to wear electronic bracelets. "Maybe in the future they will find a tag they can put on us like dogs have," said hurdler Lolo Jones.

- - - (there is more the article but i only posted the pertinent info - the rest are updates on other winter sports)

Ohno on track

Apolo Anton Ohno will be defending his title at next week's world short-track speedskating championships in Vienna. Ohno, who skipped the last few World Cup events, will be up against a couple of tough Koreans in Lee Ho Suk and Sung Si Bak. Though the Chinese should dominate the women's side with Wang Meng and Zhou Yang, the Americans have contenders in Katherine Reutter and Kimberly Derrick, who could win individual medals . . . Shani Davis, who all but has wrapped up the World Cup long-track speedskating title at 1,000 meters, could also add the 1,500 crown at next week's finale at the Olympic oval in Utah. With distance man Chad Hedrick slipping, Davis has become a one-man team for the Yanks, who have no women's contenders at any distance. Unless comebacking Jennifer Rodriguez finds her old form, the females could be blanked at the Games for the second time in a row. That's never happened since the women's events were added in 1960.

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That's really interesting and it sheds some light on Lobello's struggles from a couple seasons ago. But I think it's pretty sad that a few athletes have ruined it for the majority.

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LINK: www.star-telegram.com/olympics/story/1225829.html

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Apolo Ohno-led U.S. team riding momentum to 2010 Olympics
By WILLIAM WILKERSON
Special to the Star-Telegram

The U.S. Short Track Speedskating team will ride a wave of momentum into the Short Track World Championships in Vienna, Austria, on March 6-8.

During the last World Cup event of the season in Dresden, Germany, on Feb. 13-15, the team collected seven medals and a first-place ladies team classification for the first time in history. The men ranked second in team classification without the services of Apolo Anton Ohno, the sport’s most dominant figure.

Ohno and fellow team members J.R. Celski, Katherine Reutter and Jeff Simon spoke about the year they’ve had so far (the U.S. World Cup team has doubled its medals from 12 at this point last year to 24 right now), the challenges that will face them next week and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Ohno

How do you feel going into the World Championships? I feel good. This year has been a long year of training, but I think all the work has been done. Our men’s team, a lot of people didn’t know that we won the world team championship. In my eyes I think we are one of the teams to beat.

Coming into an Olympic year, are you going to make any changes in your training or competition schedule? There will be some minor adjustments in training this season. The bulk of the hard work and base training was done last year. This year will be a lot of fine-tuning, more race strategy. My body feels good. I am healthy so far.

Will you race a full schedule next year? I’m not sure yet. It depends when my coaches think it’s necessary to race all the races.

Reutter

Comparing this season to last season, what’s been the difference for this team? I think our team is working a lot better this year. I think we are a lot closer. I also feel that our training is a lot more individualized, so everyone is getting exactly what they need. It’s turned out to be a great year.

How aware were you of Bonnie Blair’s links to Champagne, Ill., when you began skating? I’ve always been extremely aware of Bonnie Blair and all of the great things that she’s done. Having her from Champagne, she’s always been someone that I’ve looked up to and motivated me.

Celski

You are new to the World Cup team. What has your experience been like? I wasn’t really expecting much going into this season. I was really excited to make the team. I didn’t really have any expectations and just picked up as much information as I could. I am learning a lot from my teammates and am happy to be here.

You and Apolo both come from the Seattle area. What has his influence on you been like? After watching the 2002 Olympics and seeing him win a gold medal, he was the main reason I chose to transition from inline (skating). I went to the same club he started at in Tacoma and tried my luck on the ice. He’s been a role model for me. We come from basically the same place. I just really look up to him.

With the Olympics being very close to your hometown, how does that affect your training? I’m really excited that the Games will be close to Seattle. I have a lot of support in that area. Just knowing that if I make the team, I will have a lot of fans up there. It keeps me motivated every day.

Simon

You were on the gold-medal relay team last year, and you are going back into the team championships in a couple of weeks. Who do you think will be your toughest competition? I feel like there are a lot of strong competitors from a lot of countries that will be there. But I feel like, as a team overall, the South Koreans are going to be strong. They have a lot of strong skaters coming up and on top. I definitely feel like they’ll be the [team] to beat this year.

