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

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 televised that often and to get to see a few of these athletes that are usually forgotten in non-Olympic years. Some of the best athletes for The American team 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 other sports to improve their overall strength and fitness. For example, Apolo Ohno enjoys mountain biking while Bode Miller spends a day of basketball shooting and basketball training as a training tool.

This article will mention a few of the training methods that these three Olympians do to make them better than their competition who may only do ski or skate training. It has been proven that athletes that have better overall fitness, will suffer less stress induced injuries as well as have more strength and flexibility that helps them in whatever sport that they are focusing on.

Lindsay Vonn is the Vancouver Olympics focal point with an huge amount of talent in alpine skiing. Her story became big news when she got an injury to her shin just weeks before 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 a gold and bronze in 2 of them. She says she is more fit this season than any other thanks to the hard cross training she has done. She does a lot of circuit training alternating strength exercises with cardio training that works her stamina as well as her strength.

Bode Miller had a great deal of pressure to bring home the gold at the last Winter Olympics in Torino and did not come through saying his nonchalant training methods were to blame. Since, then he has challenged himself to be in top physical shape and more prepared for this Olympics. He enjoys adding other activities to his training regimen to stay fresh and to constantly challenge his muscles in new ways. He plays full court basketball one day and then does interval sprinting and core exercises the other days. With 3 medals so far in Vancouver it seems to be working for Miller.

This is the 3rd Olympic games for short track skater Apolo Ohno and he has recently been named the most winning skater at the Olympic Games beating Bonnie Blair’s record of 5 medals. He is more confident than ever after losing 20 pounds to make a comeback and to improve his physical state. He enjoys doing outdoor workouts such as sprinting up a mountain wearing a weighted vest or going on a long cycling run to work his leg muscles the way they need to be for skating.