USA DAILYTHURSDAY, JANUARY 19Issue 7

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE 2012 U.S. YOUTH OLYMPIC TEAM

TEAM USA 2012 Youth Olympic Games 1

FAMILY AFFAIRFor most people, meeting an Olympian is a pretty memorable, even a once in a life-time opportunity.

For U.S. Youth Olympic cross country skier Patrick “Paddy” Caldwell, it’s all in the family.

Caldwell, who placed 16th in the men’s 10km classic on Tuesday (Jan. 17) and is set to race in Thursday’s (Jan. 18) men’s individual sprint, is the son of four-time U.S. Olympic cross country skier Tim Caldwell and the grandson of U.S. Olympic nordic combined skier, longtime Olympic coach and U.S. Ski Hall of Fame inductee John Caldwell.

“For me, it was just that we skied a lot,” said Paddy Caldwell of what it was like to grow up under the shadow of two Olympic skiers. “It’s always been part of what we do and what we love to do. My family has never pushed me to do it, but instead pushed me to do what was fun for me – which ended up being skiing.”

Tim Caldwell echoed his son’s sentiments, “Neither my wife nor I ever expected our kids to be competitive athletes—we never really thought about it. It’s really fun having Paddy enjoy skiing as much as he does. But, it’s a little tricky too—we really want it to be his deal—he’s doing it because he wants to do it.”

Making the Youth Olympic Games even more special for this Olympic family is the fact that Tim Caldwell competed in the 1976 Innsbruck Games on practically the same course.

“Thinking about my Dad skiing here has been really cool,” said Paddy Caldwell. “They placed sixth in the relay that year, and I like hearing him talk about his experience in Innsbruck, especially now that I’m skiing here too.”

FOLLOWING TEAM USA

WEB | TeamUSA.org/YOG

MEDIA | USOCPressBox.org

FACEBOOK | Facebook.com/USOlympicTeam

TWITTER | @USOlympic

INNSBRUCK WEATHERFORECAST HIGH/LOW

Light Rain/Fog 42/31

MEDAL EVENTS (8)Biathlon Relay (Mixed)

Ice Hockey Skills Challenge (M/W)

Skiing - Alpine Giant Slalon (M)

Skiing - Cross Country Sprint (M/W)

Speedskating - Short Track 500m (M/W)

U.S. MEDALS (5)

GOLD (2)

Mixed Relay Team, luge (1/17)

Ben Ferguson, snowboard halfpipe (1/15)

SILVER (1)

Arielle Gold, snowboard halfpipe (1/15)

BRONZE (2)

Aaron Blunck, freestyle skiing halfpipe (1/15)

Ty Anderson/Pat Edmunds, luge doubles (1/16)

WHERE TO WATCHUniversalSports.com offers daily highlights cov-erage from 2-3 p.m. ET. In addition, highlights can be viewed at YouTube.com/Innsbruck2012.

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When Tim Caldwell found out his son made the U.S. Youth Olympic Team, he knew he had to get a plane ticket as soon as possible to come and watch.

“Needless to say, coming back to Innsbruck and Seefeld brings back memories,” said Tim Caldwell. “Watching Paddy meet kids from other parts of the U.S. and the world is one of the great things about the Olympics. He’s an affable guy and he has really enjoyed broadening his view of the world through these competitions.”

Here in Innsbruck, Paddy Caldwell has another family member looking out for him – his uncle Sverre Caldwell, who is the U.S. cross country coach team leader.

Sverre Caldwell is also an instructor at Vermont’s prestigious Stratton Mountain School, where Paddy Caldwell is a student. SMS has had 53 Olympic placements and 33 Olympians as student-athletes since it opened its doors in 1972.

When asked if he wanted to make an Olympic team someday, Paddy Caldwell’s response was, “Absolutely.”

Through it all, Paddy Caldwell points to his love of the sport as his main inspiration.

“It’s fun to be out there every day, and I really do love it,” he said. “But having a family that knows what it’s about and supports it is really great.”

CURLERS EMBRACE CEPTo competitors, it seemed like a joke until they tried it. Living in the Youth Olympic Vil-lage on almost zero energy.

In practical terms, that means quick showers and dark rooms.

A competition at the Winter Youth Olympic Games promises a Samsung Galaxy S II to athletes who use the least amount of energy during their 10-day stay in Innsbruck.

The U.S. curling team is hoping to win.

