LOCAL ATHLETES
- Cle Elum mogul skier Patrick Deneen was named the FIS rookie of the year and celebrated March 15 by finishing third in a race in Italy.
- Federal Way native Apolo Anton Ohno finished his season with a strong performance at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in South Korea. He won gold at 500 meters and overall. He also took the 1,000- meter silver and bronze at 3,000 meters. Ohno has won 18 world championship medals – six of each hue.
- Yakima’s Phil Mahre, a gold medalist in the 1984 Olympics, fell short of his goal of qualifying for this month’s U.S. Alpine Nationals. He turned down special invitations to compete because he wanted to qualify on his own.
- Crystal Mountain’s Scott Macartney finished 26th in the World Cup’s downhill standings this season despite not racing since January because of an injury. A ski team spokesman said he’s hoping to return to racing speed this summer.
- Crystal’s Libby Ludlow finished 32nd in the giant slalom and 36th in the Super G. She participated in the NorAm Finals in New York despite knee injuries.

TEAMS USA UPDATES
- March was an historic month for the U.S. Ski Team as it finished one of its best World Cup seasons ever. Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn took the overall titles. It’s the first time U.S. men and women have swept the titles since 1983 when Yakima’s Phil Mahre and Kentucky’s Tamara McKinney won the titles. Miller also claimed the season combined title and Vonn took the downhill title in February.
- Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety won the World Cup season giant slalom title.
- Vonn and Jimmy Cochran each won slalom and combined titles at this week’s U.S. Alpine Championships.
- Miller did not compete in the U.S. Alpine Nationals.
- Katherine Ruetter won Team USA’s only women’s medal at the speed skating world championships. She took bronze at 3,000 meters.
- The 1998 Olympic Women's Hockey Team, which won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport, is one of five finalists for the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. It’s the only winter team nominated. Its competition includes the 1992 Men’s basketball team - the original Dream Team.
- Figure skater Brian Boitano and speedskater Sheila Young Ochowicz are among the 18 individuals nominated. Fans can vote at usolympichalloffame.com.

FACILITY UPDATES
- Testing at the sliding center on Blackcomb Mountain continued this month.
- Work is expected to be completed on the Hillcrest/Nat Bailey Stadium Park, the Whistler Athlete’s Centre, the UBC Winter Sports Centre and the Richmond Oval this year.

OTHER OLYMPIC NEWS
- Some members of the Canadian cross-country team have complained that the 2010 Nordic venue is too easy according to the Vancouver Sun.
- The 2010 day-by-day competition schedule can be viewed online at blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure.

COMING UP
- The U.S. Freestyle Championships start today in Park City, Utah.

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets go on sale Oct. 11, 2008. Tickets.com was selected as the games’ official ticket service.

Just watching a rerun of Saturday Night Live from 2002 (hosted by a pre-rehab Britney Spears)and was amused by Jimmy Fallons Olympic Tribute song for the Salt Lake games.

Here are the lyrics:

The 2002 Winter Olympics are next week,
and the theme song for the olympics is "America" by Neil Diamond
Now, no offence to Neil Diamond but thats songs good
it's only like 20 years old
So I thought I could change the words to some more recent songs
and see if they want to use those instead
You should highlight the events, like downhill skiing

I can go down hill
on the icey snow
dressed up in my unitard
where else can I go?
I'm only a man on two skinny red skis
instead of cologne I'm wearing anti freeze
I can't even tell if I'm winning the race
because snot is frozen on my face
and its not easy to down hill ski

=> Read more!

This isn't necessarily Olympic related, but we'd love to have your help:

Help us determine the best ski area in the Northwest by voting for your favorite resort, lodge food, ski run and more.

Click below to take the quick survey. Your favorites will featured in 2008-09 Ski preview sections in newspapers across the Northwest. Voters from around the region - Idaho, Washington, Oregon and B.C. - are participating so make sure your favorites are well represented.

2008-09 Snow Ride Guide Survey

OK, folks. I've received your calls and e-mails. The biggest questions so far are about the schedule.

Well, this ought to help you out. Click below to download the 2010 competition schedule. It probably goes without saying considering we have two years to go, but times and dates are subject to change.

Thanks for the e-mails and comments. Keep them coming.

