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ESPN Olympic Diaries Written by the man himself; originally published on ESPN.com Short World Cup schedule hurts ranking 10/9/2001 This year we're training hard trying to get everything prepared for the upcoming Olympics in February. We just finished our summer training and are getting ready for World Cup. Our relay team is the reigning world champion, so going into the Olympics, we're looked at as the medal favorite. There are a five World Cup competitions this year: two in Asia, one in North America and two in Europe. World Cup determines ranking, which determines seeding at the Olympics. After what happened on Sept. 11, we did not go to the Asia World Cups because we were supposed to leave Sept. 13. That brought us down to three World Cup competitions. To make it worse, our U.S. Olympic trials are the same time as the European World Cup, so we aren't going. That takes us down to one World Cup -- making our ranking even worse. Last year, I did three World Cups and I wasn't even in the top ten, so imagine what my ranking will be with only one World Cup. The possibility is high that I'll have some really hard people in the first round at the Olympics. The first competition that we are going to is the World Cup in Calgary, Canada. They start in a week. Then after that we have an Olympic qualifying event where everyone in the world has to compete in Salt Lake City to get spots for their country in the Salt Lake Olympics. So those are our first two competitions of the year before Olympic trials in December. Right now we're getting ready to go to the World Cup, so we're peaking our training. We go from doing real hard long laps to less volume and higher intensity. In the past two weeks, I've actually broken two different world records -- one in the 1,000 and the other in the 500. So I'm feeling pretty confident right now. I'm ready to go to these world cups and skate well. Here's an idea of our normal training week: Monday: Ice skating from 7:30 to 10:45 a.m. Go back to the training center and have 2½ to 3 hours off. About 2:30 p.m. we lift weights -- power cleans, squats and different exercises specific to skating. Then you just have the rest of the night to yourself. Tuesday: Ice skating from 7:30-10:45 a.m. In the afternoon, we go for a 45-minute run. Then at night we skate for another hour and we play hockey and do drills to get more power. Wednesday: It's an easier day for us. We skate in the morning. Then in the afternoon we have a two-hour bike ride. At night you have one hour of ice that is optional if you want to work on something specific. Thursday: It's a pretty intense ice session most of the time from 7:30 to 10:45 a.m. In the afternoon, weights again. Friday: It's also usually a pretty hard day on the ice in the morning. In the afternoon, we have either an hour run or a two-hour bike ride. Saturday: In the morning, two hours of ice, high intensity, low volume. We get the afternoon off. Sunday: It's is our day off. Usually do a half hour or 45 minutes of run and stretching. That's a pretty typical week. Once a week there's usually a third workout -- on any day that you need one. Next week, I'll be able to tell you more about our first competition. Training hard, traveling on 10/16/2001 In the past week, we've been getting ready for the first World Cup of the season in Calgary, Canada. We've slowed our training down to make it a little more specific to get us ready for racing, so we would be a little more rested, refreshed and able to skate faster when we arrived in Calgary. The training's been going well, but an eventful trip kept us from being as rested once we arrived. Most of our team had left for a different competition, so there was only two of us training last week. We got more specific training with our coach and were actually working out a little bit harder. The weekend was fairly relaxing as we just packed everything up and got ready to start traveling. Because of the new travel restrictions, we got new suitcases so we could put our skates under the plane rather than carry them on. We were getting ready to leave for our noon flight on Monday when we got a phone call from our National Governing Body telling us our flight was canceled. So we turned around and went to practice. After practice we got another call telling us we'd be on the 7 p.m. flight that wouldn't arrive in Calgary until midnight. To make it even better, we had to skate at 8 a.m. the next day. We got into Calgary - through all the airports - and everything seemed fine. We went through customs and then went to pick up our luggage. That's when we realized that there was police banner tape up all through the airport in the area where we're standing to get our luggage. There were ambulances and police - everything there. While we standing there waiting - which took an awful, awful long time - with the police standing around, we noticed three or four people in full white hazardous material outfits walking through. Two minutes later, there was a Middle Eastern gentleman walking out in handcuffs wearing a white suit, too. One of the police officers told us that he had some unidentified white powder on him. It took us 45 minutes to get our bags. But it was even more fun waking up at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning to go skating. It makes for a funny travel experience because it seems every time you go to an airport something goes wrong. First World Cup goes well 10/23/2001 The first few days of training in Calgary, Canada were good. We got there and got