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)

World champion from Remsen ready to race for a spot in 2010 Olympic Games (Observer-Dispatch)

Erin Hamlin is a quiet champion. Or maybe she doesn’t like how she looks in yellow.  The week after Hamlin’s stunning World Luge Championship victory in February on her home track in Lake Placid, Hamlin earned the right to wear a special piece of equipment. A yellow competition bib, the color worn by the world champion, was ready for Hamlin in Calgary. The luge world champion and World Cup series points leader wear different color bibs to distinguish them from the field. Hamlin did not want to stand out. The 22-year-old Remsen woman, aiming for the U.S. Olympic team this fall, is competitive but not boastful. USA Luge teammate Ashley Walden noticed Hamlin’s unease with the bib, and encouraged her to put it on.“I am not sure about Erin being reluctant about putting on the bib,” Walden wrote in an e-mail, “But she is shy, and I remember that she was nervous to put on the bib the first time because it stood out.” Next week, Hamlin returns to Calgary with the U.S. Senior National Team for the start of the 2009-2010 World Cup season. Hamlin is exempt from team qualifying because of her results last season. With fewer than 100 days until the Winter Olympics, Hamlin’s goal is completing her qualifying to compete on the fast track in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, outside of Vancouver. Hamlin finalizes her trip to the Olympics with a top-five finish at any of the first four World Cup series races: Calgary; Igls, Austria; Altenberg, Germany; and Lillehammer, Norway. The level-headed Hamlin is not going to change how she approaches early races because of Olympic qualifying. (read more)

It’s a Boy! For Shannon Miller, America’s Most Decorated Gymnast

Olympic Gold Medalist and America's Most Decorated Gymnast, Shannon Miller and her husband John Falconetti, President of The Drummond Press, welcomed their first child, John Rocco Falconetti, on October 28, 2009.  The baby boy was born at 6:46pm, weighing 7lbs, 11oz.

"There is nothing that compares to seeing your child for the first time.  Hearing him cry and holding him in our arms.  We feel so blessed and are excited to begin this new adventure!"

In addition to sports broadcasting and hosting her own television show, Shannon continues to be a strong advocate for health and wellness for women, recently taping a prenatal fitness video and writing a series of fitness books to be out in 2010. (read more)