Chris Klug, a 28-year-old on the U.S. ski and snowboard team that is based at the Park City, Utah, is sharing a bi-weekly diary on his preparations for the Olympics.

We've been at training camp at Copper Mountain, Colo., since last Tuesday. We're in our final tuneup before we head to World Cup competition in Europe.

CHRIS KLUG

Klug Birthdate: Nov. 18, 1972 Hometown: Aspen, Colo. Sport: Snowboarding -- slalom Accomplishments: The 2001 U.S. national champion, he was the first rider selected for the 1998 U.S. Olympic snowboard team. He placed sixth in the giant slalom in Nagano. Personal: Diagnosed with the same rare liver disease that killed NFL's Walter Payton, Primary Schlerosing Cholangitis, he waited seven years to receive a liver transplant. In July 2000, he underwent transplant surgery and in December was back on the podium at World Cup-Canada. In January, he won his first World Cup victory since the transplant -- the parallel giant slalom race in Italy. When he's not snowboarding, he likes to surf, mountain bike, skateboard and play tennis. People wonder how he can be so active after his transplant. "Sometimes people think I'm nuts," he said. "I've got a brand new liver, so it's not any different than anyone else going out and doing it. I'm certainly grateful."

I live in Aspen, Colo., that's where I train and hang out when I'm at home. Before this we were doing dry-run training. We did some fun mountain bike rides to get in shape while we're waiting on the snow. There's also a skateboard park in Aspen, and I've been hitting that, as well.

Pretty much at this camp, we're working hard to get all of our equipment tuned and get ready to be in race mode. For those of you not as familiar with skiing and snowboarding, a snowboard has a petex base that absorbs wax just like skis and then they have metal edges. When you tune it, you want to make that base as fast as possible to glide better. The edges go through a grinder that dries out the bases and makes the edges kind of rough, so afterward you want to try and impregnate as much wax as you can into the base. We've been doing a lot of late-night tuning sessions here, so I've felt more like a professional tuner instead of a snowboarder.

In training, we've been trying to simulate a race-environment situation. It's always competitive. We use timing, video and actual race competition to prepare for the first World Cup in Tignes, France, so that when we get there we're comfortable in the start gate despite some obvious jitters that we'll have.

We're on the lift at 6:45 a.m. every morning and done by 10 a.m. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we have media dates in the afternoon. Once those are done, I try and hit the hay to be ready for those early morning workouts. When I get time, I update my Web site: www.chrisklug.com. Thursday, I did a photo shoot for People Magazine. They had me in a Jacuzzi for an hour or two. Then they wanted me in an outdoor setting, so they had me hanging off a rock for a while. Next I recruited teammate Anton Pogue and my girlfriend, Missy April, to play pool and be in the photo shoot.

We've done media stuff for People Magazine, Men's Health and the today show. We also talk to a lot of the local schools and charities. I think it's exciting not only for myself but also for our sport to encourage people to get out there and give it a try.

We have a great team. We have a condo together, and they are a cool bunch of guys. We have a lot of fun and push each other in training. Teammate Stacia Hookom took us a through a pool workout this week. I'm surprised she put up with us with all our shenanigans. Every afternoon we go to the gym and do a little dry run activity working on strength and explosiveness. We worked all summer long, so it wouldn't make sense to let it go now.

Over the summer I worked really hard at the on-snow camps in June and July. We went down to Chile to train for three weeks in August and September, and then had a camp in October in Norway. I also did a lot of kite surfing. I went to Indonesia and did a lot of surfing for three weeks. I got into kite surfing a lot.

On Tuesday, we leave for France. We have our first slalom World Cup on Nov. 18 -- my birthday. We'll be in Europe for three weeks with stops at Kaprun, Austria, then we head to Ischgl, Austria, and then to Whistler, Canada, for our first North America World Cup.