Apolo Anton Ohno - Got Apolo? [where's your soul patch?] - An Apolo Ohno fansite

Steve (S)- …even his chin. I don’t know. We welcome Apolo Ohno to the Steve and Vicky show this morning. Hey!
Vicky (V)- where’s the medal?
Apolo (Ap)- Um… It’s in my little case…
V- The medals. Do you really have it?
A-Yeah
V- can I see ‘em?
A- Yeah
S- Oh, we want to see the medals. Yeah.
V- See I knew you’d have ‘em!
S- Closest…
V- He said, do you think he’s gonna bring them? I said, yes, how else would we know you were you?
S- He has more armed guards than *In vogue* watching over these medal. Hey you got a medal case with hand cuffs and everything. There’s a code and… (laughs) I jest.
Ap- (laughing while listening to Steve) I guess people do.
S- Alright
Ap- This is it
V- Wow! Oh and it’s heavy too!
S- Which one you got? The silver?
V- The silver
S- May I hold the gold?
Ap- yeah
V- Silver in the thousand meters
S- Wow
V- He’s a speed skater don’t you know? Can I put it on?
Ap- (laughing a little bit and softly speaking: “actually no”)
S- I think that there’s something sac-religious about this
V- I NEED A PITCURE WITH THIS!
Ap- oh, that’s bad luck
V- It’s bad luck that I put it on?
Ap- um-hmm
V- (gasps) Oh I’m so sorry. I’ll take it off now
S- Bad luck for Vicky or for you?
Ap- (laughing) Both!
S- Uh oh!
V- Oh no!
Ap- No, that’s only the gold one.
S- These are uh..
V- Okay, okay
S- This is beautiful too. I love these were, uh … made
Ap- like little hand crafted on that side
S- Yeah, yeah. They look like they were almost hand made.
Ap- They…yeah. Yeah. My sport’s on the inside if you look real close, in the middle.
S- Yeah
V- See the skaters? In the middle?
S- Oh yeah! Um-hmm
V- Pretty cool. What’s it like to stand up there and …
Ap- What’s it like?
V- Yeah. To win a gold, to win a silver, to be part of the whole thing?
S- Oh
Ap- Just to be up on the podium really, ya know? On the Olympic… just… on the stand. When I was, when I first knew I got the silver I… number one, I was just so tired, ya know, after I finished the race, but when I got to stand up there that was the best, for sure.
V- The best?
Ap- Yeah (mumbling ) That was pretty cool.
V- And did it matter, that it was silver or gold?
Ap- No, not to me.
V- Really?
Ap- In the… in the thousand, ya know, I skated, I thought I skated the best… to my ability in that race and I had one of the best races in my life… so, I was just happy to compete with the best and, you know, know that I was in the top, the top top of the top that day.
V- The best of the best.
Ap- yeah
V- And have you been on a wheaties box or anything, since?
Ap- No. So… real busy though.
V- No?
Ap- yeah
V- I know, ‘cuz I saw you at the Elton John In Style Magazine party at the academy awards
Ap- Right, right
V- I didn’t come up and bug you but…
Ap- yeah (mumbles)
V- I mean, there were so many people there. It was a great time, wasn’t it?
Ap- Yeah it was. (mumbles something)… been there
V- And you’ve changed your look because before, the hair on the chin looked like a dot and now it’s more like a goatee. I’m I right, or am I right?
Ap- (Sounding surprised) No! It’s the same!!!
V- It’s the same?!!
Ap- Yeah (laughs)
V- Steve, does that look the same to you?
S- Yeah. It’s always been that soul patch there, but I think seeing him live, has a…it…its gone below the chin where on television you really maybe can’t tell that. Don’t you think?
Ap- Yeah, I don’t know. It gets kind of shaggy sometimes.
S- Does it?
V- ‘Cuz look what I brought. I thought we could have some fun on the air …(a razor sounds in the background)
Ap- (ominously) Uh-oh… No… no…
V- I brought a razor! Come on Apolo!
Ap- (laughs) No! Not for me!!!
V- Yeah!
S- Vicky wants to shave you!
V- We could have some fun today!
(All laugh)
S- This is like that… like your strength, right? Like, who was it that… uh…
Ap- Samson?
V- Yeah!
S- When they cut his hair he lost all his strength. You can’t cut his little soul patch there!
