Ohno Zone: February 16, 2003 - February 22, 2003 Archives

There is a new group started for those of you who are planning to attend & you wish to volunteer your time to help in the process of building this to be the BEST Fan expo, Speedskating has ever seen.
If you're interested please see

Thanks
Skinsuitsnskates.com

Posted by noelle at 6:57 PM | Comments (1)

USS Auction

This is for you old-school speedskating fans_

Posted by noelle at 6:53 PM | Comments (0)

Jerry search

Thanks to

Posted by noelle at 5:41 PM | Comments (10)

February 19, 2003

Julia's Team Gift Presentation Report

Here are

Posted by noelle at 8:55 PM | Comments (49)

Deseret News Article

Thanks to

"A speedskating fan club presented gifts in the lounge area...."

Posted by noelle at 8:53 PM | Comments (44)

Lori Barnes

This message from Lori Barnes, looking for video of NBC's Olympic short track coverage:

"I am looking for someone who can dub a tape for me. I worked as a medical volunteer at the Olympics, working with figure skating and short track. The tape I am looking for is

Posted by noelle at 4:57 PM | Comments (10)

KDS Is Back

from

Kim Dong-sung is another big name this year¡¯s [Winter National Sports Festival] will feature. The 23-year-old short track skater will see if he can still contend with the best after undergoing a career-threatening knee surgery last November.

Posted by noelle at 12:32 PM | Comments (25)

February 18, 2003

Team USA Press Conference, SLC

Apolo at the team press conference

Well, the press conference transcript took nearly two weeks, and there are lots of holes in it - my audio recording is not terribly clear and it was a long process to transcribe it. (If any of my fellow webmistresses in attendance that day can fill in the gaps, I'd appreciate it!) I tended to miss a lot of what the women said as they were on the other side of the room. The softspoken Apolo was also not easily captured.

The press conference started out with Bill Kellick of USS introducing each athlete and asking questions of each, before opening the floor to questions. At the end, several of us followed up with Apolo with more questions. I've noted which questions on the transcript were mine. This was my first press conference; it was a lot of fun, and the best of all was sitting in a row with Yano, April and Joanna. We knew so much more than the conventional media, I caught myself on tape answering their questions before the skaters could! lol

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Posted by noelle at 10:13 PM | Comments (52)

Team USA Practice

Posted by noelle at 5:56 PM | Comments (33)

1000m Flower Ceremony

Jeff Scholten, Apolo Anton Ohno, François-Louis Tremblay (Salt Lake, 2/9/03)

Posted by noelle at 5:53 PM | Comments (27)

1000m Flower Ceremony

Posted by noelle at 5:46 PM | Comments (18)

Salt Lake City 1000m Ceremony

1000 medal ceremony, salt lake city world cup, feb. 2003

Posted by noelle at 5:43 PM | Comments (9)

Apolo and Kay

Posted by noelle at 5:16 PM | Comments (16)

The Ohno Boys

The Ohno Boys, courtesy

Posted by noelle at 5:14 PM | Comments (29)

Judie with Aussie Skaters

Judie with the Aussie Stev/phens

Posted by noelle at 5:12 PM | Comments (26)

USA Today

From USA Today:

Posted by noelle at 10:30 AM | Comments (21)

Candice Reports on Chicoutimi

Hey all! I just arrived home from the World Cup in Chicoutimi, Quebec. I was lucky enough to meet our star Apolo Anton Ohno TWICE this weekend! I am still so excited and can't believe this all happened. So bear with me and here goes:

On the first day of competitions, Feb. 14, was when I first met Apolo. He had just finished racing the preliminaries for the men's 5000m relays, and as soon as he stepped off the ice, I asked him if he could sign my program for me please. He said "Sure" and called me down to where the athletes were putting on their skates. He signed the program "Apolo Anton Ohno 2003 Short Track" and handed it back. While he was signing I told him I travelled for so long to come see him (about 19 hours from my home in Ontario) and he said "Thanks". Then we both left.

The second day I carried along a picture of him to get it signed, but this time I could not catch him after the races. I was also very determined to get a picture with him. So before the races ended for the day, my dad decided he was going to try to let me meet Apolo again and take pictures. So my dad went around and asked a security guard if it would be possible for me to do so. He gave us the name of the lady in charge of communications and we met with her. She told us she would try really hard but could not promise anything. She led us backstage and told us to wait behind the curtain. A few minutes later she came back and said to come with her. Apolo had his back turned and she tapped him on the shoulder. Here is where it gets awesome:

As soon as he turned around and saw me he said, "You were here yesterday right?" with a smile on his face. So I said yeah and my dad shook hands with him telling him how far we came and how I have been following his career ever since the Olympics. Apolo told me thanks and we took two pictures together. Then he starts asking me questions (shouldn't that have been the other way around?). He asked me if I was enjoying myself and if I was coming back the next day, both of which I answered with "Of course". I asked him to sign the picture I carried and he sat down and signed it: "Candice - Thank you so much for your support! - A friend. Apolo Anton Ohno 2003 Short Track"

We took one last picture and said our goodbyes. He signed my picture saying "A friend". To me that is so amazing! And Apolo is amazing. He is such a superb athlete and I have so much respect for him. He is definitely my role model. He also proved to me that he pays close attention to his fans when they meet him because he remembered my face from the day before. So that's my story and big thanks to Apolo for making 19 hours of travelling well worth it!!

Apolo was disqualified from the men's 3000m for impeding, that's the call they made. There was a big bundle at the finish line, as far as I saw, because of the rush for the silver and bronze medals. Canada had already crossed first, but it was evident that Apolo, Jiajun Li and the Korean skater were all rushing for the last two medals. In the midst of this bundle, Apolo went down, losing his chance of winning a medal in the race. I should also note that the tempo of this race was constantly being disrupted by the other Chinese skater who would constantly create a wild rush and a wide gap when he would suddenly sprint up to first, then drop back to last when everyone else was racing to close that gap. I personally do not think that any imperfections in the ice caused Apolo to fall down, it was just that mad rush for silver and bronze. Apolo even appeared to be smiling when he went down. I hope this helps to clear up any questions, and congratulations to Apolo for his other wins!

Posted by noelle at 12:07 AM | Comments (117)