Passage to Paradise 2004

Great news for California fans! For the second year running, Apolo will attend the Passage to Paradise 2004 benefit for Kristi Yamaguchi's Always Dream Foundation. Sonia sent in the invite listing Apolo and the other celebrity guests:

click for full-size image

For more information, see alwaysdream.org.

Photos from Apolo's 1500m heat

Resuming the Sweden photo fest - this series is from the start of Apolo's 1500m heat, which he won.

Yawning - or psyching out the competition?

originally posted 3/19/04

World Cup #6- Bormio, Italy- 3000m Superfinal

Download the race video, courtesy of Maggie

Chul Lee, Alex Izykowski and Apolo Ohno at Nationals (1996)

image courtesy Al Izykowski

Al Izykowski writes:

I remember taking this picture at the National Championships in St. Louis. It was Alex's first National meet after his first full year of skating and it was the first time we saw Apolo skate. Alex was in the midget division and I believe Apolo was in the juvenile division. It was even obvious back then that Apolo had a special gift for this sport. I don't think Alex could have imagined at that point that they would someday be living and training together.

The other skater in the photo is Chul Lee. He hasn't been around much the last few years, but he too was a very talented youngster. I don't know who the character on the left is nor do I recognize any of the people in the background. I thought you might get a grin out of an "early Apolo" photo.

Thanks, Izy pop!

Update on Efforts to Combat Comment Spam

You no longer have to preview your comments before posting them. I restored the 'post' button because forcing preview was not preventing spammers from plying their evil trade in the archived comments. I've implemented more robust spam-fighting measures instead, via a fantastic program called MT-Blacklist, which catches and deletes comment spam behind the scenes.

Nothing changes for legitimate comment posters on OZ. However, your comments may post even more slowly now than before. Therefore, when posting comments, I highly recommend you close the comment window as soon as you post your comment. You can then reopen the comment window and you'll see it's already been posted.

Thanks for your patience everyone. Either the spammers go, or we do, and I have no intention of letting the bad guys win!