What Lindsay Vonn, Bode Miller and Apolo Ohno Do Off the Snow and Ice to Win the Gold

March 12th, 2010 Posted in Boating

With the Winter Olympics going on currently in Vancouver, it brings a greater awareness to some of the sports that we do not get to see broadcasted too often and to get to see a few of these athletes that are often forgotten in non-Olympic years. Some of the best athletes for The American team are two skiers, Lindsay Vonn and Bode Miller and short track speed skater, Apolo Ohno. The thing that sets these three athletes apart from their competition is not only their ability to land on the podium after almost every event they compete in, but is how they do cross training in other sports to improve their overall strength and fitness. For example, Apolo Ohno likes to go mountain biking while Bode Miller spends a day of basketball shooting and basketball training as a training tool.

This article will focus on some of the off snow or ice training that these three Olympians do to make them better than their competition who may only do ski or skate training. It has been shown that athletes that are more fit in an all around way, will suffer fewer stress induced injuries as well as have more strength and flexibility which benefits them in whatever sport that they are doing.

Lindsay Vonn is the Vancouver Olympics focal point with an huge amount of talent in alpine skiing. Her story became big news when she suffered an injury to her shin only weeks prior to the Olympics and she wasn’t sure if she could even compete. So far, she is on track to competing and finished 3 of her 5 events winning medals in two of them. She says she is in better shape this season than any other thanks to the hard cross training she has done. She does a great deal of interval training alternating strength exercises with cardio exercises that challenges her stamina as well as her strength.

Bode Miller had a lot of pressure to bring home the gold at the last Winter Olympics in Torino and did not succeed saying his nonchalant training methods were to blame. Since, then he has made it his mission to be in better shape and more prepared for this Olympics. He likes adding other activities to his training regimen to stay fresh and to constantly challenge his muscles in different methods. He plays full court basketball one day and then does interval sprinting and core exercises the other days. With 3 medals to his name this time around it seems to be benefitting Miller.

This is the 3rd Olympic games for short track skater Apolo Ohno and he has just became the most winning skater at the Olympic Games passing Bonnie Blair’s record of five Olympic medals. He is more confident than ever after losing 20 pounds in his comeback and to improve his physical state. He likes doing outdoor workouts such as sprinting up a mountain wearing a weighted vest or doing a long cycling ride to challenge his leg muscles the way they have to be for skating.