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?”

Like most Olympic athletes,  Roark—who is, at 35, a senior citizen by skiing standards— can’t support herself solely through sports. So when she’s not on the slopes, she can usually be found in a Denver lab mixing essential oils for her fledgling fragrance line, Phi-nomenal.

Leaning on her academic background in petroleum engineering—”I’m refining different kinds of oils now,” she jokes— Roark now sells six natural scents, all of them blends of essential oils and named for the singular emotional reactions they will inspire—Confidence, Focus, Balance, Adventure, Imagination and what she calls Real, which grounds users in the moment.

Roark mixes all of the potions herself at her lab in Denver. She bases the ratios of the oils in her blends on the “Golden Ratio,” also known as the phi, or the number 1.618. Approximations of this proportion appear both in nature, such as in the length of the stems of plants and DNA strands, and as the basis for some of the most treasured works of art and architecture, from the Parthenon to Salvador Dali’s “The Sacrament of the Last Supper.”

“It’s not just mumbo-jumbo,” said Ms. Roark, who has a salon/spa and perfumery set to open in December. “There is a science behind it.”

Roark, who grew up in Denver, has spent a lifetime turning lemons into lemonade. A top competitive figure skater as a child, she had to give up the sport at 15 because her family could no longer afford the lessons. She switched to skiing, which required little more than a youth season pass to the nearby Winter Park ski area. A year later she made the U.S. team, and in her 20s she once held down three jobs and slept in a tent to help support her skiing career.

Roark says the idea that she could harness the power of smell to conjure confidence and bring about victory in sports first came to her in 2005 while working with the sports psychologist Karen Cogan, who counsels several members of the U.S. freestyle ski team.

Freestyle skiing encompasses aerial acrobatics and lightning-fast runs down steep terrain covered with boulder-sized bumps, known as moguls, demanding an intense level of confidence and commitment to the task. To hesitate even slightly during 360-degree twists and flips on skis is to invite catastrophe. To build confidence, Cogan encouraged Roark to use all five of her senses, including a scent she favored, to enter the kind of flow state where she could sense the onset of a perfect run down a 750-foot slope of moguls.

“I had no idea what it smelled like to ski well,” she said.

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

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!

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

“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]

“We have a great mix of athletes from those who have been on the team for years to rookies and each of them has the opportunity to take things to the next level for the 2010 season,” Moguls Head Coach Scott Rawles said. “We’re just looking forward to our first competitions to get started so the team can really start pushing itself for success.”??

The 2010 U.S. Freestyle Ski Team (* denotes Olympian)??

A Team?- Women?

Michelle Roark, moguls (11/16/74; Denver; Winter Park Eskimos)*?

Shannon Bahrke, moguls (11/7/80; Tahoe City, CA; Squaw Valley Freestyle)*?

Emily Cook, aerials (7/1/79; Belmont, MA; Freestyle Lives Year-round)*?

Hannah Kearney, moguls (2/26/86; Norwich, VT; Waterville Valley Black & Blue Trail Smashers)*?

Shelly Robertson, moguls (4/8/79; Reno, NV; Squaw Valley Freestyle)

Emiko Torito, moguls (7/2/82; Denver; Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club)

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!

Maria Cruz Garcia, US Olympic Speedskater and current American Record Holder (500M), lives and trains in her hometown of Carson, California with the support of her tight knit Mexican-American family. Today, Maria is a member of the 2009 World Cup Team and continues disciplined training at home, as she set her sights on earning a spot on the US Olympic Team and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.  Read Maria Cruz Garcia’s Los Angeles Questionnaire!

Ashley Wagner, a figure skater and certified ‘army brat’, who has lived across the United States, now happily calls Alexandria, Virginia home. In this Olympic year, Ashley’s dedication and perseverance has paid off!  At the 2009 US Championships, “after a twelfth place short program finish, Ashley redeemed herself in the long program, finishing in first place after the free skate and moving up to fourth overall,” as well as earning a 2009 World Junior bronze medal. Read Ashley Wagner’s Washington DC Questionnaire!

Many more great Olympic Questionnaires coming up on The Concierge Questionnaire!  Including:  Michelle Roark, Olympic Skier-Denver, Colorado.