When you switched over from inline to short track, is this where you thought you’d be a few years into the switch — possibly making your first Olympic team? I’ve always had a passion for skating, but I didn’t think it would come as quick as it has. I made the switch to see how far I could go in the sport and it’s come quick.

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GO TEAM USA!! :]

[stfan]

Thank you BBB for posting that article. Keeping my fingers crossed for teamUSA.

[mtnme]

Ticket to Vancouver

Daily dispatches from the Winter Games
Figure skating's long night, Sasha's goal not gold, bob(sledd)ing and weaving...and more
2:19 PM, February 26, 2009


A few of the pithiest quotes I’ve heard in recent weeks and some of my pithy (I hope) opinions, as well.

"It rains so much we have to do some kind of indoor stuff," Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, explaining why the nation’s top two short-track male speedskaters, he and J.R. Celski, come from Seattle.

And second prize is one winter trip to Sofia, Bulgaria: Several U.S. figure skaters have made their second trip in a row to Sofia for the World Junior Championships. The event wound up back in Sofia this week after organizational problems forced the International Skating Union to move it from the original site: Ostrava, Czech Republic. Among the double trippers: Adam Rippon, 19, of Scranton, Pa., a runaway winner (nearly 19 points) of a second straight junior world title Thursday with a total score, 222.0, that makes him the 10th best performer in the world on any level this season.

"When I first came out this year, I could see what I was doing, and that actually made it a little harder. I was driving by seeing and not by feel," U.S. bobsledder Steve Holcomb, who won a two-man bronze medal Sunday at the World Championships, on the surgery (implantable collamer lens) that he said improved his vision from 20/500 to 20/20 in 10 minutes.

Not a Nordic power yet: Lest anyone get carried away by the five medals U.S. athletes have won at the Nordic ski world championships, look at the results of everyone but the four medalists. Only one cross-country skier other than silver medalist Kikkan Randall has made the top 10 (a fourth by Kris Freeman); the relays finished 13th (men) and 14th (women) in fields of 15 entries each; and the leading men’s ski jumper (only one event contested so far) was 48th.

"I stripped my suit all the way down to my ankles," said U.S. Nordic combined skier Bill Demong on the futile search for his numbered bib before the jumping phase of Thursday’s team event at the Nordic worlds. After he (and thus the team) was disqualified, Demong found the bib had slid into his boot.

Third time's the charm? Jeremy Bloom was a terrific kick returner (led Big 12 in return yards in 2004) who was cut by the Eagles in 2007 and the Steelers in 2008. He was a terrific moguls skier (world champion in 2003) who finished ninth and sixth in his two Winter Olympic appearances. With the 2010 Olympics in mind, Bloom returned to World Cup competition last month after a three-year absence, but he is, unsurprisingly, not back in good enough form to be on the U.S. team for next week’s Freestyle World Championships on the 1998 Olympic hill in Japan.

"I wasn’t trying just to get an A on a paper. I was trying to have the best paper ever written," U.S. high hurdler Lolo Jones on why she didn’t run conservatively in the Olympic final, when she was a prohibitive favorite but finished seventh after stumbling over the penultimate barrier.

How to kill a sport in several easy lessons:
Scheduled ending times for the upcoming World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles, another stroke of genius by the International Skating Union. Tuesday, March 24, pairs short program, 11:40 p.m; Wednesday, March 25, pairs free skate, 11 p.m.; Friday, March 27, free dance, 11 p.m. Hey, ISU numbskulls: That’s 2 a.m. on the East Coast of Canada and the United States and even late in Los Angeles, given its notorious traffic at all hours. Maybe if the ISU limited the fields (there may be 50 men singles skaters, about half of whom need double runners), the program would end at a reasonable hour.

(...and we thought it was just Short Track Speedskating the ISU was trying to kill....)


"I’m definitely not coming back because I feel like I need an Olympic gold. I would be coming back because I feel like I have more to give," Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen on why she is considering a return to competitive skating.