Ap- This is my balance. That’s my balance.
V- (laughs) It’s your balance?
Ap- Yeah (mumbles still laughing)… right here
V- (laughs)
S- Yeah. Uh, Speed Skater Apolo Ohno is going to be at Art Atlanta, the Cobb Galleria tonight at six o’clock. This is an event that uh, begins to day and uh runs through the fifth and uh many dignitaries there. In fact they’re honoring uh, Andy Young and uh benefits CARE and Ben *Vering* will also be there to present a very special award to Andy Young and you’ll be there tonight at six o’clock like we say… so..
Ap- I will be there.
S- Yeah. Had you been to Atlanta before at all during our Olympic Games?
Ap- No. I hadn’t before. I um…
V- This is your first time?
Ap- No I, I’ve been here. I’ve gotta friend who lives here, so um, we kinda hang out when I come here, but I have never really [come] to Atlanta and just kinda, hang out and experienced it… so
V- Do you like it?
Ap- Yeah! Yeah, for sure, ya know? I think tonight we’re gonna go out ATL (laughs) It’ll be fun.
V- (laughs) But I thought you were working tonight.
Ap- Yeah, I am, but after.
V- Yeah, but later tonight. Okay. I gotcha.
S- Is your friend an athlete?
Ap- He is. Yeah… you could call him an athlete. (laughs… a lot…)
S- Yeah ?
V- That’s pretty funny.
S- (laughs) He does more than lift the mug of beer to his mouth, right?
Ap- He’s probably listening right now, so…
S- Yeah?
Ap- Yeah.
V- Who is it? Say hi to him.
Ap- (putting on his “city” accent) Big Nasty Rog? (as in “Roger” with the “g” sounding like the “g” in “genre”) (Stars laughing more)
S- (starts laughing)
V- (laughs) Does he need a shave? Big Nasty? (More laughing)
Ap- He does need a shave.
S- Vicky wants to shave somebody here today. Apolo Ohno is with us on the Steve and Vicky show with us here today. If you have a question by the way (lists phone number) Your chance to talk with an Olympian here. And a very interesting story he has from a fourteen years of age on up. We want to get into that, next on the Steve and Vicky show. It’s Star 94!!!
(Commercials)
S- Star 94. It’s the Steve and Vicky morning show. Apolo Anton Ohno. Speed skater from the Olympics in Salt Lake City…
V- (cutting off Steve) And not only gold and silver medallist, we announced early this morning that you’re in people magazine’s 50 most beautiful people issue. How’s that make you feel, Apolo?
Ap- I was flattered when I heard about that.
V- Did they take your picture in skates?
Ap- No.
V- No?
Ap- No. It’s… I think it’s a pretty good picture though. They had some, ya know they had a little wardrobe there and the whole thing so it was pretty cool.
V- Did they give you the wardrobe? Did you get to choose?
Ap- (laughs a little) No.
V- Oh, no?
Ap- (laughing even more) No, no! It was too big!!!
V- The clothes they brought were too big?
Ap- No, like the whole wardrobe was too many clothes.
V- Oh, okay
Ap- (mumbling something about “so many shots”)
V- What did you wear? Do you remember?
Ap- Uh, I think, I think I might actually be in Armani.
V- Oh. Okay.
Ap- Armani.
S- Suited up?
V- Yeah!

S- Well yours is a very interesting story because you really didn’t even put on skates until you were, what? 14 years of age?
Ap- Yeah, that’s uh… I was accepted into the Junior National Program. I, I’ve been skating since I was about 12, ‘bout early 13.
S- Uh-huh…
Ap- But I never really seriously started skating ‘til I was 14.
V- So did you think about the Olympics at 14 or not even then?
Ap- Oh yeah, of course.
V- Of course?
Ap- Yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, Nagano was coming up so for me, ya know? I had… it was two years later and I was gonna be 16 in that winter Olympics. I was young, but I definitely felt I had a shot.
S- You were and inline skater right?
Ap- Yep
S- So before that. Before the ice skates.
Ap- And a swimmer.
S- And your dad… okay. Alright.
Ap- Yeah.
S- So were playing, were you ever playing hockey?
Ap- No, never played hockey.
S- Just doing the inline stuff?
