We’re just two days into the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and poker players have already made waves. Nineteen year old J.R. Celski, an avid poker fan who hails from the United States, took home a bronze medal in the Short Track speed skating event.
According to Audrey Magazine, in addition to being an avid outdoorsman and golf enthusiast, Celski is “a serious poker player.” He’ll attend college at the University of California at Berkeley and, according to the periodical, can often be found “camping, hiking, boating, surfing, and fishing.” He began training for the Short Track event in 2002 and was not old enough to qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, missing the cutoff by a matter of days.
He departed Washington State for sunny California to train with Coach Wilma Boomstra. At age 14, he qualified for the Junior World Team, but the International Skating Union noted that Celski was not of age to compete. Then, he injured his back during a race in Romania, turning his skating career upside down. Text found on Celski’s official website explains, “It was shortly after his return from Italy when homesickness, back injury, balancing school workload, and ice training, combined with burnout, was taking over.”
Celski landed medals in the 2009 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, taking the gold in the 3,000-meter event ahead of South Korea’s Lee Ho-Suk and Canada’s Charles Hamelin. Celski also skated his way to another gold medal in the 5,000-meter event, as the U.S. team’s time of 6:51 edged out China and Japan to take the top of the podium. In the 1,500-meter event at the same games, Celski finished third behind two South Korean skaters; he finished second overall in the Championships to land a fourth medal.
After a highly publicized collision on the Short Track in Vancouver, Celski earned his first Olympic medal, a bronze. Lee Jung-Su finished with a time of 2:17.611 in the event, just inching out the United States’ Apolo Anton Ohno. Celski finished with a time of 2:18.053, about a half-second behind Jung-Su. By virtue of capturing a silver medal, Ohno moved into a tie with skater Bonnie Blair for most Winter Olympics medals in U.S. history at six. He also took down Season 4 of the ABC reality franchise “Dancing with the Stars.” In 2008, fellow Olympian Shawn Johnston, a gymnast, broke through on the series to claim the title.
Thanks to Ohno and our favorite poker fanatic, the United States has already four medals in Vancouver entering Sunday’s action in the Canadian city. Behind the United States is South Korea, who has a pair of medals to the nation’s credit. A total of nine countries are tied at one medal each: the Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Poland, Austria, France, and Russia. According to NBC.com, Celski was injured last September “when he sliced his left leg with his skate blade,” but made a full recovery. He’s from the same hometown as Ohno, Federal Way, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.
Some in the poker community were checking out the Olympics over the weekend, while others focused on tournaments as part of the L.A. Poker Classic. Full Tilt Poker front man Howard Lederer Tweeted on Saturday, “The reason I watch Winter Games? To see if some guy who won the last 3 world titles in a sport I don’t care about will choke Olympics.” Meanwhile, World Poker Tour (WPT) reporter B.J. Nemeth was allegedly on location in British Columbia: “Rhapsody & I are gonna try to check out the venues @ Whistler now (in the mountains), & we might return to the USA tonight. Wish us luck!”
The 2010 Winter Olympics continue for two more weeks and coverage can be found on NBC in the United States. On Saturday night, the Canadian women’s hockey team defeated Slovakia by a record-breaking score of 18-0.
I love the fact that most of the Olypians are multi-faceted and into other things not just over consumed in the sport that they are in. Watched Apolo in the event the other day, that guy is impressive and very talented.