Road to Torino

With all the heavy-duty sports expertise at AOL, how did I wind up writing this blog?

'Cause I'm lucky that way. I was in the right place (here at AOL) at the right time (six months to go before the Winter Olympics in Italy). The Sports Bloggers Live folks are letting me help them cover the Torino Winter Olympics -- so here I am.

I admit I can take or leave a lot of sports, but when it comes to the Olympics, I'm a fanatic. I love it all, winter and summer. For the two and a half week spectacle I don't really budge from the tv.

Although I love it all, I'm most passionate about the sport of short track... for you car racing fans, that's short track speedskating, an Olympic sport since its debut at the Calgary Games in 1988. But never fear -- short track is usually described as 'NASCAR on ice,' so be sure to tune in when Torino rolls around!

I've been blogging about my passion for over three years now at my other blog, Ohno Zone, dedicated to short track and its star athlete, 2002 Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno.

If you watched the Salt Lake Games, you'll remember Ohno as the brash young skater with the goatee who was knocked down while poised to win his race. He famously crawled over the finish line for 2nd. He literally jumped for joy on the medal stand in spite of the gash in his leg and in spite of 'losing' gold.

No moaning, whining, pinning blame or making excuses, just pure joy in his silver medal performance. And that, in a nutshell, is why I love the Games.

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