Burning up the track at both ends: U.S. track cyclist Taylor Phinney, 18, recently won the pursuit and kilometer events at a World Cup meet in Copenhagen, which the French sports newspaper L'Equipe compared to a runner winning the steeplechase and 400 meters. Olympic kilometer champion Florian Rousseau of France called Phinney's achievement unique, in that the kilo takes explosiveness and power, while the pursuit, four times as long, demands endurance. Phinney was seventh in pursuit at the Olympics, where he was two years younger than any of the other seven finalists.

"I've changed the word from 'expectations' to 'belief'; people expect me to do so well because they believe that I can,'' Katherine Reutter of Champaign, the leading woman on the U.S. short track team headed to Vienna for next week's world championships, on how working with a sports psychologist has helped her handle pressure created by her international success this season.

-- Philip Hersh

[aaosmts19]

From Peri Kinder:

Dear US Speedskating Members:

Apolo Ohno to be Featured on Teen TV Series this Weekend


Apolo Anton Ohno will be featured as a celebrity introducer on The Real Winning Edge TV series March 7-8 in various markets across the country. Apolo is introducing the story of a young artistic roller skater who learned to be grateful and giving despite financial adversity.

Each episode of The Real Winning Edge features three real life teenagers who have excelled in the face of adversity - who have turned from substance abuse, overcome disabilities and made the decision to excel in spite of setbacks. Kids see teens just like themselves who have dealt with tough circumstances, yet have not given into negative attitudes or made destructive choices. Besides Ohno, other celebrities in The Real Winning Edge include Jeff Gordon, Albert Pujols, Martina McBride, Dwight Howard, Matt Hasselbeck, and Misty May-Treanor.

The Real Winning Edge airs on Fox stations in major cities, and also on other broadcasters, airing in over 90 cities. Fox broadcast times are listed below, or check www.realwinningedge.com to see the broadcast time in your city.




New York, Fox 12:00 PM Saturdays
Chicago, Fox, 9:00 AM Saturdays
Los Angeles, Fox, 8:00 AM Saturdays
San Francisco, Fox, 1:00 PM Saturdays
Dallas, Fox, 10:00 AM Saturdays
Minneapolis, Fox, 10:00 AM Saturdays
Denver, Fox, 11:00 AM Saturdays
Orlando, Fox , 10:30 AM Sundays
Houston, Fox, 7:00 AM Sundays

Airing in over 90 cities, see www.realwinningedge for stations and times.



***Due to a change in station group management, some smaller stations are two weeks behind the regular broadcast schedule.

[number1fan]

thanks for this reminder '19'

susie has a post in regards to this apolo appearance somewhere.

[gasp]

A little more definitive information on stations that carry this program:

Now airing on Saturdays/Sundays through September ‘09, watch THE REAL WINNING EDGE on:
Fox 5 WNYW New York
Fox 11 KTTV Los Angeles
Fox 32 WFLD Chicago
Fox 4 KDFW Dallas
Fox 26 KRIV Houston
Fox 9 KMSP Minneapolis
Fox 35 WOFL Orlando
Fox 31 KDVR Denver
MyTV 24 WUTB Baltimore
Fox 8 WVUE New Orleans
Fox 7 KTBC Austin
KASY My50TV Albuquerque
CBS DT3/DT4 KBJR Duluth, Minnesota
Fox 30 KCVU Eureka, California
ABC 6/6.1/6.2 KIVI Boise, ID
Fox 4 WFTX Fort Myers
ABC 51 KSAW Twin Falls
Fox 47/47.1/47.2 WYSM Lansing
TV 68, DT 16.1 WJAL
Chambersburg, PA
Fox 2, 2.1 KTVU/ KICU Oakland
CW 6 KASW Phoenix

[gasp]

Go to this link if you want the stations, dates and times

www.realwinningedge.com/TRWE%20airings.pdf

[gasp]

www.realwinningedge.com Lists all of the featured stories and the supporting athletes who have done the intros. Bonnie Blair and several other Olympians have taken part in this project.

