Milwaukee or Bust

How the 2002 World Team Championships may have saved the U.S. fans from themselves

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by Corin Nguyen

10 October 2002   |   Apolo Anton Ohno. It's been obligatory since the Olympics for every article about short track in the U.S. to mention his name. I thought I would get it out of the way first. He didn't make it to the World Team Championships. In talking with various fans, I can only conclude that in the long run, the U.S. speedskating fans were much better off because of Apolo's no show.

Zenaida A., a 29 year old accounting clerk said, "I knew Apolo wasn't going to be there so I went to USSpeedskating to see who the rest of our guys were."

U.S. Olympic coverage wasn't exactly evenhanded. The media blitz on our golden boy was so prevalent you couldn't miss how the coverage fell short on the other US skaters even on Rusty Smith who won bronze at the Games.

Liz B., over 35 with a Masters in Library Science, wrote, "[Rusty] was all but ignored by the media in favor of Apolo…The person interviewing him spent more time asking him about Apolo than winning the bronze."

Now before I start getting hate mail from Apolo fans, let me just say that I think Apolo is very beneficial to the popularity U.S. short track. Without media coverage of Apolo, the U.S. media wouldn't cover short track at all. As for Apolo the person, I can't say. I've never met him. Those who've met him for longer than it takes to sign an autograph and pose for a photo, have told me that he's been sweet, friendly and personable when they've interviewed him or just hung out with him. They also tell me that this is his media personality showing which may or may not be different than that of any other 20 year old kid with lucrative Nike contract.

Even though Apolo wasn't at Milwaukee, he was. Girls with signs were calling out Apolo's name during the first practice session even though he wasn't going to be there.

Christine F., a 27 year old technical consultant from Chicago echoed my thoughts. She wrote, "..even though Apolo wasn't there, he still was with all the signs and t-shirts and everything. It took a little away from the competition… there was a time in-between races where all the fans got together and chanted Apolo across the bleachers, holding up their banners."

Liz wrote, "There were "I love Apolo" t-shirts and signs everywhere. I was amused and slightly perplexed because as far as I knew he wasn't going to be there. You could hear people talking about him in the crowd, and girls were screaming out his name…I turned to the girls behind me and said, "I thought he wasn't going to be here." They shrugged and rolled their eyes in obvious disapproval of the scene before us. I thought it was funny, but at the same time it was disturbing.

I think a lot of those fans would have been disappointed if it hadn't been for Rusty.

Next Page | Rusty, Shani, Ron, Dan and J.P. -- Those other guys.  |  1, 2, 3, 4