Apollo Anton Ohno is taking up Boardercross and will use Alpine Boards

[bumpyride]

Apollo Anton Ohno has decided to take up Boardercross on an Alpine Board. In an interview just after the Dancing With The Stars Finale where he beat the flashier but less technically proficient Joey Fatone for the title, the Short Track speed skater said it's just a natural progression of Short Track. He said that the dynamics of holding an edge and accelerating out of a turn make him a natural for Boardercross, and the only tool that makes any sense is a alpine board. He didn't mention any prefered equipment or brands but was adamant that an Alpine board was much like a Short Track Skate and was very confident that he could cross train and be successful.

Just think of the additional exposure that will give alpine.

[pebu]

Assuming he's regular of course, he'll be really good at heal sides, but those toesides will be pesky.

[Jack M]

I knew I liked that guy for some reason.

[Cindy Kleh]

Has he ever even snowboarded? Those huge hits in pro BX courses have nothing in common with speed skating. Got to give him credit for being ballsy.

[GeoffV]

I knew I liked that guy for some reason.

yeah Jackie likes his tight pants :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Sinecure]

Someone should tell him about Snowperformance's upcoming carving camp at Hood. He could benefit from the training.

I'm in Seattle today and he was on the front page of the local paper because of his dancing prowess.

Does this mean we all need to grow a soul patch? Jim Farr has the jump on all of us on that front.

[bumpyride]

Apollo Anton Ohno has made some clarifications to his statements concerning his Boadercross endeavor. He has said that because of his small stature and exceptional foot speed (as evidenced by the sparkling Mirrorball Dancing with the Stars Trophy) and lower body transitional rate coupled with his skills garnered through Short Track racing and especially collision avoidance, he expects to finish in the medals very early in his racing carreer.

He is also designing his own Boardercross Alpine Board and will call it "THE SOUL BLADE".

When asked to showcase his speedy footwork he simply said, "Wanna see it again?"

[tex1230]

"THE SOUL BLADE".

Donek?

[Allee]

Apollo Anton Ohno has made some clarifications to his statements concerning his Boadercross endeavor. He has said that because of his small stature and exceptional foot speed (as evidenced by the sparkling Mirrorball Dancing with the Stars Trophy) and lower body transitional rate coupled with his skills garnered through Short Track racing and especially collision avoidance, he expects to finish in the medals very early in his racing carreer.

I wasn't aware that exceptional foot speed helps when they're strapped into bindings. And did nobody tell him that gravity favours the big guy? Duh.

I think he can expect to get flattened and that's about all, but it should make for better TV than American Idol.

[Terryw]

Perhaps he believes that his soul blade will get him out in front of the pack early, and thus be able to avoid the colisions.

[Phil]

I wasn't aware that exceptional foot speed helps when they're strapped into bindings.

A lot of hardbooters aren't aware of this. If they were, we would have a lot more expert hardbooters. I know these sound like fighting words, but that is not my intent. There is a lot more to racing (something of which I am not an expert) than the "tip it and rip it" style that most hardbooters employ.

1. The guy is an olympic athlete.

2. He knows more about edging on ice than most people here.

3. He knows more about angulation and body position than most people here.

I believe that there are huge benefits of being a speed skater (and dancer) that will cross over to riding alpine and racing BX. He is a little guy, but I think that he will be pretty good.

[mackDan]

Assuming he's regular of course, he'll be really good at heal sides, but those toesides will be pesky.

No bet he's goofy, those guys are all turning left and leading with the right foot.

[Allee]

AI believe that there are huge benefits of being a speed skater (and dancer) that will cross over to riding alpine and racing BX. He is a little guy, but I think that he will be pretty good.

Guess we'll see. I was an elite level rollerskater and spent three seasons in the national speed squad as a teenager, and I'm an appalling snowboarder. It took me days to learn to just stand up.

But Dan H is right - I'm goofy! :)

[carvedog]

I wasn't aware that exceptional foot speed helps when they're strapped into bindings. And did nobody tell him that gravity favours the big guy? Duh.

I think he can expect to get flattened and that's about all, but it should make for better TV than American Idol.

Nice to get the press and 2nd that bit about better TV.

Reminds me of the head of the ski school at Big Mtn. that I taught snowboarding to years ago. First he was a young athletic guy, tons of ski racing including some time on the World Cup ( I think) third he knew how to listen.

Literally on his first run he railing the board and making sweet carves. It was certainly not my expert instruction that caused this.

So who knows give the kid a shot, maybe he will surprise. Athletes at a certain level cross over kind of quick compared to the Clydesdales in the crowd ( that would be me). Think of the Palm going to mtn bikes and ski cross and now car racing or something else now.

[skategoat]

How old is he? Has he even seen the jumps on an Olympic level course? No sane adult is going to hit those at full speed. You have to learn to do that when you're 14 and made of rubber.