[aaosmts19]

Indirectly related to Apolo:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030603625.html

Speedskater Finds Career Where He Least Expected
After Olympic Heartbreak, Kim Coaches Area Kids




After playing a reluctant role in one of the most controversial races in Olympic history seven years ago in Salt Lake City, South Korean speedskating star Kim Dong-Sung vowed never to return to the United States.

Kim was in the middle of celebrating what he assumed was his gold medal victory in the 1,500 meters when he learned he had been disqualified for interfering with U.S. star Apolo Anton Ohno, who ended up receiving the first-place medal. Kim was so upset he needed oxygen in his hotel room that night. The South Korean delegation challenged the result, then threatened to boycott the Closing Ceremonies. Some 16,000 angry e-mails from South Korea crashed the U.S. Olympic Committee's computer system.

But there he was this week at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, wearing baggy jeans, a navy coat and gold-bladed skates, chasing speedsuit-wearing American children around the ice during an evening practice session. "Push, push, push!" he exhorted.

Kim's life since the 2002 Winter Games has unfolded with all of the unexpected twists of a typical final in short-track speedskating. Agonized at hearing the U.S. national anthem seven years ago, Kim now wants to ensure it is played. He aspires to create a U.S. Olympic champion in the Washington suburbs.

Ten of Kim's students will compete next weekend at the sport's national age-group championships in Midland, Mich., a competition that will help Kim evaluate his students' progress and his own proficiency in a profession he didn't consider pursuing until just more than two years ago. That's when a Maryland speedskating parent who heard he was in the country called him up and invited him to coach.


"I came here not as a player, but as a person looking for a future career," Kim, 28, said partly through an interpreter before the start of Tuesday's training session. "I didn't even bring my skates."

Now he doesn't plan to leave.

"My goals have changed," he said. "I want to make a national team member out of one of my young kids."

At home in South Korea following the 2002 Olympics, Kim's status as a national hero grew. He already had won a gold and silver medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano. He would win a record five world titles three months later. He got mobbed at restaurants and appeared on the covers of magazines. He pitched soda, ice cream and was sponsored by a brokerage company.

"I got so many honorary medals from companies, sponsors and cities," he said. "But the one I desired was the real one from the Olympics. . . . I thought the sport was so corrupted. I was in my best form; I could have gotten so much more, but the referees in this sport make the outcome."

Kim's persistent anguish made him determined to fix the problem in the best way he could: by becoming an international referee. The South Korea speedskating association supported his quest, he said, and figured he would also be a perfect fit to represent the nation as a member of the International Olympic Committee. But for both endeavors, he would need to learn English.

That's when his retirement took its first odd turn. The speedskating association offered to pay to send Kim, his wife, Yoo Jin, and daughter Na Young, now nearly 4, to San Francisco for a year where Kim could attend language school.
Kim didn't like the plan.

"My personal feeling was: Why do I have to go to a place I have so many hard memories?" Kim said.

But his wife, eager for a respite from her husband's celebrity status, wanted to move. So they went in 2006, after Kim attended the Winter Games in Turin, as an announcer for South Korean television. They immediately felt welcomed by the large Korean American community in California. They saw educational and other opportunities for their daughter they couldn't have imagined in their home nation, and they had a son on the way.

About a year after their arrival, Kim received the call from the speedskating parent in Maryland -- also Korean American -- who begged him to move to the Washington region and become a youth coach.

He delayed an answer until after the birth of Marvin, now almost 2. But the more he considered it, the more he became sure this unexpected offer represented another stroke of good fortune. In June 2007, he began coaching with the now-defunct Wheaton Speedskating Club, which evolved into the Potomac Speedskating Club last year. Short-track speedskating, in which skaters race against each other in hockey-sized rinks, is known for far more mayhem than the long-track version of the sport in which skaters race individually against a clock.

Added to the Olympic program in 1992, short-track speedskating is gaining popularity in various pockets of the United States but is still not widely practiced outside of Wisconsin, Colorado Springs and a few other locales in the Northwest. About 75 percent of Potomac Speedskating's 75 members are Korean American, according to the club's secretary, Alison Mittelstadt. There also are small speedskating clubs in Fort Dupont and Rockville.


