Time for another round of "Where's Apolo?" I lost track of who submitted this, so please remind me.

These five are from Brooke

More "Where's Apolo?"

The U.S.-South Korea soccer match is Monday, but based on this NY Times article, it's still all about the 1500m race in the Olympics:

For South Korea, It's a Grudge Match*
*you'll need to sign up for a free registration to read

Jena also sends this intro text from W magazine:

ESCAPE ROUTES: Forget flying down to Rio - try soaring down to the Dominican Republic instead. It worked for photographer Bruce Weber, who went to that tropical island for our feature "Republican Party." As usual, he brought along - or drafted - a few friends, among them Cheryl Tiegs, Apolo Ohno, Carolina Herrera, Oscar and Annette de la Renta and Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

Many, many thanks to Jena, for providing our first glimpse of the W photo shoot. High-fashion it's not. Lovely, it certainly is.

Okay, so this one is rather... odd

Four Access Hollywood screengrabs from Gemini616

Tiggie caught Apolo as he was walking into the theater for the Scorpion King premiere

Notice: YACCS, ur comments provider asked us to do a code upgrade...if things look a little different for awhile...that's why.

And in news from the world of short track speedskating, the ISU at its annual congress this week announced a rule change:

call it the Apolo Anton Ohno Rule

Good morning Ohno Zone! The form is ready for you to download and print. It's linked from the In Apolo's Name site, at the bottom right of the page, under "Make Your Mark." Let's flood them with forms (and donations)!

The Ohno Zone is participating in a combined fundraising effort:

In Apolo's Name

Apolo fans unite to help build a new Ronald McDonald House in Seattle

Ronald McDonald House in Seattle

As most of you know, the Ronald McDonald House (and related Charities) are close to Apolo's heart. We are working as a part of the In Apolo's Name Project, representing AAO fans everywhere. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the Ohno Zone has the best, most generous and big-hearted members!! You are amazing, and you inspire both Noelle and me on a daily basis! Much love....

yikes! we're pushing our 50mb limit here in the OZ...so I have some streamlining to do, lest we bump up to an even bigger clubhouse... ack!

from Liz

from Lisa

Okay, more breaking news! Apolo has been nominated for an ESPY award in the category of Best U.S. Olympian. The ESPYs will be broadcast on ESPN on July 10 at 9PM ET. E! Online will be broadcasting the red carpet arrivals at 8PM ET before the show.

Read the press release (Apolo mentioned near middle of page)

ESPY Awards Web Site (not yet updated with Apolo's category as of this writing)

Way-Back article from Joanna

Lyn to the rescue with a scan of the TIME photo op.

Kathy forwards this tidbit, from this week's TIME. The pieces of the DR puzzle are all falling neatly into place, aren't they?

full text Copyrighted Time magazine June 10, 2002 YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU'LL MEET

What, you might ask, is Olympic speed skater APOLO OHNO doing hanging with THE CLINTONS? And why is he wearing his gold medals at the beach? Reasonable questions, and ones for which there are in fact answers. For its July issue, W magazine brought Ohno to the Domincan Republic where, serendipitously, the Clintons and Chelsea's boyfriend IAN KLAUS happened to be on vacation. When W asked them to pose together, the Clintons eagerly agreed. "They were in awe of Apolo, treating him like a celebrity," says W fashion director Joe Zee. In return, Ohno apparently made no snide comment about Bill's shirt.

