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December 24, 2004
Christmas clip: Apolo's 1500m gold medal final in Harbin
***Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!***
Santa, via video elves Sonia and Maggie, stopped by OZ a day early and left us with this video gift -- Apolo's 1st final and 1st gold medal of the season!
With 3 Koreans, 2 Chinese and Apolo on the line, this thrilling race is guaranteed to have you yelling and cheering as though you didn't know the outcome. Skaters are Apolo Anton Ohno, Hyun-soo Ahn, Jiajun Li, Kyung-taek Song, Seung-jae Lee, Ye Li.
Download the clip here. (18.9MB, 3:46 playing time)
Posted by noelle at 12:00 PM | Comments (11)
December 23, 2004
Final series from Apolo's 1500m heat in Saguenay
(Additional photos from this race in Saguenay Day 1 gallery)
Jockeying for position: Apolo Ohno, Junji Ito (hidden), Steve Robillard

Posted by noelle at 3:50 PM | Comments (7)
Keeping an eye on the competition

Posted by noelle at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)
Out of breath
Apolo Ohno and Haonan Li

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Apolo Ohno, Steve Robillard

Posted by noelle at 3:15 PM | Comments (1)
December 21, 2004
Thanks to Ken H for these 2 Madison shots:

Posted by noelle at 9:43 PM | Comments (11)

Posted by noelle at 9:42 PM | Comments (1)
Thanks to Sue for these shots from Apolo's 1000m heat in Madison:

Posted by noelle at 9:40 PM | Comments (3)

Posted by noelle at 9:39 PM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2004
Scenes from Apolo's 1500m heat in Saguenay

Posted by noelle at 8:57 PM | Comments (5)

Posted by noelle at 8:56 PM | Comments (0)
Haonan Li (CHN), Steve Robillard (CAN), Junji Ito (JPN), Apolo Ohno (USA)

Posted by noelle at 8:54 PM | Comments (2)

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Haonan Li and Apolo Ohno

Posted by noelle at 8:53 PM | Comments (0)
Ohno, Ito, Robillard, H. Li

Posted by noelle at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)
U.S. Junior Short Track Championships
The U.S. Junior Short Track Championships were held over the weekend in Bay City, MI. This competition picked the six skaters who will represent the USA at the World Junior ST Championships next month in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro.
Girls:
1. Maria Garcia (Carson, CA)
2. Carly Wilson (Jefferson City, MO)
3. Jade Wheeler (Los Alamitos, CA)
Boys:
1. Ryan Bedford (Midland, MI)
2. J.R. Celski (Federal Way, WA)
3. Kyle Carr (Marquette, MI)
4. Jordan Hinke (Waukesha, WI)
* bold indicates world junior team member
Due to International Skating Union age rules, 13 year old J.R. Celski is ineligible to skate in Jr. Worlds this year and will be replaced by 4th place finisher Jordan Hinke. Looks like U.S. short track may have another prodigy from Federal Way on its hands!
Congrats to the skaters! More info available at USSpeedskating.org.
In other news, the Marquette Mining Journal reports that the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University has attained near-term financial security thanks to a $440,000 appropriation from Congress. That's great news for the short track development program in Marquette! For details, see Olympic center gets funds.
Posted by noelle at 11:56 AM | Comments (4)
December 19, 2004
Video clip: Apolo's 1500m semifinal in Harbin
Today we inaugurate video coverage of the October World Cups from Harbin and Beijing, China. Lots of exciting races on tap, starting with this 1500m SF in Harbin (World Cup #1). Download the clip here.
Note to dialup users: This is a large file (18.8MB!)
Skaters in this race: Apolo Anton Ohno, Hyun-soo Ahn, Baoku Sui, Jonathan Guilmette, Nicola Rodigari, Maxime Chataignier
Many thanks now and all year long to Sonia for her hard work in securing these for us and getting them converted and edited, and to Maggie for generously providing us the server space and bandwidth to host these clips! None of this would be possible without them.
Posted by noelle at 10:21 AM | Comments (13)

