J.R. Celski of the United States (pictured above) captured the Gold at the Short Track Speedskating World Championships in Vienna this past weekend in the men’s 3000m event. He was followed by South Korea’s Lee Ho-suk and Canada’s Charles Hamelin.

In the men’s 1000m, former Olympic champion Apollo Anton Ohno was bested by Lee and finished second. Celski finished third in that event.

The US won the men’s 5000 relay, with China and Japan finishing second and third respectively.

(photo credit: Newscom)

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World Short Track Speedskating Results

Olympic trials have begun now that we’re within one year of the Vancouver Games in February of 2010. Most recently held were the US qualifier for curling. Making the US team were Debbie McCormick and her team for the women and John Schuster and his team for the men.

Schuster is a returning Olympian. He was part of the Bronze-Medal-winning team in Turin in 2006. This is McCormick’s first Olympic opportunity.

Curling is a game played on ice with teams of four players each, who take turns pitching a granite stone towards a target (called a house) on the ice. Team members help the stone along with brooms.

(photo credit: Newscom)

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Mccormick, Schuster Seal Olympic Curling Berths

The 36-year-old Davis won three Golds in the 1996 Atlanta games and the silver in Sydney in 2000. All of his medals were in relay events.

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Olympic Swimmer’s Lost Medals Returned

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Vancouver Olympic Preview

The Winter Games of the 2009 Special Olympics began on February 7 in Idaho. The Games, which give individuals with intellectual disabilities a chance to compete, are featuring almost 3000 athletes from 100 countries. Participants will compete in seven sports, including figure skating, speed skating, floor hockey, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, shoeshowing, and snowboarding. The Games continue until February 13.

The Special Olympics were founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who had started a summer camp for those with intellectual disabilities at her home in Maryland in 1962. The first Winter Games were held in 1977. The organization is recognized by the International Olympic Committee, the only sports group permitted to use “Olympics” in its name.

^{(photo courtesy of the Special Olympics.)}

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Special Olympics Winter Games Begin

He’s 23 years old and 23 year-olds make mistakes. However, when you’re earning millions of dollars to endorse kid-friendly products like Wheaties, you really ought to be very, very careful. So, when pictures surfaced of Olympic swimmer and eight-time Gold Medalist, Michael Phelps smoking a pipe generally used for smoking marijuana, he jumped to apologize. As well he should. Said Phelps to the “Baltimore Sun,”

“It’s obviously bad judgment and it’s something I’m not proud of at all. I will say that with the mistakes that I’ve made in my life, I’ve learned from them. Every one of them. And I’ve become a better person. That’s what I plan to do from here. It’s definitely not what I wanted, and it’s clearly not what my mom wanted.”

To date, Phelps has kept all of his endorcement deals, although the US Olympic Committee did express its disappointment in him.

It bears mentioning that Phelps did not break any Olympic anti-doping rules since he was on a long break from competition at the time of the incident. (Civil laws are another story.)

(photo © Newscom)

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Phelps: He Inhaled…and He’s Sorry

More than 40 years since John Carlos and Tommie Smith made their silent, closed glove, “Black Power” salute at the Mexico City Games in 1968, ESPN has produced a documentary about the act that reverberated throughout the Olympic community and the world–”Return to Mexico City,” which will air on February 15 at 4pm and several more times throughout February. The film talks with Carlos and Smith and reviews the turmoil that followed them after Mexico City.

The pair received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY Awards in 2008.

^{(© Newscom)}

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Olympics and Black History Month: Mexico City

Mark Johnson (pictured above, left), part of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” men’s Gold-Medal Olympic hockey team is going to share his experience this year as the coach of the 2010 women’s Olympic hockey team. Johnson, who played for Wisconsin during college and for 11 seasons in the NHL, is currently the head coach of the Wisconson women’s hockey team, a team he led to the NCAA title game for the last three seasons, winning twice. Johnson will be taking a year’s leave of absense from his regular coaching duties for this Olympic opportunity.

“I just get goose pimples. I just get really excited,” Johnson told the “Associated Press” this week. “It’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m going to have a blast doing it.”

Tryouts for the team begin on August 10 in Blaine, Minnesota. The run-up to the Olympics includes ten exhibition games, starting September 25 as well as the 2009 Four Nations Cup in Finland in November.

^{(photo © Newscom)}

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Johnson to Lead US Women’s Hockey Team

Glenn “Jeep” Davis, and eight-time Big Ten champion in hurdles with Ohio State and three-time Olympic Gold Medalist, died this week at the age of 74. Davis won Gold in the 400m hurdles in the 1956 Melbourne Games as well as the 400m hurdles and 1600m relay in Rome in 1960. He also holds the Ohio State records for the outdoor 50-yard hurdles (6.1 seconds).

After the Olympics, Davis settled in Barberton, just outside of Akron, Ohio, where he was a high school teacher and coach for 33 years.

(photo © Newscom)

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Three-Time Gold Medalist, Davis Dies

The temperature may be hovering below freezing in Cleveland, but the atmosphere in Quicken Loans Arena was anything but frosty Saturday night for the Championship Ladies Free Skate. A near-capacity crowd watched as 21-year-old, Ohio native, Alissa Czisny won the competition over two up-and-coming skaters—16-year-old Rachael Flatt and 15-year-old Caroline Zhang.

Czisny wasn’t perfect. She won the short program and placed third in the free skate, but her elegant lines and graceful style won the appreciation of the well-versed spectators as did her stellar performance after finishing ninth in last year’s competition. Also impressive, if somewhat raw, was Flatt’s performance in the free skate. The long-legged teenager hasn’t received the press attention that her competitors have, but she seamlessly combined athleticism and grace. She’s sure to be someone to watch as we approach the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.

The US Figure Skating Championships conclude on Sunday with the men’s free skate in the afternoon and the Smucker’s Skating Spectacular exhibition in the evening. If you happen to be in Cleveland, tickets are still available to both events. Otherwise, the men’s competition is being televised on NBC.

^{(photo © Newscom)}

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Czisny Wins Ladies Title at US Figure Skating Championships