When Kim began his new job, his English was still rough and his coaching style, he said, a bit heavy-handed, so the transition from disgruntled retired athlete to inspirational youth coach was not without its bumpy spots.

"I had trained some children in Korea [in summer camps] but the style is different in Korea," he said. "There, they have the utmost respect for me. My one word rules. Here . . . "

Sitting in a leather couch in a lounge near the rink, Kim gestured with a grin at a group of kids who had assembled for that night's lesson. In South Korea, he said, students would diligently prepare for the workout if their coach was within view. These children, who ranged in age from mid-elementary schoolers to teenagers, talked and goofed around.

Kim, who lives in Laurel, coaches his elite skaters six nights a week and offers less frequent training for novice skaters of all ages.

He said he's learned to be less demanding and more encouraging. His skaters described him as tough, but so dedicated to them they couldn't help but feel his affection. On many Friday nights, he brings a half-dozen or more skaters home with him, cooks them a Korean specialty for dinner, then allows them to sleep on mattresses arranged throughout his house so they can make it to Saturday's 6:30 a.m. practice session. He shuttles the entire crew in a large van.

He also keeps four or five stationary bicycles in his basement, so kids can work out when he invites them over for once- or twice-weekly film sessions. They watch tapes of themselves and great skaters -- like him.

"One thing that's really different about him, he tries to understand each one of his skaters," said Jeongsu Ha, 14. "He really tries to get them to skate well."

Said Tiziano D'Affuso, 15: "He's a hard coach, but he's a really good coach. He's a tough coach, but he knows what he's doing and he really gets you to another level."

Kim hasn't been back to South Korea since he left, and he isn't sure when he can return. He hardly has the time, he said, what with so many kids to watch over.

"It's the personal relationships," he said. "Some of my kids have been with me [two] years. They are more like family. . . . I have several possible kids I see being successful. It may be happening."

[sk8on]

www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/sports/othersports/08apoloquest.html?_r=1

Short Track to Ballroom, Ohno Covers All Ground

By GREG BISHOP
Published: March 7, 2009

KEARNS, Utah — After a practice here last month, Apolo Anton Ohno sat down for a two-hour interview, touching on a variety of topics, including his victory on “Dancing With the Stars,” his acting career and his return to short-track speedskating.

ON HIS COMEBACK I had to figure out if I still had passion after having the perfect race. If I came back, I didn’t want to come back and just lollygag around. Am I going to have the same fire and determination and hunger to go out there like an elite athlete and train every single day? Like I’m 18 years old again? Do I still have that? Do I have the tools necessary? Am I willing to sacrifice?

ON “DANCING WITH THE STARS” It really allowed me to see what goes on behind a huge, awesome production show. And then to go out there and express myself and do some acting and have fun, and really go inside myself and really open up to like, 30, 60 million people and show what kind of person I am.

ON HIS ACTING It’s not something I can say I truly, 100 percent dedicated myself to yet. I’ll have to gain the true respect of the art of acting before I can really call myself an actor in any sense of the word. Because that’s the last thing I want to do is go out there and be some flop who considers himself an actor. It would be shameful. So until I can truly go out there and do something that’s considered professional and legitimate, I don’t think I would call myself an actor. If I can apply the same mentality I have toward sport, hopefully I can gain some success.

ON THE PERFECT RACE, HIS PERFORMANCE IN THE 500-METER FINAL AT THE TURIN OLYMPICS I’m not one who cries, but man, that was pretty close right there. That race brought something out of me.

ON HIS DAD, YUKI He’s always been the No. 1 supporter in my life. Just amazing, in how hard he works and his passion for what he does. He’s like my best friend. I was not an easy kid to raise. I was out of control, so much energy. It’s almost like he has that Zen mentality of 100 percent, full dedication and sacrifice for one sole thing.

ON HIS PLACE IN THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT I love the Olympic Games. I love being an Olympian. I love doing what I do, every single day. Even on my worst days.