everything setup after the horrible travel nightmare of last week. Things went pretty well Thursday, the first day of World Cup competition in the 1,500 meters. It's hard to know what to expect because you haven't had a competition since March. To make it even worse, I knew it was going to be a hard race because we had no World Cup points, which determine placement, so I was interested to see who I had in my first round. My first race, I felt like I had been skating in competitions all along. Because of the extra competitors we had four rounds, but I reached the semifinals expecting to do well. It was a tough race. I was sitting in second place with about a lap to go and there was a pass on the outside from a Korean that was a little questionable. I fell in the last corner and ended up in fifth place. The referees didn't see it quite the way I did. I ended up being eighth overall in the 1,500, which is a decent placing, but I expect a lot more out of myself. The day wasn't over yet. We had a 5,000-meter relay where we had to go for time because that was the only way we could qualify for the World Championships in March. It consists of eight exchanges of a lap and a half -- and you have to race at a 100 percent each time you go out. In the middle of the race with about 16 laps to go, my teammate Apolo Anton Ohno had a real bad slip and fell into the wall. His helmet flew off. He got up three different times but fell each time. It was very scary. When a teammate falls, we have to make a tag and then race with only three people for a chance to finish in the top two spots. Dan Weinstein, Ron Biondo and I skated real well and qualified. I really looked forward to the second day of competition because my mother, Paula, flew in from Winnipeg, Canada. I hadn't seen her since this competition at Calgary the year before. It meant more to me to have my mom in the stands. I was looking forward to the 500-meter event -- plus it's one of my better races -- so I was really excited about it. I won my first two rounds, no problem. In the quarterfinals, I had a world champion to my left and the Nagano gold medalist on the right. In the 500 meters, you have a specific dot that you stand over to show lane position. I was standing right over my dot, but the Korean World Champion tried to push me over to give him more room off his start. As he pushed, I slapped his hand off of me, and the whole crowd reacted. He tried to do it again -- putting his hand on my hip -- and I slapped his hand away again. The referee got involved and realized the Korean was in the wrong spot and moved him over. I had the whole crowd behind me at this point. I ended up getting started third off the line. It was a real fast race. With a lap and a half to go, I made a real nice pass on the Korean. As I was passing him, he actually tried to hit me to get me disqualified, but I was so far past he didn't get a chance. I ended up getting second in the race and qualifying for the semifinals. In the semifinal I was the first one out of the blocks and kept leading the race. I knew I was going pretty fast, but I didn't realize how fast. I led the race all the way into the last corner. But as I came out of it, I put my left skate down and the ice broke out from under me. I went into the wall at 35 mph and finished third, so I didn't qualify for the final. If I had stayed up, I would have broken the world record. But the day wasn't over yet. We had to go for our best time in the 1,500 meters. Our American record is 7:03 from the 1998 Olympics. We had to skate 6:55 to even have a chance to qualify. Ohno had a slight concussion after the first day but came out and skated. We skated a perfect race breaking the American record by 15 seconds and skating 6:48. We were extremely pleased with ourselves and qualified for the final the next day. On Saturday, our last day of competition, I reached the semifinals of the 1,000 meters. There I faced the current world champion, a former world champion, the reigning World Cup leader and the Canadian record holder. With about six laps to go, two Koreans were in front. Team skating is illegal but does happen, so tried to make a difficult pass around the outside to keep them from being in the front the whole time. As I made my attempt, the man in second place moved wide and used his hand to keep me from passing. Finally, I was able to pass him and with three laps to go was leading. One of the Koreans passed me, but I was still sitting in second place with a ½ lap to go, but a couple of bad passes shoved me into fifth place, which is where I finished. Overall in the competition, I finished sixth. I wanted to be higher than that, but I was skating well for a first competition. We had our 5,000-meter relay final. We went out and skated really well, but one of my teammates made a pass that wasn't the best early in the race. We didn't know if we were going to get called for it or not. We ended up taking second place behind first-place Korea. Then Korea and our team was disqualified, so third-place Japan ended up winning the gold. Being disqualified was a disappointment, but we know we can do a lot better. Ohno recovered from his earlier spill and his performances gave him a second-place overall finish at the World Cup. Right now, I'm in Salt Lake City getting ready for the Olympic qualifier that we have this week. My main goal is to help qualify the U.S. team to have a full amount of spots (two) at the Olympics -- we just have to make the top 32 overall. Our relay team has already qualified. My secondary goal is to try to break the 