“When we discovered the competition, we took the information back to our other roommates and we all started to save energy,” said curler Tom Howell of Brick, N.J. “At first, we were just going to not turn on the lights, but we did that for one night and then discovered that one of our roommates had a flashlight. So we also started to use it in the showers.”

The local power company, IKB, is in charge of calculating how much energy each athlete uses. It is measuring the amount consumed in each of the 375 apartments at the Olympic Village and dividing that by the number of people that share them.

To keep their usage down, Howell and his five roommates are charging their cell phones at event venues and in the shared breakfast room.

“We do not take showers together, but we did stop taking showers lasting more than five minutes,” said Howell. “And we also go to the bathroom with the lights off. ”

His roommate and skip for the U.S. curling team, Korey Dropkin of Southborough, Mass., added, “It helped to bring us together. Now we joke about that and we hang out on the balcony at night.“

CULTURE & EDUCATION

The Youth Olympic Games Culture & Educa-tion Program forms the counterpart to the sport events and is an important element in the YOG concept for Innsbruck 2012. The CEP aims to engage and inspire participants to be true champions and to embrace the Olympic Values of excellence, friendship and respect.

Through interactive, fun and educational activi-ties, the CEP encourages the athletes to reflect on their behavior and on how they can live and share the Olympic Values everyday.

The Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games Organizing Committee developed a CEP that consists of learning more about global issues, the Olympic Movement, Olympism and sport; contributing to a positive impact on the environment and tackling global issues; interacting with other athletes; and celebrating the Olympic Values and the diversity of the world’s cultures.

The CEP activities will be explained more fully in future editions of USA Daily, including the media lab, World Mile, Festival 2012 and projects in sustainability, arts and competence.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES CHINESE

Pat Edmonds (luge), Will Rhoads (ski jumping)

FRENCH

Nate Billitier (ice hockey), Tom Howell III (curling), Heather Mooney (cross-country skiing), Michael Par-sons (figure skating), Rachel Parsons (figure skating), Aleksandra Zakrzewska (biathlon)

GERMAN

Sean Doherty (biathlon), Jake Peterson (bobsled), Nick Proell (biathlon), Aleksandra Zakrzewska (biathlon)

KOREAN

Thomas Hong (short-track speedskating), Clare Jeong (speedskating)

POLISH

Aleksandra Zakrzewska (biathlon)

SPANISH

Codie Bacue (bobsled), Caitlin Belt (figure skating), Nate Billitier (ice hockey), Ryan Bliss (ice hockey), Pat-rick Caldwell (cross-country skiing), Blake Clarke (ice hockey), Jared Fiegl (ice hockey), Arielle Gold (snow-boarding), Logan Halladay (ice hockey), Colton Kissell (cross-country skiing), Alex Leever (alpine skiing), Lizzy Maxwell (skeleton), Julia Mueller-Ristine (alpine skiing), Max Raymer (snowboarding), Will Rhoads (ski jumping), Joe Wegwerth (ice hockey), Lesley Wilson (freestyle skiing)

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Meanwhile, the female curlers, twins Sarah and Taylor Anderson from Broomall, Pa., also joined the competition for a day, but were derailed by the men.

“We are kind of out of the contest because they sabotaged us,“ said Sarah Anderson with a laugh. “They entered our rooms at least four times a day in order to turn on all the lights.”

The curlers also joined Team USA’s Young Ambassador Charlie Paddock and athletes from Brazil, Chile, China, Germany, Italy and Poland in a cultural cooking class.

According to the boys, they only signed up because, “the girls made us.”

But then star Scottish curler Eve Muirhead walked in and the boys changed their tune.

“It was pretty awesome to see Eve,” said Dropkin, whose charge in the cooking class was to finely chop chives. “She’s an amazing curler. And the cooking part was actually fun.”

TODD ALLISON: TINGLE MOMENTSTodd Allison is the Chef de Mission for Team USA.

In the Olympic Movement and life, I refer to “tingle moments.” These are the moments when you are overcome with the emo-tion of the moment and get the tingles on the back of your neck. Here are a few of my tingle moments thus far at the Youth Olympic Games:

• At the Opening Ceremony, our flag bearer, Jake Peterson, took the stage with the U.S. flag. He paused at the top of the stairs, pushed the flag high in the air and, with shoulders back and head high, marched down the steps holding the flag proudly. He truly respected what the flag represented and what an honor it was to be selected to carry it for his teammates and his country.

