Apolo Ohno

In the 1500 m final, Apolo Ohno placed second after two Korean skaters, Lee Ho-Suk and Sung Si-bak made contact and crashed into the wall during the final turn of the final lap. Ohno was in fourth place leading into the crash, and as a result, moved into second place, earning the silver. Fellow American skater, J. R. Celski finished with the bronze medal. The gold medal went to South Korea's Lee Jung-Su. This win allowed Ohno, with six career medals, to tie Bonnie Blair for most medals won by a U.S. Winter Olympian. Training for Apolo was long,tedious, and tiring. In preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Ohno lost over 9 kilograms (20 pounds) of weight from when he appeared at the 2002 Winter Games. He went down to a 65.7 kg (145 lb) bodyframe and a 2.5% Body fat percentage enduring a 5 month 3-a-day training program combined with a strict nutritional program. As a result, he can lift double the weight he could before the training. His father chose to name his son Apolo after the Greek words "Ap," which means to "steer away from" and "lo," which means "look out; here he comes."

During the U.S. Short Track Speed Skating Olympic Trials held September 8–12, 2009, in Marquette, Michigan, Ohno won the overall meet title and defended his national title. He won the finals during the 500 m, 1000 m and 1500 m races.However, during the 1000 m time trial, Ohno came in second to J. R. Celski despite skating a personal best of 1:24.500 to Celski's personal best of 1:23.981.Celski, who finished second overall and was leading in points after the first two nights of the trials, was injured during a crash in the semifinals of the 1000 m race when his right skate sliced into his left leg; he did not skate in the 1000 m finals. Ohno had a narrow victory in the 500 m, beating out the silver place finisher Jeff Simon by only .039 of a second. Ohno, Celski, Jordan Malone, Travis Jayner and Simon Cho were the top five finishers at the trials. Afterwards, Ohno said about the nominated team: "This is the strongest team we've ever had. I feel really good about how we will do in the next Olympics".