ON THE VANCOUVER OLYMPICS The Vancouver Games is going to be absolutely spectacular, for so many reasons. It’s going to be amazing. People need these Games, you know. They’re on North American soil. They’re unifying. And for me, to be so close to home, it’s pretty amazing.

ON HIS CHANCES THERE A lion is at its strongest near the end.

[susie]

Thank-you, Sk8on!

"A lion is at its strongest near the end."

Go get 'em, Apolo.

[mtnme]

Picking Up a Career in Perfect Stride


I know that I was meant to skate,” said Apolo Anton Ohno, who won “Dancing With the Stars.” “Whether it’s to stand on the podium again, or deliver a different message, I don’t know.”

GREG BISHOP
Published: March 7, 2009


KEARNS, Utah — The race took place more than three years ago and lasted less than 42 seconds, but Apolo Anton Ohno remembers every detail. As he watched the replay last month at the practice rink here, he surged with the same euphoria, leaning on each turn, fist pumping at the finish.



Vincent Laforet for The New York Times
Apolo Anton Ohno after winning gold in the 500-meter short-track speedskating final at the 2006 Turin Olympics. Ohno called it his perfect race.


After Ohno won gold in that race, the 500-meter short-track speedskating final at the Turin Games in Italy, he appeared on a Wheaties box, signed with a Hollywood talent agency and ruled the television show “Dancing With the Stars.”

The blossoming entertainment career led Ohno and his father, Yuki, to consider the transition out of skating. By then, Ohno had won almost every race an elite skater could enter and had collected two gold and five total Olympic medals.

But the race lingered, always, even as Ohno waltzed and tangoed his way into American living rooms. Rarely a day passed when he did not remember that feeling, addictive as any drug.

Eventually, it prompted his return to skating, to the world championships this weekend in Vienna and, if the plan holds, to the Vancouver Olympics in 11 months.

Because for those precious seconds, Ohno was not solid, or good, or great, or even spectacular.

He was perfect.

•

His coach’s screams echoed in his ears after Ohno drew the spot he wanted, the No. 1 inside lane, in a four-and-a-half-lap 500-meter race in which the start is critical.

Already, the Canadian contenders François-Louis Tremblay and Eric Bedard had false-started.

Ohno decided to perfectly time the third start, and his legs churned at the exact moment the starting gun sounded, possibly even earlier. Yuki Ohno said it was as if his son were connected to that gun.

He darted to an early lead, but he also knew how much could still go wrong. The 500 is a pure sprint. He described it as “40 seconds of mayhem” and “five guys trying to eat you.”

Ohno spent the first half of the race building speed by finding the right path — not too wide and not too tight. He quickly gained control. All the sounds, the fans and the horns in the arena, had faded into silence.

•

The notion of the perfect race first came to Ohno after the Salt Lake Games in 2002. He had won gold at 19, after an opponent’s controversial disqualification. It got him thinking about fulfillment, about destiny.

As the Turin Games approached, Ohno let his mind wander on long training runs. He often envisioned the perfect Olympic race, a mixture of timing and precision and control.

Ohno arrived in Italy with a bum ankle and a strained hamstring. As much as he tried to forget the pain, he turned in lap times so slow that he estimated he was skating at 60 percent of full health.

Favored in the 1,500 meters, the same race in which he had won gold four years earlier, Ohno collided with a Chinese skater. At full strength, the contact would not have bumped him off course. Instead, he spun out of contention and into a stunned locker room.

Before his next race, the 1,000 meters, Ohno said he had a dream in which he overtook a South Korean competitor at the last second to win gold. The actual race played out in reverse: Ohno hesitated, just slightly — a moment of self-doubt, a lack of confidence. With three and a half laps to go, he was overtaken by a South Korean and finished third.

Ohno met with his Olympic adviser, who told him he should be proud of the bronze medal and his two-time Olympic career. Ohno took that to mean that United States officials had lost faith in him. They considered him a long shot in the 500.

Yuki Ohno knew better. “Apolo always delivers when the pressure mounts to unbelievable intensity,” he said.

