2008-2009 Short Track Season!

[gasp]

I agree Mtnme, Peri is great. She will transition nicely into the position.

[breidy]

Congrats to Peri Kinder. Good choice for Public Relations and Communications Director for US Speedskating.

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Ahn Restarts Training

By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter

South Korean short track star Ahn Hyun-soo started training in earnest Monday.

The five-time defending short track world champion skated for an hour at Tancheon Sport Complex in Seongnam.

``Ahn has started training in earnest. He feels better than he did two months ago after the pin was taken out of his knee,'' Seongnam City Hall head coach Son Sae-won told Yonhap news agency.

During a national team training session Jan. 16, 2008, the 23-year-old collided with a fence and broke his knee at the Korea Training Center in Taeneung, requiring surgery and the insertion of two pins.

Ahn, who tried to compete at the World Short Track Championship in March 2008, inflamed his knee and required further surgery to remove the pins last July.

Though the enthusiastic short track athlete has tried to improve his condition via rehabilitation and training, the pain returned, requiring a third surgical procedure to transplant a bone in the space of the former pin.

Nonetheless, he's aiming for gold at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

The first goal of the Turin gold medallist Olympian is to re-join the Korean national team.

``As we know, the Korea short track team is the world's best. There are many young star players posing a formidable challenge", Ahn told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
``I haven't competed for a long time and must hone a sense of competition,'' he added.

Ahn hyun-soo is one of only two Koreans to win three gold medals at a single Olympics after grabbing gold in the men's 1,000-meter, 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter relay races in Turin.

The other is Jin Sun-yu, who won the women's 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters and 3,000-meter relays at the same event.

- - - - - -

Good luck, Ahn! You have been missed. ;]

[number1fan]

Jan 14, 2009 6:37:05 GMT -5 bubblebuttsbabe said:

Good luck, Ahn! You have been missed. ;]

very missed and so sadly in his prime ...with the 2 extra surgeries setting him back, i wonder if he can get back into olympic competition shape by 2010 ...GOOD LUCK!

[sk8er]

Excuse me. Ahn DIDN'T compete at last year's Worlds. Apolo Ohno is the defending World Champion. Team USA is are the defending World Champions and I'd argue WE'RE the best! And they're still onto that "fence" thing when they apparently mean the boards. Still, this would be the comeback story of the sport. Apolo had better get his act together if he expects to get a medal in Vancouver.

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Jan 14, 2009 20:19:56 GMT -5 sk8er said:

Excuse me. Ahn DIDN'T compete at last year's Worlds. Apolo Ohno is the defending World Champion. Team USA is are the defending World Champions and I'd argue WE'RE the best! And they're still onto that "fence" thing when they apparently mean the boards. Still, this would be the comeback story of the sport. Apolo had better get his act together if he expects to get a medal in Vancouver.

LOL. You know how the koreans are, SusanG. And I agree about the Apolo thing. But I think he knows what he has to do coming into this last turn before Vancouver.

[Lori]

I was wondering about that statement too, Susan - I didn't remember him competing at all since his accident, and certainly not at the World Championships...

...and the 'fence' thing has always left me scratching my head.

Anyhow, good luck to Ahn - I'd really love the chance to see him compete.

[sk8on]

Thanks for the article, bbb.

To be fair (and I don't know why I'd want to be fair when it comes to the Korean skaters but anyway ) , the article didn't say he competed at Worlds but rather he "tried" to...which I took to mean he was aiming for a comeback for Worlds but had a setback in his recovery and wasn't obviously able to do that.

The "fence" thing continues to baffle!

He says he's aiming for gold in Vancouver---good that he still has his sights set high but that has to be a really steep hill to climb.

Jan 14, 2009 20:19:56 GMT -5 sk8er said:

Team USA is are the defending World Champions and I'd argue WE'RE the best!

World Champions...still has a nice ring to it, no?!!!

[tdav]

Let's see, he has about 13 months to prepare. Do you think that's enough time for him to reach the level he wants to be at? I'm not a physical therapist but does anyone know if he can get there given his current condition? And what happened to Lee Seung-hoon and Song Kyung-taek? I haven't heard anything about them since, like early last year.

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Link: www.japantoday.com/category/sports/view/terao-out-for-season-with-broken-ankle

- - - - - -

SPEEDSKATING
Terao out for season with broken ankle

Thursday 05th February, 04:03 AM JST

TOKYO —

Veteran Japanese short track speed skater Satoru Terao will miss the remainder of the 2008-09 season with a broken left ankle, the Japan Skating Federation said Wednesday.

