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Jeff Howard of the U.S. Olympic Committee, invited me to come to the hotel at 5:30 to meet with and interview athletes on my work's behalf. The Korbel Celebration of Olympic Champions began with a cocktail party at 7, followed by dinner at 8:30 (I was shut out of that!).
When I made it known that I especially wanted to meet with Apolo Anton Ohno, another USOC rep said, "Apolo is very shy. He's not our most effervescent athlete, unless he really gets warmed up. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy, but he is shy."
You think of an athlete, they were there at the party. It was incredible! In retrospect, I don't recall seeing either of the male figure skaters, but otherwise, all the Olympic athletes from Salt Lake City were present. Every which way I looked. And once I first laid eyes on Apolo, he was everywhere!
I arrived well before the party began, and the athletes were just walking around, hanging out, and just relaxing. After I'd been there an hour or so, I spotted Rusty Smith (short track speedskater) standing with a group of athletes down below the mezzanine where I was standing. WHOA! Then someone shifted and I saw APOLO! WHOA WHOA WHOA! I kind of just stood there dazed for a moment. Then I started taking pictures.
After a while Rusty and Apolo disappeared from the rest of the group, right when the USOC guy came and asked if I wanted to interview Rusty! Grr... anyway, the group realized they could all hang out in peace and quiet up on the mezzanine level in a hidden area (which was still in plain view for me!). After a few minutes Rusty and Apolo joined the rest of the group, as did Derek Parra - basically it was all the long and short trackers together in a big huddle! They all stayed over there for about an hour, even beyond the start of the reception. I was worried they were gonna stay there all night! This was the first chance a lot of the athletes had to hang out together since the Games ended in February.
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| Apolo Anton Ohno |
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| Caught from above, as I was gazing down from the mezzanine. |
| Another mezzanine shot |
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| That's Rusty Smith on the far left, and Apolo is behind him. Sorry, I don't know who the others are! |
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