500-meter world record this weekend. A tough weekend will help training 10/30/2001 We got everything set up for the Olympic qualifiers in Salt Lake City. The first thing we did was go to the Delta Center, where the Olympics will be held. It was the first time that we've been there that they had ice down. The rink was pretty warm, so the ice was pretty slow the first couple of days that we were there. The slower the ice, the harder it is for us to skate because our blades are so thin that you sink in and it takes much more energy to get around the corners. They don't have ice down all the time. During the Olympics we'll be skating with figure skating at the same time. The figure skaters are going to want it to be a little soft so they can get their toe in the ice. For speed skating, we want it harder so it's faster. But they also have some pretty good people working on the ice, and by the end of this weekend they got it working pretty well. For our sport, the faster the ice is the better we can skate. When the ice is soft, slower skaters can become more of a factor. Thursday was our first distance race -- the 1,500 meters. Going into the semifinal, I adjusted my strategy because of the slow ice, staying in the back a little longer. With about four laps to go, I decided to pick up the pace and try for the lead. Things were going well and with one lap to go I was in second place. Then I was passed again and didn't qualify for the final because I finished third. It was real disappointing for me. It's a difficult race for me, and I wasn't real happy with myself. But it made me realize what I need to work on between now and the Olympics. So that gave me something positive to look at. I need to get a little bit more endurance work in. Right now, I'm probably faster than anybody else in the world, and my tactics are good. So I need to build up my energy. Endurance also gives me more confidence in any race that no matter what anyone does, I'm ready for it. My 500 went well in the first round, but my next round I got a bad start. Without realizing what was going on the bell rang, indicating one lap remaining, and I was in fourth place. I tried to pass, but slower skaters were blocking the way. I ended up getting third. It was very frustrating because it was such a joke of a race, I should have won. The 500 is a big gamble all the time. Just because you're faster, you can never count on it to be the race for you because sometimes in 4½ laps there's not enough time to do anything. The 1,000 meter was my last individual race. I was so frustrated with the others, I wanted to make it go well. I was in the semifinal, which went exactly the way I wanted. I made an outside pass to move into the front with four laps to go. I was leading the race and pulling away from the other two guys in the race with 2½ laps to go. Then, like in Calgary, I put my boot on the ice with my blade not touching and I went into the wall. I ended up getting third in the race and ended up being fifth overall in the 1,000. It's really frustrating skating as well as I am and not winning the races that I know I should. It's just real hard for me, but these are the things that anger me and make me want to keep going. I want to make sure I don't ever do it again. I'm glad it's still October, so I have a few months to make sure it's going the right way. I wanted to be in the top 32 at the qualifiers to get in our spots in the Olympics and we accomplished that. The last day was the most important for the U.S. team in the 5,000 meter relay. We were already qualified for it, so we didn't have a lot of pressure on us, but we wanted to go out there and show everyone that we deserved to be world champions last year. We made it into the semifinals against Korea and Japan. Our team skated well, and we made it into the final by beating Korea in the last lap. During the final, it was probably the four best teams in the world: the United States, China, Canada and Korea. That was the race where we wanted to show how good we were. Our whole team came together well and we ended up passing Canada in the last lap to get second place with Korea finishing just in front of us. It was a good starting point for us to realize where we are as a team and what we need to do. The weekend gave me a good baseline, so I can continue my training and figure out where I want to go with it. It's getting close to November now and I'm feeling very, very confident with my skating. I'm skating better than I ever have, and I can see some room for improvement. I know that the next couple of weeks are going to be really, really hard training and I'm ready for that. Just so I can reach my ultimate goal of skating my best in February. Training fills most days 11/6/2001 I've been back in Colorado Springs, Colo., for about a week. My life right now mostly consists of training and a little work. I've been battling with a little bit of an injury. Last weekend, I fell and hurt my elbow. I've been going into sports med and getting it looked at every day. I had X-rays taken, and they say I'm fine. It's difficult right now, but I'm fortunate that it's only my elbow. It's difficult to sleep and to do some workouts because I don't have range of motion in my arm. Training is starting to get hard again. The past couple of days, we've started to buckle down. We're starting to do three workouts a day for four times a week to get a little endurance training in. There are only five weeks until the Olympic trials, so we want to make sure we're getting stronger going up to that point. There's a competition this