• On a bus ride from Igls to Innsbruck, I looked out the window at the beautiful scenery and was taken aback when I saw a gi-ant peace sign stomped out in the snow in a field. The gesture and symbol stood as a reminder that the Olympics are about the peaceful celebration of sport and the arts. The Olympic Truce demands that all warring nations lay down their arms during the time that the flame burns over the host city – just like in ancient days when nations allowed their foes to safely cross their lands en route to Olympia.

• I was watching the women’s biathlon pursuit and saw a group of young school kids with signs, drums and noisemakers who were truly enjoying the spirit of the event. It was a great exam-ple of how interactive these Games are for the crowd, which stood just 30 feet from the fence. Those kids will remember the fun they had at that event forever.

• During a halfpipe mixed warm-up session in Kuhtai, a snow-boarder fell and slid to the middle of the pipe; she was lying there, not moving. A ski athlete stopped her own warm-up and immediately went to the aid of the fallen athlete. Once the snowboarder was able to get up, the skier helped her, and then they both cleared the pipe and went back to the top to resume their limited training time. It was a show of true sports-manship.

• The other night, I went to the medal ceremony in downtown Innsbruck. I watched athletes take the biggest step in their sporting career to date, the one onto the Youth Olympic podium and I heard one American athlete announced as “the gold medalist and Youth Olympic champion.” If that doesn’t inspire you to further greatness, what would?! It is powerful to

see the athletes’ faces on the podium as they watch their flag rise – especially when their national anthem is playing.

• I received a handwritten note the other day from Olympic gold medalist and Chef de Mission of the Australian team. In the note, she sincerely thanked our ice hockey staff for helping them fix a poorly prepared pair of skates. This sharing of skill, effort and caring allowed an Australian athlete to compete in the skills competition with adequate equipment. It was truly appreciated by the athlete and the Australian team. I believe efforts like that really embody what the Olympic Movement is about.

RESULTS

CURLING

The previously undefeated curling team comprised of skip Korey Dropkin (Southborough, Mass.), Tom Howell III (Brick, N.J.) and twins Sarah and Taylor Anderson (Broomall, Pa.) was upset by Italy in the quarterfinals, 7-5, to finish with a 7-1 record and fifth place overall.

ICE HOCKEY

The men’s team lost to Russia by a 7-1 count in the final prelimi-nary-round game. The two teams will rematch in the semifinals on Friday (Jan. 20) with a berth in the gold-medal game on the line.

SKIING – ALPINE

Julia Mueller-Ristine (Aspen, Colo.) garnered a 28th-place finish in the women’s giant slalom event, posting a two-run combined time of 2:03.17.

SPEEDSKATING

Clare Jeong (Tacoma, Wash.) placed eighth in the women’s 3000m competition, clocking in at 4:54.04.

SPEEDSKATING – SHORT TRACK

After posting the second-fastest time in the quarterfinal of the men’s 1000m (1:30.615), Thomas Hong (Laurel, Md.) fell in the semifinal for a DNF. On the women’s side, Sarah Warren (WIllow-brook, Ill.) finished 11th overall with a best time of 1:40.397 in the three-round competition.

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DAILY SCHEDULE

BIATHLON Mixed Relay^ 1p

Sean Doherty , Anna Kubek, Nick Proell, Aleksandra Zakrzewska

SKIING – ALPINE M Giant Slalom (Run 1 & 2)^ Patscherkofel 10a/1p

Alex Leever

SKIING – CROSS COUNTRY W Sprint (Qualification, QF, SF, Final)^ Seefeld Arena 3:45/5:15/5:45/6:15p

Heather Mooney

M Sprint (Qualification, QF, SF, Final)^ Seefeld Arena 4:15/5:30/6/6:30p

Patrick Caldwell

SKIING – FREESTYLE W Skicross (Qualification) Kuhtai 2p

Lesley Wilson

SNOWBOARDING M Slopestyle (Qualification, Run 1 & 2) Kuhtai 9a

Ben Ferguson, Max Raymer

W Slopestyle (Qualification, Run 1 & 2) Kuhtai 11a

Arielle Gold, Indigo Monk

SPEEDSKATING – SHORT TRACK W 500m (QF, SF, F)^ Olympic Ice Stadium 10/10:39/11:33a

Sarah Warren

M 500m (QF, SF, F)^ Olympic Ice Stadium 10:12/11:06a/12:02p

Thomas Hong

^Medal Event