Apolo Ohno is back to prove his big '02 was no fluke

	Apolo Ohno left Salt Lake City in 2002 with two medals in short-track speedskating. Al Tielemans/SI

In 2002, Salt Lake City witnessed an Apolo liftoff with the Olympic debut of one of the most aptly named and distinctly sheared characters of the Games.

Apolo Ohno sported a strut and a goatee, and he left with two Olympic medals in short-track speedskating. At 23, Ohno is even better this time around, ready to re-emerge as a star of another Olympics.

For one, he thoroughly enjoyed the perks that his celebrity offered him after Salt Lake. People chose him as one of its 50 Most Beautiful. GQ and Rolling Stone featured him in photo shoots. Female fans sported fake Ohno-goatees. Kelly Ripa gushed on air that he looked like a rock star.

President Clinton asked for a recommendation on which shoes to wear. President Bush informed him that White House staff had come down with Ohno-Mania. Five Ohno-specific Web sites, including Ohno Zone and Sk8er Boy, tried to outdo each other with behind-the-scenes snapshots, no matter how distant and blurry, from his latest public appearances.

"I went to an Oscar after-party, and I'm kicking it with the Backstreet Boys, asking them, 'So, um, do you guys play sports?'" Ohno said. "I don't think they even realize they're living in a different world."

Still, that celebrity can affect different athletes differently. Instead of losing a physical or mental edge, Ohno seems fired up to earn some more attention.

"I wanted to get back to what I do best," he said last month, "but it isn't because I'm a monk. It's cool to be the best and let people know you're the best."

To that end, Ohno is living in the dorms at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where conditions are perfectly fine for training (free meals, medical facilities, etc.), but the accomodations aren't plush. The results have been wonderful. He won the 1,000 and 3,000 meters at the individual world championships last season and was ranked the world's No. 1 short-track skater for a third time.

Even more important, last month he finally got the Korean albatross off his back. Flash back to the Salt Lake Olympics, when Ohno was in a tightly contested 1,500-meter race with Korea's Kim Dong-Sung.