Ohno Zone

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September 23, 2006

Apolo and Raju Rai

Thanks to Sonia for sending in this article about Apolo and his badminton buddy, Raju Rai (who is national men's singles champion). The piece appeared in a recent issue of a badminton newsletter.

Posted by noelle at 3:09 PM | Comments (14)

September 21, 2006

US Olympic Committee | Catching up with Apolo Ohno

Awesome, in-depth Q&A with Apolo via the USOC media services. I haven't even had time to read the whole thing yet! Apolo sounds like he's bubbling over with ideas, plans and enthusiasm:

“I would like to bring Olympic sports or at least the struggle that athletes go through to the public. People don’t really see what the Olympic athletes go through in between the quads. There’s a lot of Americans that are interested who would want to watch a real reality show. I have so many ideas, but I would be really interested in trying to create and orchestrate something that gives the Olympic athletes and those that are in contention for a medal more spotlight. There’s nothing better than watching real people’s lives. There’s a lot of heartache and a lot of success that goes through the Olympic Training doors. That’s pretty powerful.”

And speaking of yesterday's news on coaching hires :

Speedskating no longer has a head coach; are you doing anything to help them find someone new?
“I’ve been working hard on trying to find someone to take over the new head coaching position. I’m like the only one who’s been able to grind and get some coaches to interview. So it’s been a little frustrating.”

Why is there such a high turnover rate for coaching in Speedskating?
“Mismanagement—I’ve had 11 coaches since I’ve been skating. That’s 11 coaches in the past 10 years. It’s kind of crazy.”

And on the topic that's been on everyone's minds for months:

Is there a timetable that you’ve set to announce if you will try to compete in 2010?
“Sometime this year, I will decide. I don’t know when it will be. It could be in two weeks, a week. It could be four months from now. I don’t know. There are some things that have to be in order. There has to be the right coaches there, the right teammates there to help train, the funding has to be available and my own personal sponsors have to be there.

Let's not forget the truly important matters:

Just recently, the past couple of years, I’ve been getting someone else to cut my hair, and my hair is different now because of it. It’s flat. I don’t know what the deal is. And my dad tells me that, ‘Your cut is messed up, Apolo-san! You’re cut is all messed up’.

And much, much more, including Apolo musing on his life 10 years from now. Read the whole thing!

Posted by noelle at 1:52 PM | Comments (68)

September 20, 2006

And we have a coach!

Some exciting news to report...

A new national team coach has at long last been chosen to guide the short trackers in Colorado Springs... none other than Kim Ki-hoon, the legendary South Korean skater who also led the Korean team for a season or two after the Salt Lake games.

US Speedskating has also secured the services of former Canadian national coach Guy Thibault. Guy will assume the newly created position of High Performance Director, overseeing both the short track and long track programs for USS. In the past, Guy had coached long track in the US and is a two-time Olympian for Canada, so he has a lot of experience in both disciplines.

Still to be hired: managing directors of LT and of ST.

A warm welcome to both men!

Posted by noelle at 1:14 PM | Comments (20)