TSN- After sweeping their opponents throughout the tournament, the U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Team earned silver as they were edged out by Canada in the championship game at the 2009 Women's Four Nations Cup, Nov. 3-7 in Tikkurila, Finland. The event featured the top four women's hockey teams in the world - the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden - and is the last international women's hockey tournament prior to the start of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The U.S. team opened preliminary-round play with a 4-0 win over Finland and added two additional tournament wins after defeating both Sweden and Canada 3- 2.   The U.S. Women’s team beat Canada to win the gold medal at the 2009 World Championships earlier this year. (read more)

Omaha World-Herald

Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Shawn Johnson participated in the Hy-Vee Whole Health Experience at the Mid-America Center. Q & A with Shawn Johnson: You've certainly been busy since Beijing. What's your schedule been like recently?   This is actually a slow time for me, which with me isn't really slow. I'm staying home a lot. I'm getting more time to spend in the gym and get back into shape. I'm finishing up school and trying to get into college. I'm working with McDonald's. I'm going to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Ten kids get to travel with me there and experience the Games. I've done some correspondence work with “Dancing with the Stars.” I'm kind of enjoying life right now. What is next for you in gymnastics?   It's still a huge question on whether I'm going to return right now. It's a hard decision. I fulfilled my lifelong dream and goal in Beijing. It's a huge commitment, but I miss the sport. I am getting back in shape. I'm playing around in the gym to see if it's still what I want to do. How much time do you spend in the gym?   I haven't really started in the gymnastics gym yet. I go to a fitness center every day. I have a physical trainer I'm working with. I'm trying to get back in the position I want to be in. What has been the most fun thing you've done since the Olympics?  “Dancing with the Stars” by far. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I could. Being thrown into something completely new was refreshing. I'd never done anything besides gymnastics. It was really rewarding for me. (read more)

Los Angeles Times

Like most athletes as they age, three-time U.S. Olympic hockey medalist Angela Ruggiero of Simi Valley realized that her 29-year-old body wasn’t rebounding as quickly as it used to after games and workouts.

Intent on helping Team USA return to gold-medal glory in February at the Vancouver Games, she worked out with male hockey players this summer at the Athletes Performance training facility at the Home Depot Center in Carson. She emerged leaner and stronger—and believes she might have added 10 years to her playing career.

Ruggiero spent May, June, July and part of August at Athletes Performance as the only woman in a training group that included Chris Drury of the New York Rangers, George Parros of the Ducks, Richard Park of the New York Islanders, former King Noah Clarke, and other pro players.

 “For me it was really cool,” she said from Spokane, Wash., where the U.S. women’s national team will faced Canada in a game televised by the NHL Network. (read more)

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)

ESPN/The Associated Press Nagano, Japan -- Ashley Wagner of the United States finished first in the women's short program at the NHK Trophy on Friday, edging Miki Ando of Japan. Wagner opened with a triple flip, double toe loop in a routine to the soundtrack from "Once Upon a Time in America." In the women’s free skate on Saturday, November 7, Wagner was out-skated by Miki Ando of Japan. Wagner took a third place finish overall. Wagner, who finished second in the Rostelecom Cup, is bidding for a place in the Grand Prix final, which will be held Dec. 3-6 in Tokyo. (read more)