With the Winter Olympics happening right now 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 during non-Olympic years. Some of the top competitors for Team USA are a pair of 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 alternative ways 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 an alternative to cross training.
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 less stress induced injuries in addition to have more strength and flexibility that helps them in whatever sport that they are focusing on.
Lindsay Vonn is the Vancouver Olympics it girl with an huge amount of talent in alpine skiing. Her story became big news when she got an injury to her shin only weeks prior to the Olympics and she was uncertain if she could even compete. So far, she is doing well and finished 3 of her 5 events winning a gold and bronze in 2 of them. She says she is in better shape this season than any other due to the intense cross training she has put in. She does a great deal of interval training alternating strength exercises with cardio training that works her stamina in addition to her strength.
Bode Miller had a great deal of pressure to bring home the gold at the last Winter Olympics in Italy and did not succeed saying his nonchalant training methods were the reason. Since, then he has challenged himself to be in better shape and more prepared for this Olympics. He enjoys adding other activities to his training regimen to keep things new and to constantly challenge his muscles in new ways. He will play basketball one day and then do 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 5 medals. He is more confident than ever after losing 20 pounds in his comeback and to improve his fitness. He enjoys doing outdoor workouts such as sprinting up a mountain wearing a weighted vest or going on a long cycling ride to challenge his leg muscles the way they have to be for skating.