I'm taking bets that the guy is a complete bust. Like Allee says, SBX favours the big guy, not someone built like Prince.

It cracks me up when an athlete thinks he can just transition from one sport to another. They almost always fail. Michael Jordan, Grant Fuhr (hasn't made a dime as a pro golfer), all the track athletes who try to play pro football. Pure hubris.

[felix]

Let's make some bets or a poll and lets see in two years. I predict he never ever makes it through to the top 16 (Quarterfinals) in a worldcup BX event.

If a serious skier announces the switch he will stand a chance, but a small guy and more of a dancer?

[Pow]

I dont care how well he does, I just want to see that crazy board he's designed:biggthump

[skategoat]

Nice to get the press and 2nd that bit about better TV.

Reminds me of the head of the ski school at Big Mtn. that I taught snowboarding to years ago. First he was a young athletic guy, tons of ski racing including some time on the World Cup ( I think) third he knew how to listen.

Literally on his first run he railing the board and making sweet carves. It was certainly not my expert instruction that caused this.

So who knows give the kid a shot, maybe he will surprise. Athletes at a certain level cross over kind of quick compared to the Clydesdales in the crowd ( that would be me). Think of the Palm going to mtn bikes and ski cross and now car racing or something else now.

Definitely more the exception than the rule. I know many expert skiers who tried snowboarding once and only once.

[bumpyride]

Donek?

Speculation is that Chris Prior is in design phase with Ohno on his board. The word is that they have developed a high density polymer afixed to the tip of the board, that dampens not only vibrations but heavier impacts and has an added bonus of being shaped like an airfoil when on the snow and releases after the tip leaves the snow surface. The idea behind it the release point is so that when airborne the tip of the board doesn't dive. They have done this by striating the polymer into hair-like fibers that react to pressure and return to a "memory" shape when the pressure is relieved. This will look much like "Yeti Fur" and be very prominent on the tip. I believe they're calling it the "Soul Patch".

[FTA2R]

part of me thinks it's some type of joke...this whole apollo thing.

" not someone built like Prince"

only thing even remotely close b/w these two is the height, and apollo has several inches on prince.

uh, apollo has some serious strength and endurance in his legs. it's a safe bet to say much more so than guys significantly bigger than his. he was religious about his workouts and nutrition and to copmete at that level in that sport, you gotta have some serious jets- likely both white and red muscle types , fast and slow-twitch.

"APOLO OHNO| Short-track speed skatingPart’s role: His quads routine: Trains thighs daily throughskating sessions plus “dry-land” plyometrics —jumping and hopping exercises while crouchedin a skating position. He takes occasional one-hour bike rides, weaving in two short cyclingsprints. Twice each week, Ohno isolates thequads with weight machines but doesn’t countsets and reps. Instead, he does the exercises inintervals of two minutes or longer. Weightamounts vary depending on interval length.Here are some target weights for his four quad-isolating exercises: loaded squat machine, 600 to700 pounds; leg extensions, 140 to 160 pounds;leg curls, 140 to 160 pounds.

160 pounds for 2 min. straight...don't know about you guys, but i don't know anyone who could do that.

[Jim]

Has he ever even snowboarded? Those huge hits in pro BX courses have nothing in common with speed skating. Got to give him credit for being ballsy.

Eric Heiden dated my neighbor in San Diego after winning big in the olympics. I think Schwinn picked him up as a rider. His legs were huge, but that didn't convert to wins in rode racing.

[Steve Prokopiw]

Actually Heiden did win a few including the first USRPO Cycling Championship in 1985.He also went to the Tour in 86.He probably would have been a big cycling star but decided to pursue career in medicine after some injuries ,from what I remember reading back then.Speed skating actually has had a few crossover successes in cycling,but I would have to agree with the previous point about the jumps in BX.That's a whole different thing.

[NateW]

I assume that Ohno's strength and endurance are substantially better than most folks in the series (I'm sure they're no slouches, but neither were the people Ohno beat in the Olympics). I also assume that he's got fewer hours of experience with snowboarding than most folks in the series (but how do we know he hasn't been carving for years?).

Seems to me that it comes down to a question of whether his (assumed) greater-than-average fitness outweighs his (assumed) lesser-than-average experience.

I wouldn't be surprised either way, but I'm hoping he kicks some ass, because I think the extra publicity for hardbooting would be a good thing.

[skategoat]

Eric Heiden dated my neighbor in San Diego after winning big in the olympics. I think Schwinn picked him up as a rider. His legs were huge, but that didn't convert to wins in rode racing.

Heiden also tried hockey in Europe. He was actually not a bad puck handler but he couldn't turn right.

[pebu]

I took ice skating in college.. One of the excersizes was to get up some speed and then coast as far as you could on one foot. I'm regular, so it was obviously my left foot, but one of the things that suprised me was I could go around the rink counter clockwise (left turns) forever, but as soon as I tried turning right I'd lean in too far and have to set my right foot down... Just seemed odd to me.