The Wall Street Journal Can Perfume Make You a Winner? A Top Freestyle Skier—Also a Chemist—Invents a Scent for Champions

World-class athletes crave routine. Baseball's Wade Boggs ate chicken before every game. Swimmer Michael Phelps blasts hip-hop in his earbuds before races. Others have a lucky shirt or pair of socks that feel right on their bodies, and nearly all of them watch video of previous events to help visualize a peak performance.  

Few bother with smell.

Michelle Roark, the 2009 U.S. freestyle skiing champion, wants to change that. Ms. Roark, who is two classes short of a chemical engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines, is convinced that the scent from a perfume blend that she developed and calls "Confidence" is as important to her success as a good night's sleep. Before competing, she douses her neck-warmer in the natural fragrance and spritzes it on the back of her neck and behind her ears.

"It's scientifically proven that smell is closest to our emotions and our memories," Ms. Roark said during an interview this week from Switzerland, where she is training for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. "Why shouldn't we use it?" (read more)

GoGameFace.com’s Erica & Melissa have a lot to say this week on their GameOn podcast. Are you surprised? We start with our weekly Chatter at the top of the podcast, then wrap up with a cool interview with Olympic Skier, chemical engineer, entrepreneur and Broncos fan Michelle Roark!

Listen to the podcast here:   http://www.gogameface.com/search.php?id=Michelle%20Roark

(read more)

The Concierge Questionnaire is thrilled to present more Questionnaires from US Olympians!

The Concierge Questionnaire’s new “Headed to Vancouver” section highlights Olympians to get insight from some of the best athletes in the world!  Featured athletes include Angela Ruggiero, and Michelle Roark, with more to come!

Michelle Roark, Olympic Freestyle Moguls Skier and 2009 US Nationals Moguls Champion, happily calls Denver, Colorado her hometown. Roark’s skiing career has been plagued by injuries, challenging this athlete to fight her way back to the podium several times. While recovering, Michelle’s adventurous, entrepreneurial spirit took over. Michelle Roark earned a degree in chemical engineering, and then used her skills to develop a natural perfume line, Phi-nomenal. Read Michelle Roark's Denver, Colorado Questionnaire.

Angela Ruggiero, a three time Ice Hockey Olympic medalist and cast member on NBC's hit show, “The Celebrity Apprentice”, graduated cum laude from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Like a true champion, "Angela impressed Donald Trump, and although she did not become the official "Apprentice," he did offer her a job." Angela, however, decided to decline Mr. Trump’s generous offer, setting set her sights on the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Read Angela Ruggiero's Boston, Massachusetts Questionnaire! (read more)

The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team has long been one of the strongest groups of athletes in the world. This season, the lineup looks stronger than ever. Nine Olympians top the list (including the three 2009 World Championship medalists) of 36 athletes.

"Our team is stacked with athletes who have found success at all levels of competition and we are looking forward to keeping consistency on that front in 2010," said U.S. Freestyle Ski Team Head Coach Jeff Wintersteen. "It's going to be an exciting season for freestyle."



The moguls squad is tough, what with veteran champ Kearney and the on-fire Deneen on board. The other bumpers are strong as well. Emiko Torito (Denver, CO) is a World Cup podium regular, as are her teammates Michelle Roark (Denver, CO) and Shannon Bahrke.  David Babic and Michelle Roark also dined on some World Cup success as each finished second during the Visa Freestyle International at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, UT. [Universal Sports] (read more)

Launched in February 2009, The Concierge Questionnaire is a hip, informative and fun travel magazine, dedicated to providing “valuable answers from those who know.”

The Concierge Questionnaire’s new “Headed to Vancouver” section highlights Olympians to get insight from some of the best athletes in the world!  Featured athletes include Maria Cruz Garcia, Ashley Wagner and Michelle Roark, with more to come! (read more)