Rusty Smith, a 22-year-old on the National short track speed skating team that is based at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., is sharing a weekly diary during the World Cup season on his preparations for the Olympic team.

This year we're training hard trying to get everything prepared for the upcoming Olympics in February. We just finished our summer training and are getting ready for World Cup. Our relay team is the reigning world champion, so going into the Olympics, we're looked at as the medal favorite.

	RUSTY SMITH
	Smith Age: 22 Hometown: Sunset Beach, Calif. Sport: Short track speed skating Accomplishments: In the 1998 Olympics, he was 13th in the 1,000 and a member of the 6th-place relay team. At the 2000 Worlds, he placed fourth in the 1,000 meter, seventh in the 500 meter and eighth overall.

There are a five World Cup competitions this year: two in Asia, one in North America and two in Europe. World Cup determines ranking, which determines seeding at the Olympics. After what happened on Sept. 11, we did not go to the Asia World Cups because we were supposed to leave Sept. 13. That brought us down to three World Cup competitions. To make it worse, our U.S. Olympic trials are the same time as the European World Cup, so we aren't going. That takes us down to one World Cup -- making our ranking even worse. Last year, I did three World Cups and I wasn't even in the top ten, so imagine what my ranking will be with only one World Cup. The possibility is high that I'll have some really hard people in the first round at the Olympics.

The first competition that we are going to is the World Cup in Calgary, Canada. They start in a week. Then after that we have an Olympic qualifying event where everyone in the world has to compete in Salt Lake City to get spots for their country in the Salt Lake Olympics. So those are our first two competitions of the year before Olympic trials in December.

Right now we're getting ready to go to the World Cup, so we're peaking our training. We go from doing real hard long laps to less volume and higher intensity. In the past two weeks, I've actually broken two different world records -- one in the 1,000 and the other in the 500. So I'm feeling pretty confident right now. I'm ready to go to these world cups and skate well.

Here's an idea of our normal training week:
Monday: Ice skating from 7:30 to 10:45 a.m. Go back to the training center and have 2½ to 3 hours off. About 2:30 p.m. we lift weights -- power cleans, squats and different exercises specific to skating. Then you just have the rest of the night to yourself.

Tuesday: Ice skating from 7:30-10:45 a.m. In the afternoon, we go for a 45-minute run. Then at night we skate for another hour and we play hockey and do drills to get more power.

Wednesday: It's an easier day for us. We skate in the morning. Then in the afternoon we have a two-hour bike ride. At night you have one hour of ice that is optional if you want to work on something specific.

Thursday: It's a pretty intense ice session most of the time from 7:30 to 10:45 a.m. In the afternoon, weights again.

Friday: It's also usually a pretty hard day on the ice in the morning. In the afternoon, we have either an hour run or a two-hour bike ride.

Saturday: In the morning, two hours of ice, high intensity, low volume. We get the afternoon off.

Sunday: It's is our day off. Usually do a half hour or 45 minutes of run and stretching.

That's a pretty typical week. Once a week there's usually a third workout -- on any day that you need one. Next week, I'll be able to tell you more about our first competition.