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June 25, 2005
Scenes from Apolo's 1000m quarter final in Saguenay
More photos from this race are in the Saguenay Day 3 photo gallery, beginning here.
Junji Ito (JPN) leads Apolo Ohno, Mathieu Turcotte and Sebastian Praus (GER)
Posted by noelle at 3:49 PM | Comments (6)
June 22, 2005
More New York Times photos
Many thanks to Liz for coming through with scans of the other two photos which ran in the NY Times' print edition with yesterday's article. Click to see the full-size images.
Posted by noelle at 5:04 PM | Comments (19)
June 21, 2005
New York Times article
Momentum towards Torino continues with this great writeup from NYT Olympic beat reporter Lynn Zinser. The whole article is posted here because NYT articles disappear within a few days. For now you can also read it online at NYTimes.com (requires free registration).
One Olympian Hopes a Return to 'Nothing' Will Bring a Return to Glory
Apolo Anton Ohno plopped himself down at a table and blended comfortably into his surroundings, a place so institutional you could mistake it for a high school cafeteria, except that detailed nutrition labels hang over the food and the tray-wielding customers are actually reading the labels.
For nearly eight years, Ohno has called the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs his second home. He sleeps in a small dorm room upstairs, the same one he occupied before he became an Olympic icon in 2002. Outside the plate-glass windows lies everything a 23-year-old short-track speedskating superstar needs, an athletic infrastructure at his fingertips.
"The people who work here in the cafeteria, the people in sports medicine, they're like my second family," Ohno said last month, punctuating his conversation with swigs from an oversized water bottle. "This is like being in my house. I can just come downstairs, have some eggs in the morning. It's nice."
During a quiet spring stretch at the training center, no one looks twice at the famous face with the signature soul patch living in their midst. Three years ago, after winning gold and silver medals in the Salt Lake Olympics, Ohno was vaulted into that rare, and fleeting, level of stardom reserved for Olympians with good looks, charisma and a great story.
So he found himself being jetted to Los Angeles for the "Tonight" show. He shook hands and posed for pictures at Oscar parties. He rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
For a 19-year-old, that was a bigger test than any of his Olympic races. First, he had to decide whether to chase another round of glory in 2006, a decision he said took only about a month. Then he had to figure out how to stay focused and hungry enough to accomplish it.
"I didn't want to change too many things," he said. "Because this is what brought me my success, my hunger, my drive, basically living off of nothing, which is what I had here. When you have that kind of energy, that kind of drive, that kind of success, there's nothing that can stop you.
"So, it's back here as usual."
The decision surprised more than a few people, and delighted many, including US Speedskating and the United States Olympic Committee, which relish his success and star power, especially with another Winter Games looming in eight months. Happiest of all might have been his father, Yuki Ohno, who reared Apolo by himself in their hometown, Seattle, and who once had to persuade his son to pour his abundant energy into something positive like skating.
"The U.S. Olympic complex gives him a sort of shield," Yuki Ohno said in a telephone interview. "Him being such a visible individual, he could easily be in a disruptive environment. He doesn't have to worry about his security and other things. It's very comfortable just to be able to go back to your room."
About the only thing that qualifies as luxurious at the Olympic Training Center is Ohno's Lexus, parked in a fenced lot amid a sea of Toyotas and Chevys. The training center is an odd mix of old military buildings - the U.S.O.C. bought the former Ent Air Force Base from the government for a dollar in 1978 - and newer concrete-box buildings containing state-of-the-art training and sports-medicine facilities.
Into this architectural mishmash drop many American Olympic hopefuls. Most come for short visits, for training camps or for activities arranged by their particular sport's governing body. Some come to confer with doctors or trainers. Only a handful live here semi-permanently.
Ohno has watched the Olympic seasons ebb and flow in Colorado Springs since 1997. He describes how the intensity ratchets up as the Games near, something he enjoys even when it is a summer Games he has nothing to do with.
"There's no better sense of energy," he said. "People who are into energy should come here. It's almost like heat. Sometimes I go watch practices of the other teams just to see the intensity."
Colorado Springs itself is a sleepy city of 370,000 with little nightlife and an altitude of 6,300 feet, a combination that agrees with Ohno. He and his coaches said he was probably in the best shape of his life. He is coming off a season in which he won the overall World Cup title, his first, despite skipping a race in South Korea because of death threats.
In fact, the biggest obstacle to another round of Olympic stardom for Ohno may just be the hatred he spawned among the Koreans in 2002.
That stemmed from Ohno's gold-medal victory in the 1,500 meters, awarded to him when officials disqualified the apparent winner, Kim Dong Sung of South Korea, saying he had interfered with Ohno. That came days after a Chinese skater caused a pileup in the 1,000 meters, costing Kim another medal, and Ohno had somehow stayed upright and flung himself across the finish line for a silver. But it was Ohno who drew the Koreans' ire, and he still does.
Ohno knows that part of the race strategy of the South Korean team is to take him out in races if it can, and in the rough-and-tumble world of short track, with collisions the norm, that is a constant danger.
But Ohno said he relished the challenge. He has become known for his resilience; opposing skaters call him among the toughest in the world to pass.
"If I'm in a race, I know they're scared, I can feel it," Ohno said. "This is why the Koreans team-skate and play these games in races. When they race me one on one, I don't think the playing field is even."
Part of what Ohno loves about short track is the thrill, the idea that his life's work rides on a metal edge the width of a knife, and that he gets one sliver of time every four years - races that last mere minutes - to show the world what he can do.
In 1998, when Ohno was a wild 16-year-old talent, that burden had proved too much. He skated a terrible race in the Olympic trials, finishing last, and was forced to watch the Nagano Games - in his father's native Japan - on television. That experience made his 2002 success all the more fulfilling, but it also put it in perspective. "He has never lost where he came from," Yuki Ohno said.
So he keeps going home. Cafeteria trays and all.
By LYNN ZINSER, Published: June 21, 2005
Posted by noelle at 8:42 AM | Comments (32)
June 20, 2005
Apolo's 1000m heat in Saguenay
More photos from this race are in the Saguenay Day 3 gallery.
Posted by noelle at 7:15 PM | Comments (5)
American Cup 1, plus who's training where
American Cup 1/World Cup team trials
Following up on the World Cup schedule for next season, you might be interested in checking out American Cup 1 in Wausau, WI, taking place September 17-18. This will be an exciting event, as it determines which skaters will represent the U.S. at all four World Cups in the fall.
More information is available from US Speedskating. This is the first of three major domestic competitions in 2005-06 (along with Olympic Trials in Marquette and 2006 World Championships in Minneapolis).
Who's training where
With things gearing up earlier than usual for next season, the skaters have been hard at work for weeks already. A training camp for Category 1 skaters just finished up in Colorado Springs.
Skaters based in Colorado Springs this season are Allison Baver, Bridie Farrell, Caroline Hallisey, Alex Izykowksi, J.P. Kepka, Hyo Jung Kim, Mike Kooreman, Jordan Malone, Apolo Ohno, Rusty Smith.
Training in the Marquette program is the very large group of Ryan Bedford, Kristen Biondo, Kyle Carr, Kimberly Derrick, Adam Duncan, Tina Koenig, Joey Lindsey, Anthony Lobello, Sophia Milan, Amy Peterson, Katherine Reuter, Levi Sinak, Alex Strauss, Chris Weaver, Cherise Wilkins and Carly Wilson, as well as Shani Davis and Travis Jayner for the summer months.
Posted by noelle at 7:14 PM | Comments (7)