Ap- Just doing the inline. You know, then like the regular sports, you know when I run…
S- (as he’s talking) Um-hmm
Ap- …basketball, baseball, football, just my friends and stuff
S- And I imagine that young people, when you talk to young people I wonder if this is a message that you bring up ‘cuz I notice your knick name is chunky and in your bio, they talk about when you were younger. You still go by that nickname with people?
Ap- Yeah. Ever since I was about…7 or 8.
S- Do they?
V- But Big Nasty, does he call you chunky?
Ap- (laughs) Yeah sometimes. Yeah.
S- (imitating them) (Apolo “Hey Big Nasty!” (Roger “Chunk!”
Ap- Yeah. He gotta, he gotta interesting name too. (More laughing)
S- Other than big nasty? But so, when you were younger then I guess, this brought on, you felt like you were kind of a heavy set kid?
Ap- No. Actually, when I got that nick name I was pretty, I was pretty little
S- Okay
Ap- But, I don’t know. Everybody from home, my home town, just like had nicknames. Worm… Sleepy… You know. So it goes the whole list…
V- Dopey…
S- You’re one of the seven dwarves!
V- Oh that’s one of the seven dwarves, right! (More laughing)
S- You were up in Seattle?
Ap- Yep, yep.
S- And still your home
Ap- Yeah. I haven’t been home though. You know, since this whole whirlwind, but…
V- (cutting in) Now my husband was just there. He said that it, the sun only shines 59 days out of the year. True? ‘ Cuz someone told him that in Seattle.
Ap- I don’t know about that
V- And he was there for three days and it was sunny and people were just very happy. They felt like kissing him, they were that happy. There was like this “big happiness” all over Seattle.
Ap- (laughing) I don’t think so. New York? I think New York rains more than Seattle does.
V- No! (unbelieving)
Ap- Yeah!
V- That can’t be true!
Ap- Yeah.
S- Actually we get more rain than Seattle does… per capita. Yeah.
Ap- See, look at that. Right there.
S- Um-hmm. See. It’s just that it’s cloudier there a lot more. They don’t have as many days of sunshine.
Ap- Yeah it’s definitely…
V- But that’s what I said. Only 59 days of sunshine.
Ap- I think… I don’t know. ‘Cuz the summer’s beautiful in Seattle. That’s my favorite place to be, besides LA.
V- Um-kay
S- I bet it’s clean air though too, huh? Crisp clean.
Ap- Yeah. It’s pretty good.
S- Nice mountain air. 7:19, Apolo Anton Ohno is with us, and your questions at (lists phone number). Hi your on with Apolo!
Mom (M)- Hey, Apolo! I think you need to let Vicky shave you because…
S- Yeah! See?
V- Yeah!!!
M- We’ve got to do somethin’ to make him not so dang cute because he is driving my teenage daughter CRAZY!
Ap- (laughs)
M- It’s Apolo mania in my household!!! (more laughs)
(Razor sounds in the back ground once more)
Ap- Uh-oh
V- We could do it and raise money for CARE.
M- It was worth it. Vicky, it was a fabulous idea.
V- I know!
Ap- I don’t know…
S- Alright, we’ll give you 500 dollars, today.
Ap- (laughing uneasily) No! You can get one hair.
S and V- One hair?!!!
Ap- (laughing) Get some tweasers.
V- Oh come on!
S- Let us take off one side burn!
Ap- I don’t know.
S- You’ll get people talking tonight!
M- I’m gonna tell my daughter. She will want you to send the hair to us so she can put it in her scrap book ‘cuz she’s just…
Ap- (laughing)
V- Yeah!
Ap- In a little envelope?
V- We could shave it and then auction the hair off. How’s that? You could grow it back.
Ap- Oh no.
S- I could make money. See, I already got his gold medal on e-bay. I’m already up to a thousand bucks on e-bay with this gold medal and then I could add some hair to it. Oh what a crazy society! Thanks for your call! We should ask that call that came in earlier.
V- She might be on…
V- Oh, she got back on. There was someone dying to talk to you. Is, is it you?
Lady (L)- Yes it’s me.
V- Okay.

L- I think Apolo is wonderful. Don’t change a hair on his head!
Ap- Thank you (laughs)
L- I’m not a teenager and I think you made the Olympics. (Laughs)
Ap- Hopefully I … (???) Thank you. Actually, um, I’m gonna be at the Art Atlanta thing tonight. Um, so.
