Ohno Remains Dominant; Davis Keeps Hopes Alive

MARQUETTE, Mich., Dec. 13 -- By all appearances, little has changed. Apolo Anton Ohno still sports that distinctive tuft of facial hair on his chin. He pulls back his flowing hair with a bandana. He still slithers through packs of skaters as if he were greased. And he continues to dominate his sport four years after winning gold and silver individual medals at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Two days into the four-day Olympic trials for short-track speedskating, Ohno already has put himself on the verge of qualifying for the team by winning three of his first four races. He finished second in the 500 final Tuesday night in which he wiped out after being pushed. Another skater was disqualified.

Things get "better as every day goes on," Ohno said after winning the 1,500-meter final earlier. "I still have got a lot of races left [but] mentally, physically, I'm just more experienced as a skater. I think all-around, I've improved."

As Ohno began to cement his Olympic berth, Shani Davis, who is trying to make Olympic teams in short-track and long-track speedskating, struggled to get a jump on his rivals but kept himself within sight of one of the five Olympic team spots with four races remaining. As Ohno added to his lead in cumulative points with 89 -- the second-place skater is 50 points behind -- Davis dropped from seventh to eighth overall with 8.5 points.

After a solid seventh place in the 1,500, Davis earned a fortuitous fifth in the 500 when each of the other three skaters with him in the "B" final crashed. The finish was reminiscent of the finale that gave a gold in the Salt Lake Olympics to Australian Steve Bradbury, who went from last to first in the 1,000 as everyone else wiped out.

"It'd be nice to get into an 'A' final," Davis said. "I want to be there and get some of that Bradbury luck. Bradbury did it, why can't I? It's the last man standing."

On the women's side, 17-year-old Hyo Jung (Halie) Kim won two more races, exceeding the dominance Ohno has displayed here.

Ohno's performance thus far is exactly what he hoped for when he and his father sat down shortly after the Salt Lake Olympics and decided the best way to replicate his 2002 success was to keep things the same.

Ohno, 23, went from late-night television appearances, Oscar parties and speaking engagements back to a spartan dorm room replete with functional furniture -- and a roommate -- at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The center is considered a training boon to young athletes trying to rise to the elite ranks of their sports, or athletes in sports in which sponsor funds are hard to come by, but has rarely been home to established superstars who have the means to live and train where they wish.

Ohno said his father, Yuki, a hairdresser of Japanese descent who raised his son in Seattle as a single parent, suggested he could advance his career by running in place. So instead of moving up, he moved back in.

"I just like the environment," Ohno, the 2005 World Cup overall champion, said this fall in Colorado Springs. "I think it's got good energy. You see all sorts of world-class athletes walking through. It just fires me up. . . . I discussed it with my dad. We thought this was where my hunger came from, living at the training center, living the simple life."

Ohno found some refuge in the simplicity after the international controversy he unintentionally ignited after the 1,500 final in Salt Lake City. The South Korean who crossed the line first was disqualified for blocking Ohno, elevating Ohno to the gold. Ohno found himself caught in the middle of the dispute that resulted.

"I was really, really bothered by it," Ohno said. "Later on I realized a lot of that [was] using me as a pedestal for anti-American sentiment."

Allison Baver, who stands second here, said Ohno's skills are unsurpassed and his presence at the training center lifts other short-track speedskaters who reside there.

"I think it's awesome he's chosen to keep things simple," she said. "He could definitely live somewhere else if he wanted to. He totally chooses to be an athlete because that's what he is. He doesn't want to do anything else."