The 500 represented his final chance. Ohno’s room overlooked the skating oval, and on nights of fitful sleep, he would stare across the street.

Doubts crept in. He started to feel caged, he said, even a little crazy. He had been trained never to show weakness, never to admit to pain or doubt, yet there they all were.

“I felt like I was in the middle of a spider web,” Ohno said. “All these different paths in front of me, and I didn’t know which one I was supposed to take.”

On the morning of the 500, however, he felt normal. But instead of jogging inside the arena to warm up, he ran past the security guards and burst outside.


He thought about Yuki, his single father, greatest influence and best friend. A man who had immigrated from Japan and opened a hair salon, who had worked hard and late and never once complained, who had steered his son’s manic energy into speedskating and away from childhood delinquency.




Photographs by Jeffrey D. Allred for The New York Times
Ohno, talking with students, trained last month at Utah Olympic Oval. Ohno will compete this weekend at the world championships in Vienna.


Ohno thought about Dr. Lawrence Lavine, who had taught him how to heal naturally, who had showed him the benefits of acupuncture, who had joined him in Turin to ease the pain.

He thought about Maria Kelly, a family friend and spiritual adviser who had mailed him a quotation from the Greek philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis days before the race. The message implored him to forget about winning or losing, to “carry the struggle further.”

At the end of his jog, as Italian security guards shouted at him to return inside, Ohno stopped in front of the main entrance. A broad grin stretched across his face.

Inside, Lavine turned to Yuki Ohno. “Apolo will deliver today,” Lavine told him.

•

Competitors skated inches behind Ohno, waiting for him to make his first mistake. He glanced backward, just slightly, which increased his heart rate by 40 beats a minute.

Fifteen seconds remained. After thousands of training hours and hundreds of competitions, Ohno could sense his deepest fears as he reached what he called the purest form of sport — man versus self, triumph or fail. He gained separation, a rarity in a race so short.

“I went absolutely ballistic,” he said. “Every single ounce of energy, every single type of training I’d ever done in my life, went into those last 15 seconds.”

Ohno crossed the line, raised both arms and screamed so loud his father could hear it in the stands. This really happened, he remembers thinking. Apolo, you really did it. You had the perfect race.

•

Ohno compares his life, his ability to balance competing interests, to an antique Japanese dresser. His has compartments for dancing and acting, a large drawer for skating, even empty drawers waiting to be filled.

After the race, Ohno shut the skating drawer and never talked about returning or retiring. He signed with a talent agency that counts Brad Pitt and Adam Sandler among its clients.

On “Dancing With the Stars,” he found he loved the camera, and his victory on the show proved to him that audiences in America loved him back.

He slept in. He ate pancakes for breakfast instead of plain oatmeal. He rode in limousines and signed autographs.

Eventually, he began to ask himself tough questions.

Had the perfect race drained his passion for the sport? Did he have the same hunger he possessed at 18?

“Am I willing to sacrifice, you know, a life?” he asked.

The deeper he dug, the more he discovered that being an Olympian defined him. He kept returning to that single race, that feeling.

“I know that I was meant to skate,” Ohno said. “Whether it’s to stand on the podium again or deliver a different message, I don’t know. I’ve won everything that I can possibly win. I’ve been consistent. I’ve had amazing races. I’ve had the perfect race.

“And I really, honestly, in my heart believe there’s a reason why I’m still skating. There’s a reason I’m still healthy, a reason I’m still winning, a reason I’m still here.”

Ohno’s elite training started in Vancouver, the same place it is likely to end next February. Whether it is fate or destiny or simply the act of coming full circle, Ohno appreciates the symmetry.

To the perfect race he skated in Italy, he hopes to add the perfect ending.

[A.O.Freak]

awesome article and great pics mtnme !!! ;D

[susie]

Thanks so much for posting that, Mtnme. I love both NY Times articles. Hopefully, this is just a taste of the media blitz that we'll get to enjoy leading up to Vancouver.

The pic of Apolo with the kids is so cute!

[skaterswaltz]

Wow - just wow. (goosebumps)