weekend for every speed skater in the United States except for two of us. It'll be a good way to judge how everyone else is skating before the trials. When I'm not training, I'm just relaxing. We start training at 7 a.m. and go to 6 at night -- with some recovery downtime between workouts. At 6 p.m., I go to work at Home Depot. I have an Olympic job though the United States Olympic Committee where I work 20 hours a week and get paid for 40 hours. I work in the hardware department helping people get all the tools they need for building projects. There are a lot of regulars who ask me how skating is going, and my co-workers are interested in how I'm progressing. My life consists of training, and every once in a while, like last week, I get to see a college hockey game. I also went to see a movie on Sunday with some friends -- Monsters, Inc., which was good. Unfortunately, I suggested going early to avoid the crowds, and the movie was packed with families. Despite the injury, training is going well. I'm trying to get stronger and stay focused on my ultimate goal: to make the Olympic team and bring home two or three medals. A quick trip home 11/16/2001 Last weekend, I went back to Los Angeles to work with my coach at home. But when I got home, I found out that I had a bunch of interviews that I had to do. Interviews are fun, but they are real time-consuming, so it cut down on a lot of the extra time that I had to spend with my coach. I had a five-hour interview with a local television station. They went surfing with me. They went to work with me at Home Depot. And of course, they were at the rink with me. It was different being at work in California. I haven't seen a lot of those people since May. They were all like, "I thought you were in the middle of doing something…" I still had a pretty good time at home. I was able to go surfing and hang out with my friends - something I don't get to do very often. My father and my brother both live in L.A. and I got to see them for a little bit. When I'm in California I love to get chili dogs at Weiner Schnitzel, but with my training I had to withhold myself from going there. It's one of the first times I went home and didn't get it. But I ate a lot of Mexican food that made up for it. I was able to work with my personal coach, Wilma Boomstra, on two different days. She had a couple of little points to work on. It was a good time to go home and make some adjustments in my skating. She's been my personal coach for the past three years. She's good at technical things. We have a real good relationships, I call her and tell her how skating's going. It's tough because she doesn't get to see me on a daily basis and for me to describe technical stuff over the phone is difficult. But I also send videos to her, and she gives me feedback on those. Everything at home went well and then I flew back to Colorado Springs, Colo., on Monday. It was unnerving finding out that a plane crashed and then having to get on a flight that morning. It's not something you can really worry about because if something is going to happen it will happen, but it's not the greatest experience to go to the airport thinking about a crash. I've got another three weeks before I leave for Olympic trials, so I'm really trying to focus on work here and make every day count. Training and skating are going really well right now, so I'm really happy. Hanging in there 12/18/2001 I drove 600 miles from Colorado Springs to Salt Lake City and got here on Dec. 10 before the Olympic Trials. I actually got on the ice that night -- I just put on the skates and skated around a little bit. I felt pretty good skating-wise, but felt like I was coming down with a bit of a cold. Tuesday morning we had practice on ice in preparation for everything. We had some faster laps and my skates felt good. So I was happy with the way things were going. Then on Wednesday morning I woke up and if it had been a normal day, I wouldn't have gotten out of bed. I was feeling sick but went to practice. On Thursday, the day before competition, I felt really, really sick. That night my mom came to town to watch the trials, and she tired to give me stuff to make me feel better -- besides medication. I don't take any cold medication because drug testing is pretty strict. There are a few things you can take, but they don't seem to do any good at all. My first race was a time trial. Apolo Ohno did his time trial right before mine and did a really good one. Usually, I beat him by 1- to 2-tenths of a second in the 1,000-meter time trial, so I was curious to see how I'd do. My first five laps were pretty good but the last four started hurting pretty badly. I ended up finishing 3 or 4 seconds behind Apolo and getting third place instead of second. That was kind of hard, also. So going into the competition, I was already one step behind. On the first day of competition, we had the 500 meters. I was happy with what I was doing and when I got into the final round, two of the guys fell right next me so Apolo got way ahead before I even started going. He ended up winning, and I got second in the race. The next day was the 1,500 meter race. I didn't feel as bad as the day before, but the 1,500 meters is a more difficult race. Also everyone knew I was sick, so I expected that they would try and make me tired. In the final of the 1,500, a couple of guys decided they were going to wear me out and took off going fast early. But in the end, it was just me and Apolo out front -- we dropped everyone back pretty convincingly. The last couple of laps I couldn't pass