Way-Back awesome slideshow link from Sonia

more from the Way-Back

Full Text: Copyright Freedom Newspapers, Inc. Dec 16, 2001

Four years ago, the Olympics were going on without him and Apolo Anton Ohno was sitting in the rain, by himself, deciding which way his whirlwind of a life would turn next. He had squired himself away in a remote cabin outside his hometown of Seattle, absorbing the blow of missing the '98 Olympic short- track speedskating team despite being the reigning national champion. He worked out furiously, pushing himself toward exhaustion, through the relentless rain and his searing disappointment. "There was one day, it was my third workout of the day, I was running and it was just pouring," Ohno said. "I had a hole in my shoe and I was getting a huge blister and I was just so tired. I stopped and sat on a rock on the side of the road." That's where his life took its dramatic turn, where an old Olympic dream died and a new one took its place. "I think I just realized that if I really desired to keep speedskating that I would keep running. I got back up and kept running." He was 15 years old. Already, though, Ohno had veered close to a life of drugs and gangs like many of his friends, found and devoted himself to a new sport, moved to Lake Placid, N.Y., won a national championship. Then he was crushed by one awful Olympic trials. He was 15 years old. "I don't think I was ready to do it," he said. Now, Ohno is 19 and living and training at Colorado Springs' Olympic Training Center, driving toward an Olympics for which he is definitely ready. Heading into this week's Olympic trials, he is the reigning overall World Cup champion. The question is no longer if he will make the U.S. team, but how many medals he'll bring home from Salt Lake City. There are three individual races - 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters - and a relay. Ohno set a world record Saturday in the trials, taking the 1,500 in 2 minutes, 13.728 seconds. Ohno broke the mark of 2:15.383 set by Canadian Steve Robillard at the Calgary Oval on Oct.12. The victory was Ohno's third in a row at the trials. "Apolo Ohno is going to make a name for himself these Games," said Cathy Turner, a two-time short-track gold medalist. "He has the capability to win every race out there." Ohno is one of those fabulous stories, seemingly found only in the Olympics, of a life shaped by a dream he chases in anonymity. The odds are long, the work excruciating, the payoff so elusive. A few such athletes end up capturing the hearts of Americans every Games. If you had to bet on one in Salt Lake City, bet on Ohno. He is 19 years old. His life story already includes those brushes with a crowd focused on drugs and violence. His father, who had raised him alone after his mother left when Apolo was a baby, literally shipped him off to train as a speedskater, trying to save him from that life. He had been on ice skates only two years when he won his first national title at 14. The Olympics he missed were in his father's home country of Japan, where his grandparents live. Since then, he has dedicated himself to writing his most thrilling chapter. Ohno has learned a lot from his failures, as well as his successes. He has learned to love the hard work, the quiet, dedicated existence in Colorado Springs, far from the kind of excitement that ruled his younger years. "I'm definitely proud of my past, good and bad," Ohno said. "It's what has shaped me into what I am today." Before he was in high school, Ohno was hanging out with 18-year- olds, going to parties and staying away from home for days at a time. But he was also an accomplished in-line skater who tried short-track speedskating and found he was a natural. His father Yuki, who owns a hair salon in Seattle, desperately grasped at that talent as his son's salvation. When Apolo was invited to train in Lake Placid, Yuki didn't ask his son if he wanted to go. He sent him. It took two tries. The first time, Apolo called a friend who picked him up at the airport before he left. The next time, Yuki watched him all the way onto the plane. Living in Lake Placid eventually grew on Apolo. "I started to have fun and my coach persuaded me that I could be one of the best in the world," Ohno said. "No one told me what to do. All I had to do was train and go to school. That was a blast." So Ohno stopped rebelling and started working harder. His national title rocked the sport, usually dominated by skaters in their 20s. His fall from that spot rocked Ohno. "Missing the team in '98 was really, really, really big in my success right now," he said. Now, Ohno said he and his father are extremely close. Ohno dreams of winning medals in Salt Lake City, but swears it isn't the most important thing. "I think life is just one long journey and I think a lot of people look toward the destination and the results more than the journey," he said. "For me, the journey is where I find my excitement. The training, the dieting, the lifestyle I'm living right now. That's what I look for." He is 19 years old

Todd is posting from the Way-Back Files trying to clean up the OZ inbox...

A Tribute to those Behind the Scenes - The Gazette - Colorado Springs

Mar 23, 2002 Standing under white and light-blue helium balloons that stopped at the ceiling, speedskaters Apolo Ohno and Derek Parra made a return trip Friday to the U.S. Olympic Training Center for the first time since winning two medals each at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Like the balloons, they have yet to come down to earth. No wonder. Each has been doing whirlwind appearances - Rosie, Conan, Jay, even Stone Phillips - for nearly a month straight since the Olympics ended. Friday afternoon's show was a little different. Parra and Ohno, along with skeleton slider Lincoln DeWitt and Paralympic multi- medalist Chris Waddell, came back to celebrate with the people who helped with their success: U.S. Olympic Committee and training center staffers. In a large conference room bedecked with balloons and streamers, tables topped with big bowls of shrimp and cocktail glasses of sparkling apple cider, the Olympians signed autographs and posed for pictures. "They always tell us, 'You're here for the athletes,'" said Cindy Zielke, a 15-year employee who waited in line to get an autograph from Ohno. Zielke just attended her first Olympics in Salt Lake. "It's just neat to see what you're really here for." Parra, Home Depot's most famous employee as well as the first Mexican-American to win Winter Olympic gold, has been stunned by the attention his two medals - gold in the long-track 1,500 meters, surprise silver in the 5,000 - has received. One man stopped him in an airport in Germany and asked, "You're Parra, right?" Another woman approached him and simply began to weep. "I'm still kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing," said Parra, memorable for his tears on the medal podium and as one of the eight athletes who carried the tattered World Trade Center flag during Opening Ceremonies. Parra warned the staffers he might get emotional here, too. "To come back like this to a place where it all started - thank you so much," he told them. Still, no one has commanded the post-Olympic spotlight more than Ohno, 19, who won short-track gold and silver and survived controversy both before and during the Games to emerge as its biggest star. Ohno, from Seattle, has lived in Colorado Springs since before the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, when the short-track team came to be based here. The month before the Games, in the same complex where Ohno was among those feted Friday, he was embroiled in the race-fixing scandal that threatened his Olympic team eligibility. An arbitrator wound up eventually dismissing the accusations from teammate Tommy O'Hare and Olympic team members. That's been all but forgotten. A month after the Olympics, Ohnomania shows little sign of abating. Ohno models clothing in the latest edition of Rolling Stone magazine, whose theme is "The Cool Issue," listing current cool bands, albums and athletes. He has breakdanced on national TV. Last week, Ohno's hometown Seattle held "Apolo Ohno Day," with the near-Beatlemania-like effect of teenage girls shrieking and holding up signs. Washington governor Gary Locke, along with staffers and pages at the state capital, wore Ohno soul patches on their chins. On the most recent Lycos top-50 search list, Ohno bounced Anna Kournikova as the most searched-for athlete. The teenager has become the cutting-edge symbol for an Olympics that set new standards for American winter success - a record 34 medals for the U.S. team, among those won by multicultural stars like Ohno, Parra, speedskater Jennifer Rodriguez and bobsledder Vonetta Flowers. Friday, Ohno seemed genuine in his appreciation for those who helped get him atop the podium. "Definitely this facility and the people here helped me out tremendously," he told USOC staffers. "I just want to say thank you."

A pre-Olympics article regarding endorsements from Lucinda

Two skating shots from Lyn

Screengrabs from Stephanie, via AAO.com