Short-track speedskating: Ohno eyes medal in 500 meters

His girlfriend is campaigning to be on "The Apprentice," his dad is blogging about him, and well, Seattle's Apolo Ohno is doing what he always does.

Training for another Olympic event.

His run in Turin continues today with short-track speedskating's fastest race, the 500 meters, in pursuit of a chance to add to his growing collection of Olympic medals: a silver (1,000) and a gold (1,500) at Salt Lake in 2002, and a bronze in Turin (1,000).

He won't go into the race as the favorite — Korea's Ahn Hyun-Soo and Lee Ho-Suk, the gold and silver medalists in the 1,000, await again, though neither is in his preliminary race, which starts about 11:30 a.m. Seattle time. Ohno is in the final prelim, with two advancing out of each heat to the quarterfinals.

The final, should Ohno advance, is Saturday, along with the 5,000-meter relay, in which he and his U.S. teammates will be again pitted against the powerhouse Korean short-track team.

Meanwhile, Allison Baver, a U.S short-tracker and Ohno's main squeeze, competes tonight in the women's 3,000-meter relay. Beyond that, she wants you to vote her onto Season 6 of "The Apprentice," the Donald Trump reality-television hit. She has posted a note on ohnozone.net, a fan Web site:

"Please go to nbcolympics.com and scroll down to the bottom. You can vote everyday for me to be on the Apprentice. Only one of the athletes shown will be on the show! Post it everywhere and tell everyone you know! Thanks, Allison."

Baver is one of 12 Olympians being considered for one spot on the show, including Travis Cabral, freestyle skiing; Casey FitzRandolph, speedskating; Todd Hays, bobsled; Chad Hedrick, speedskating; Danny Kass, snowboarding; Joe Pack, freestyle sking; Speedy Peterson, freestyle sking; Angela Ruggiero, hockey; Katie Uhlaender, skeleton; Seth Wescott, snowboarding; and Chris Witty, speedskating.

Meanwhile, Ohno's dad, Yuki, is also getting into the act with a blog at nbcolympics.com. In his latest blog, he cites that his son needs to overcome an injury, something Apolo Ohno has not mentioned.

"He needed to overcome his injury, stemming from the ankle, connecting his pelvis to his hamstring firing pattern that he was troubled with since Day 1 at ice training session in Torino," Yuki wrote before the 1,000-meter final on Saturday . "His osteopathic doctor, Dr. Lavine from Tacoma, has been with him all week to heal his injuries."