Terao, a four-time Olympian, suffered the injury when he fell during Monday’s official training session for a World Cup meet in Sofia, getting under way Friday. Terao was to represent Japan at the world championships in Vienna from March 6-8 and in the second half of the World Cup circuit after he extended his record for most overall titles to 12 at the national championships in December.

- - - - - -

GET BETTER SOON, SATORU!! ;D

[Lori]

I've heard that Satoru Terao is a 'class act' - I believe that Lily had a chance to meet him at the SLC World Cup this season.

I hope he recovers well...

[skaterswaltz]

Got e-mail from Perry Kinder with this information about Universal Sports coverage of upcoming events:
----------------------------


TV and Online Coverage of ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships Begins Feb. 10 from Hamar, Norway

LOS ANGELES - February 4, 2009 - Universal Sports presents coverage of the ISU World Allround Championships on TV and online beginning Tuesday, Feb. 10 from 11p.m. - 1 a.m. ET from Hamar, Norway. Coverage of the sport will continue through the completion of the season at the end of March and include short track, single distance, sprint distance, and allround championships.

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS AND UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM: Universal Sports, available in 30 million homes, and UniversalSports.com present five International Skating Union World Championships throughout the 2009 season in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics:

Jan. 21: ISU World Sprint Speed Skating Championships in Moscow, Russia



Feb. 7-8: ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria



Feb. 20-22: ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships in Zacopane, Poland



Mar. 6-15: ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Vienna, Austria



Mar. 12-15: ISU World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships in Vancouver, CAN


SPEED SKATING ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports is the exclusive home for the entire 2008-09 ISU World Cup and World Championships with broadcast coverage on the Universal Sports 24-hour network. All past World Cup and Championship events are available for on-demand viewing on UniversalSports.com. The World Allround Speed Skating Championships will be broadcast on Tues., Feb 10 at 11 p.m. ET and on Wed., Feb 11 at 11 p.m. ET.

SPEED SKATING ON UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM: UniversalSports.com will offer simulcast streaming of Universal Sports' broadcasts of the ISU World Cup season and World Championships. In addition, fans can visit the speed skating channel on UniversalSports.com for updated broadcast schedules (TV and online), archived events, news, video highlights, special features, photo galleries and more.

ABOUT UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports, a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic-related and lifestyle sports programming available on television and online. Universal Sports is a 24-hour television channel available in 30 million television households in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington DC, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Hartford, New Haven, Las Vegas, Reno, Omaha and Albany. Major world championship and Olympic qualifying events found on Universal Sports ranges from track and field, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, marathons and cycling, to volleyball, rowing, triathlon, fencing, speed skating and martial arts. UniversalSports.com delivers an immersive experience via live and on-demand competition coverage, interaction with top athletes through blogs and in-depth access to Olympic sports news and information year round. For more information on the availability of the Universal Sports 24-hour television channel, please visit UniversalSports.com.



For more info, please contact T.K. Gore at 240.396.1907, [e-mail]

[Lori]

Yippee-Yie-Kie-YAY!~ (Sorry, don't know how to spell that...)

'Karma' to Universal Sports! ;D

The dates mentioned in the press release from Peri (March 6-15) indicate that they'll be covering both the Individual AND Team Championships. (The Individual Championships start on March 6, and the Team Championships end on March 15.)

'Wonder if they're covering them on that same week, or if they'll be delayed?

[skaterswaltz]

I was just poking around the Universal Sports cable channel but they're showing luge right now followed by skiing. But I did see a great 10 second promo showing Apolo winning the World Championships with a voice over by Apolo saying something like, "Hi - I'm Apolo Ohno and your watching the Universal Sports Channel." VERY COOL.

[mtnme]

.
From the Boston Globe. Now that the Olympics are officially a year away, the newspapers are picking up stories on Olympic athletes:

www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/articles/2009/02/12/enough_time_to_make_splash/


A terrible break, literally, for US short-track speedskater Allison Baver, who collided with teammate Katherine Reutter during last week's 1,500-meter final at the World Cup event in Bulgaria and fractured her right leg in multiple places. Baver, a two-time Olympian, is the top-ranked Yank on the circuit. Reutter ended up winning the silver . .