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April 2, 2005
New Video: Apolo's 1000m final in Beijing
Here's the first race from Beijing -- Apolo's gold-medal performance in the 1000m final on day 3 at the World Championships. It's an amazing, thrilling race!
Many thanks to Sonia and Maggie for making it available to us to enjoy!
Download it here.
Size: 10MB; running time: 1:59
Skaters in the race: Apolo Anton Ohno, Hyun-soo Ahn, Jiajun Li, Charles Hamelin
Posted by noelle at 10:53 PM | Comments (16)
April 1, 2005
Prospects look dim for seeing short track on tv...
Chicago Tribune | Skating ratings shock ESPN
(via San Jose Mercury News)
After one year as the U.S. broadcaster for international figure skating events, ESPN is so exasperated with the sport's world governing body the TV network wonders how it will get through the contract's final three years.
First, the ratings: ...the numbers were so low they may have been the result of the family pet accidentally sitting on the remote control.
...an ESPN official told the Chicago Tribune the network still intends to finish the contract but will also "play hardball" to enforce existing terms and get changes in scheduling and other areas.
One such change might be the addition of Dick Button to the worlds broadcast team despite the ISU's discomfort with the man who has been the voice of figure skating in the United States for 40 years.[Hear, hear! Dick button rocks! - Ed.]
When ABC owned rights to ISU events, the contract required them to air speed skating worlds as well as figure skating events. It seems that this requirement was dropped when ESPN took over the broadcast rights. Either way, it doesn't seem to bode well for the prospects of seeing much short track anytime soon. Hopefully NBC will pick up some slack as it begins to hype Torino!
Posted by noelle at 4:19 PM | Comments (14)
March 29, 2005
Photos from Apolo's 1000m semi in Milwaukee
Posted by noelle at 11:00 PM | Comments (5)
Apolo leading Alex Izy, Shani Davis and Jeff Simon
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March 28, 2005
1500m medalists in Milwaukee
The next 2 shots from Milwaukee are courtesy of Sue. More of her photos have been posted in the Milwaukee day 1 gallery (shots of Apolo, JP, Alex and Allison).
Rusty Smith, Apolo Ohno, J.P. Kepka
Posted by noelle at 12:53 PM | Comments (8)
500m heat: Apolo Ohno, Rusty Smith, Travis Jayner
Posted by noelle at 12:52 PM | Comments (3)
March 27, 2005
Vintage Apolo articles from Speed Skating Times
Thanks to Linde for unearthing these old articles from the period when Apolo burst onto the national speed skating scene.
Article 1: 'New Kid on the Block'
March/April 1996 interview with 13 year old Apolo! This article covers Apolo's many athletic accomplishments in his inline, short track and long track ice plus swimming careers. Already, Apolo exhibits his good humored acceptance of DQs.
Read page 1 | page 2
Article 2: 'Next Generation of U.S. Hope'
This is a brief article from the May 1997 issue of SST, just after Apolo's remarkable first win at the U.S. Championships at the unprecedented age of 14.
Read article
Apologies for the bad scanning job I did. Hope you can read them ok!
Note: Some browsers may automatically shrink the articles. If this happens and you can't read them, you'll need to expand them to full size.
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Posted by noelle at 11:22 AM | Comments (16)