V- You can meet him. It’s free. Cobb Galleria, six o’clock
Ap- It’s the Cobb Galleria, yeah.
S- Listen to her
L- I’ll be the one with the beret.
Ap- (laughs)
S- Do you have one?
L- Yeah.
V- I got one too.
S- You do?
L- I told everybody you left it at my house!
Ap- Uh-oh!
V- (yells in a laughing sort of way) Ah!
S- I think we have another woman that’d like to shave you today! Well thanks. Yeah, he is gonna be at Cobb Galleria center for, a art Atlanta for, a benefiting CARE.
V- But somebody called and wanted to know what your eye color is.
Ap- My eye color?
V- They said they couldn’t tell if they were green or brown.
S- What are they, Vick? They look dark
Ap- It depends.
V- Yeah. It’s hazel then right? Kind of changes?
Ap- Yeah, it hazel. My, it, it changes. It’s between, sometimes it’s brown, dark brown.
V- they look brown today.
Ap- Sometimes it’s green.
V- Okay.
S- You know what’s so intriguing about your sport is I watched in the Olympics is how close the skaters get. I mean the blades and the skates are only inches apart from one another and obviously there’s the story the collision and then how you got up and then still maintained the silver. But has that sport always been like that? Or has it changed a little bit over the years?
Ap- That, that last race, I mean, I, I haven’t been in anything like that before in my life. I mean, not even close.
S- Whoa.
Ap- Yeah. And then, you know, people said I classified short track like crazy, like dangerous but um …
S- Um-hmm. But I mean, in the history of the sport were skaters always that close, blades always been that same size?
Ap- Oh yeah. It’s just now, the speed’s gotten higher, ya know, so. And when you speed up you’ve got more danger. It’s fun. I love the sport.
V- Higher and faster.
Ap- That’s right.
S- Another question for Apolo Ohno on Star 94. Hi you’re on!
Rachel (R)- Hi, this is Rachel. Apolo, I was just thinking, what were you thinking when they disqualified you?
Ap- In the 500?
R- Yeah.
Ap- Um. Uh… I knew they were going to disqualify me. I knew um, just as soon as I looked up on the replay board I kinda saw from the angles that they, that the judges thought that I, we had some contact. You know, I couldn’t do anything about it ‘cuz the way they showed it up on the big screen, ‘cuz there was a big screen in the arena, uh… the angle, it looked like, you know, I pushed him. But then they showed later on in the different angle on the board, so. ‘Cuz I know, I didn’t really, I didn’t touch him. ‘Cuz he was gonna fall down anyway, but you know. Just scratch the referee. (laughs).
R- DON’T let Vicky shave you!
Ap- I won’t!!! (laughs) Thank you.
V- (razor starts up again) Come on! Come on!
S- A thousand dollars!!!
V- A thousand dollars Apolo! Come on, do it!
S- A thousand dollars for CARE!
V- It’s for a good cause!
S- Oh boy! Alright. Well we’ve got to let you go. Art Atlanta, Cobb Galleria Center tonight, six o’clock. Apolo Ohno will be there. Former mayor, Andy Young receiving and award, Ben *Vering*, many other dignitaries and uh, be a part of it all. It’s open to the public and free. Enjoy Atlanta here. With and without Big Nasty.
Ap- Thank you (laughs)
V- Oh, and I just … probably one more thing that the ladies, the single ladies would kill me, do you have a significant other?
Ap- Do I have a significant other? Um… (Long, long silence)
S- Well! (Laughs)
V- Maybe if I shave that little thing off you could…
Ap- (laughs)
S- No girlfriend at the time, or yes, sort of, no, maybe?
Ap- I, I don’t know… It’s…a
V- (more laughs)
S- You waiting for an answer back from her…or…
Ap- No, it’s…
S- I think we’re cutting in to his time with Big Nasty.
Ap- (laughs) Well, I’m, I’m dating somebody from home. Yeah, but it’s pretty hard to keep a steady girlfriend. Especially with being an athlete.
V- So in other words you’re cheating on her on the road?
Ap- NO!! No cheating!!! (laughs). I would let somebody know if I, you know, if I wanted to be serious and I didn’t, you know, I wasn’t and obligation to her.
S- Thanks Apolo for being with us.
Ap- Thank you.
S- Alright, look forward to it tonight. It’s 7:24.