him, so I finished just behind him as he got the world record. The next day we had the 1,000 meter race. I didn't feel any better, but things went well each round. The top four guys were in the final, and I was sitting in third place with five laps to go. I knew I needed to move up. I made a pass from third place to first, but right away I knew it was going to be tough to win with four laps to go sitting in first with Apolo right behind me. With a lap and half to go, he ended up passing me and beating me at the line. That was the first half of the competition and the next half starts on Thursday. That gives us three days off, and I'm getting better. As of now, I'm in second place. I'm getting beat, but with my sickness I think I'm doing pretty well. I expect a lot more out of next weekend. The top six skaters go to the Olympics, but the top two in each distance actually skate. The time trial counts in the 1,000 meter and the 1,500 meter distances -- so getting third really hurts. I've been training for this exact moment and getting sick just didn't help things out. The guy in third place is closer than I want him to be. I'm sitting second in every distance, but someone can move in front of me if I don't continue to skate well. Meeting the goal 12/27/2001 After a nasty cold in the first week of Olympic trials, I started feeling better on the day before the second week began. I still didn't feel 100 percent, but the improvement was good. The first event was a four-lap time trial, which is one of my best events. So I went into it expecting to win it. We have block chasers who get the blocks out of the way if someone kicks them. The guy I was paired with kicked a lot of them so there were blocks all over the track. In the last lap, as I came around the corner there were two blocks in the way, and I hit one and went a little wide coming out of the next corner, which slows you down. The next corner had the same problem and I went wide again -- because if you step on them it hurts really bad when you fall. I ended up getting beat in the time trial by a 10th of a second. I was going to have a re-skate after talking to the referees. I decided not to risk it because I was already in second place and it was more important to me to stay in second place then risk not getting the points because of a fall or another problem. After that there was the 1,500 meter. I knew I had to get at least third place to qualify for an individual spot at the Olympics. I ended up getting third place in the race and reached the main goal -- to get that spot to skate individually in Salt Lake City. On Friday, we had the 500-meter. I wanted to try and break the world record so that going into the Olympics I'd have the world record. In the semifinals, I missed breaking it by a 10th of a second. In the final, I was in lane three off the start and got off the line in third place. The whole race I was trying to go from third to first and every time I set up a pass the ice broke out from under me. So I ended up getting third in the race but the difference in time from first to third place was seven-hundreths of a second. Apolo Anton Ohno, who won, ended up getting an American record and missed the world record by less than a 10th of a second. I ended up qualifying for the 500 individual with the third-place finish. The last day of the competition was the 1,000 meter. It was the race that the points were the closest and that I was going to have to skate the hardest to qualify for individually. On Saturday, I felt the best I had that week, so going into the day I was pretty confident. The first two rounds went fine. In the final, I had to beat Ron Biondo to skate individually in the Olympics. I worked out my strategy to at least beat him. The race was pretty fast. Shani Davis had to win the race to make the Olympic team, so he was in front leading most of the race. I sat in second place most of the race knowing it was my best chance to win. With about three laps to go, I tried to make a pass but the ice broke out from under me so I wasn't able to make it. I looked behind me to see if I was going to get passed and I noticed that there was some space between me and Apolo, who was in third, with Biondo behind him. I had a little bit of breathing room, so I decided that I would just sit in that spot and not try to pass because the last thing I needed to do was fall and not make it to skate in the individual. I ended up getting second place in the race and got the individual spot. There seemed to be some controversy surrounding the race. We had a lot of reporters asking why we -- me and Apolo -- didn't win the race. The thing that people don't understand is that you don't always have to win to qualify and it's not worth making a stupid pass and risking an injury when you're in a qualifying position. To win the U.S. Olympic trial was not a big deal but to win the gold medal, that's the goal. So unfortunately the media blew it out of proportion a little bit. It was unfair to Shani -- especially making his first Olympic team and having people say it was given to him. Apolo and I are the only two who qualified for all three individual distances and the relay. So now the weekend is over it's nice to feel a little more relaxed and just get ready for the Olympics. I'm back in Los Angeles for a few days for the holidays to see my family. I also was asked to be in the Rose Parade on the Home Depot float. I work for Home Depot through their Olympic Job program, where you work part time but get full-time pay. The parade should be a lot of fun and a good experience.