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April 22, 2006
Public service announcement
Two members of the OZ community have very worthy charitable initiatives going on.
The first is from Anne Reeves in New Jersey, raising money for cancer awareness and research, in honor of her father who is fighting prostate cancer. The second is from Canadian skater Bryan McSorley, who's doing a bike ride to raise money for multiple sclerosis and his roomate, fellow Canadian speed skater Crystal Phillips, who has MS.
1. Rock 'n Roll 4 Cancer
Saturday, June 17, 2006, 2-5pm
Inline Skating
Music
Silent Auction ...and much, much more!
Chelsea Piers
Roller Rink & Pavilion, Pier 62
New York, NY 10011
Bring your own inline skates & equipment or rent them at Chelsea Piers. Benefits the American Cancer Society in the name of John P. Reeves who is currently fighting prostate cancer. For more details on the event, visit Rock 'n Roll 4 Cancer.
2. Rona MS Bike Tour
From Bryan: My roommate, Crystal Phillips has Multiple Sclerosis and she is organizing a team in the Rona MS Bike Tour here in Calgary, Alberta. A few of Canada's top long track speed skaters, and medal earners will be participating in this, as well as Olympian Alanna Kraus of short track.
Crystal was a member of the 2003 Canadian Short Track Junior World Team, and now trains in the Long Track program with myself at the Calgary Olympic Oval.
For Crystal's story in her own words, and to help Bryan meet his fundraising goal of $1,000, please visit Bryan's Rona MS Bike Tour page.
Posted by noelle at 2:04 PM | Comments (16)
April 20, 2006
Brian's boot-molding pics
Bri from OZ recently had his feet molded for new short track boots by Bruce Kohen, who makes SS Boots - the same boots Apolo uses. Here are pics and commentary from Bri:
Bruce molds Bri's feet
Colors for the boots' outer materials, including the red used on Apolo's boots
Plaster cast of Apolo's foot that Bruce used to make his boots!
Commentary from Bri:
The plaster itself was cold at first, but then we got warm water and that helped it set faster. I also had to position myself a certain way on it with weight on my heels.
As Bruce says, these boots are bar-none the strongest boots in the world. They're superlight, and very very difficult to even squeeze the top ankle area in. One of the many strengths of the boots is he has had no skater tell him that they've booted out because of the sidewall collapsing on them.
Bruce showed me a boot that was 3 years old and the boot looked practically new. I also notice something about his boots. They really do look like a foot, not the shape of a foot, but they look like a foot without socks on with mounting block attached to the bottom.
Note: Check out the SS Boots web site for a closeup view of Apolo's own skates! You can see they really DO look like a foot...
Posted by noelle at 9:16 PM | Comments (72)
April 18, 2006
Fun photos
More photos that Starangel passed along.
Apolo hams it up
Da-hye Jeon and Kyle Carr - we've missed you Kyle!
Da-hye Jeon and Anthony Lobello
Da-hye Jeon and Jonathan Guilmette
Charles Hamelin and Da-hye Jeon
Posted by noelle at 10:38 PM | Comments (62)
April 17, 2006
Young Apolo
Special thanks to Starangel for this shot! Fourteen year-old Apolo Ohno, grinning in back, and 16 year-old Caroline Hallisey with Korean skaters in 1996. Photo is by former Korean skater Sang-mi An, shown at lower right.
I didn't know Apolo was skating internationally that long ago!
Posted by noelle at 10:24 PM | Comments (80)
April 16, 2006
Photos from Worlds Day 1
More photos from Worlds... Somehow I didn't get any relay photos at all the first 2 days, so these are all of the 1500m events and some candids as well. Full gallery here
Men's 1500m final: Se-jong Oh, Rusty Smith, Nicola Rodigari, Hyun-soo Ahn
Kimberly Derrick skates in her 1500m heat
Charles Hamelin leads in his 1500m semi
Absent Apolo, I just concentrated on USA and Canada. Not really a departure from the usual!
Posted by noelle at 9:21 PM | Comments (44)
Results from Korean national team trials
Because I'm not sure how many people will wade through the 116+ comment thread below where this info was initially posted, I'm posting results here from the Korean team trials that took place this weekend (April 15 and 16).
The trials selected 15 men and 15 women who will take part in an additional selection event in September to determine the Korean national team for next season.
***
Overall – Male
1. Sung Si-baek (81 points)
2. Lee Ho-suk (63 points)
3. Ahn Hyun-soo (55 points)
4. Kim Hyun-gon (45 points)
5. Oh Se-jong (24 points)
6. Kim Byung-joon (23 points)
7. Ahn Joong-hyun (18 points)
8. Lee Seung-hoon (8 points)
9. Lee Hyun-sung (5 points)
10. Song Suk-woo
11. Cho Nam-kyu
12. Seo Ho-jin
13. Lee Seung-jae
14. Kim Tae-hoon
15. Song Kyung-taek
Overall – Female
1. Jin Sun-yu (81 points)
2. Byun Chun-sa (68 points)
3. Jung Eun-ju (43.5 points)
4. Park Sun-young (42 points)
5. Jeon Ji-su (26 points)
6. Kang Yun-mi (19.5 points)
7. Choi Jung-won (16points)
8. Choi Eun-kyung (13 points)
9. Ryu Bin-na (3 points)
10. Lee Ha-kyung
11. Cho Hae-ri
12. Jung Ba-ra
13. Kwon Su-hyun
14. Kim Min-jung
15. Kye Min-jung
Thanks much to Eun-mi for this info and please see her posts in the thread below this one for some fascinating additional commentary and details on the event results.
Posted by noelle at 9:03 PM | Comments (23)