Ohno chooses skating over Hollywood, for now

By Steve Ginsburg
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apolo Ohno's decision to set his sights on the Vancouver Winter Olympics and forego, at least for now, the glitter of Hollywood was not an easy one to make.

"I battled with that choice, no doubt," the short track speedskating overall world champion said.

[...] "I'm going to try to get to the podium every chance I can," he said. "Obviously, if I can stand on the top of the podium, better yet. But if I can walk away from each race and say that that was my best, even if I don't win, I'll still be happy."

[...] Ohno was slow to dedicate himself to speedskating but once he did he became a natural for one of the Winter Games' most popular sports.

But he will be very selective on the speedskating circuit in 2009, feeling like a marked man. Ohno explained:

"Prior to 2006 I had a lot of very good finishes, in the top two or three consistently. But what I noticed was that a lot of countries were studying me and my technique. "By the time I got to the Games, they had done a lot of research. So this year, we're going to play it low-key, do well when I need to. But mostly try out new strategies."