2010 Olympic Day-by-day competition schedule

Here's a story from the Associated Press:

Ski jumping at Whistler Olympic Park will open the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, while the men’s hockey gold medal final at GM Place will wrap up the 17 days of competition.
The schedule for the 2010 Olympics was released Wednesday after it was approved by the International Olympic Committee.
The opening ceremonies will be Feb. 12 at B.C. Place Stadium, with ski jump qualifying the only event scheduled for Day 1.
The men’s hockey final, the 50K men’s cross-country ski race and the closing ceremonies, also at B.C. Place Stadium, will conclude the events on Feb. 28.
The first medals will be awarded on Day 2 in men’s downhill, men’s 10K biathlon, men’s individual ski jump finals, women’s moguls, men’s 1,500 short-track speedskating and the men’s 5,000 long-track race.
The busiest podium day is Day 15, when medals will be awarded in eight events — women’s slalom skiing, men’s and women’s biathlon relays, women’s snowboarding, women’s curling, and three in short-track speedskating.
The first figure skating medals will be awarded on Day 4 in pairs, with the women’s singles wrapping up the competition at the Pacific Coliseum on Day 14.

From Vancouver2010.com:
They probably won't ever be worth anything, but if you are one of those card or coin collectors who collects everything you might want to swing by a Petro-Canada station the next time you are in Canada.
The Royal Canadian Mint has released 17 styles of olympic-themed Canadian quarters to celebrate the 2010 games. There is a coin and card for every sport.
While the coins are already in circulation, Petro-Canada announced this week it will sell illustrated cards with collectors versions of the quarters.
The cards and coin sell for $7.95 (CAD) and part of the proceeds will benefit the Canadian Olympic teams. That's right. If you want to collect these coins and cards, you'll have to support the competition.

Hockey card and coin. (Image: vancouver2010.com)

Seattle speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno plans to move to Utah with the U.S. Speedskating team later this year, according to the Associated Press.
The team is moving from Colorado Springs to Salt Lake City's Olympic oval.
According to the Associated Press, Ohno made the announcement Friday with his "Dancing with the Stars" partner Julianne Hough, who lives in Sandy, Utah.

Ohno says he's excited to move to Utah.
(Photo: usolympicteam.com)

Hey, if you want to see Olympic athletes compete against the best world on Network TV, good luck. You'll get your chance every four years. But if you want to see them do something else, today is your day.

While there is no TV coverage of U.S. Nationals, you can watch Apolo Anton Ohno and Toby Dawson.

- Olympic medalist Toby Dawson, 28, will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show today to tell his facinating story about how how he's been seperated from his father, Kim Jae-su, since he was lost in a street market 25 years ago. Dawson's story was told frequently during the 2006 Olympics. He hadn't found his birth father at that point, but was recently reunited with his dad. Read more about today's show at Oprah.com.

- And in a much less touching story, find out if Apolo Anton Ohno stays among the leaders on "Dancing With the Stars" tonight on ABC.

- American singles figure skaters cracked the top five at worlds, but couldn't find a spot on the podium. Evan Lysacek was fifth and Kimmie Meissner was fourth in the women's event.

- Canada beat Denmark for the women's curling world title.

- Adam Malysz of Poland won the World Cup season ski jump title for the fourth time in a row Sunday with another victory.

- The International Skating Union says Los Angeles will not lose the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships. There was talk a TV conflict could cost the city the games. Read the AP story here.

- Shelly Robertson and Sho Kashima of Nevada capped the U.S. Freestyle Championships with dual moguls titles today.

- Bill Demong, star of U.S. Nordic team, won golds at nationals for Nordic combined and large hill ski jumping.

- Watch video of a bandana-clad Apolo Anton Ohno competing in "Dancing with the Stars" at abc.com.

Here are some links to AP stories about today's big stories:

- American Bill Demong won a World Cup Nordic combined race this morning in Finland.

- A South Korean skater set a World Cup record today at the World Single Distances Championships in Utah.

- The Chicago 2016 organizing committee announced a plan for paying for its bid for the summer games. The plan calls for the its tax payers cover up to $500 million if the project goes over budget

Today, as the IOC arrived in Vancouver for its fourth set of meetings, the Vancouver organizing committee announced a three-poster series paying tribute to Canada's Aboriginal people. VANOC says increasing awareness of awareness of, and participation in, Olympic and Paralympic winter sports by Canada's Aboriginal people is one of its top missions for the 2010 games.

Here are some links to view the posters.

* Chelsie Mitchell (Snowboard) - a First Nations youth from British Columbia
* Aqpik Peter (Speed Skating) - an Inuit youth from Nunavut
* Mareck Beaudoin (Biathlon) - a Métis youth from Quebec

VANOC says it is the first Organizing Committee to integrate Indigenous Peoples as official partners in the planning and hosting of a Games. Aboriginal people were asked to participate in a meaningful way to formally acknowledge the partnership with VANOC, which has set a goal of achieving, with its partners, "unprecedented Aboriginal participation in the planning and hosting of the 2010 Winter Games."

=> Read more!

U.S. speedskater Shani Davis broke his world record in the 1,500 meters today at the World Cup final in Calgary.

Davis's time of 1:42.32 bettered his time of 1:42.68 on March 19, 2006.

Check out the AP report here.