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USA Hockey unveiled its jerseys for the men's, women's and paralympic national teams will wear for the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. Here are some photos from Tuesday's announcement at the men's U.S. Olympic orientation camp in Arlington, Va.:

Do you like the new Olympic jerseys? Cast your vote here!

CALGARY, Alberta -- A little ball hockey, eh?

Team Canada took to the floor-covered ice Monday for "walk-through" practices, which is the coaching staff's unique solution to a tough situation given the inability to actually get on the ice for real practices.

The 45 players were split into two groups and ran around with their sticks in their hands playing out drills from the coaching staff while wearing track shorts, T-shirts and running shoes.

Kudos to head coach Mike Babcock for the clever solution for a tough predicament.

"I thought it was a real good day for us,” Babcock said. "Obviously, I have never done this before. We've put a lot of planning into it. I spent a lot of time talking to people to gather the information -- [head coach] Tom Izzo in particular with Michigan State basketball. He talks about the walk-throughs, and [they are] part of the reason that he believes they've been to six Final Fours in the last 15 years. Todd Downing is a quarterback coach with the Lions. He talked about the plays they walk through each and every day and the muscle memory and the timing and spacing that's going on.

"This is a big sheet, and guys aren't used to it. It's even bigger when you can't move very fast, and you couldn't go very fast today. But I thought it was a good teaching tool. The other thing is when you've got 23 guys on your team, you usually got to teach 23 different ways. Everybody learns different, so when you see it on video, it's one way you see it. In a book, it's another way. You've got a posting on the wall, you walk through it again and then you talk about it. To me, what we're trying to do is get them to understand the way we're going to play, so it meets the comfort for them when they arrive in Sochi."

It’s early, folks, but, for the heck of it, here were the lines:

Chris Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Patrick Sharp
Eric Staal-Jonathan Toews-Rick Nash
Logan Couture-John Tavares-Steven Stamkos
Andrew Ladd-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Jeff Carter-Mike Richards-Martin St. Louis
Milan Lucic-Matt Duchene-James Neal
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Jordan Eberle
Taylor Hall-Jordan Staal

"Don’t read anything into the lines," Babcock cautioned.

Joe Thornton’s absence from the camp (family illness) left Hall and Jordan Staal lined up with a University of Calgary player, Dylan Walchuk.

Talk about a thrill for the college player.

"I know. It's pretty sweet. Maybe I'll see myself on TV tonight if I get lucky," Walchuk said.

So much is going to play out over the next few months before Team Canada picks the team. It’s hard to tell a whole lot from these lines when you consider that most of the line combinations at the camp four years ago didn’t hold water come the Olympics in Vancouver four months later.

(Read full post)

Team Canada stars Sidney Crosby and Shea Weber talk about being a part of the NHL Players' Association's You Can Play initiative and their thoughts on Russia's anti-gay law:

Updated at 4:28 p.m. ET

CALGARY, Alberta -- Joe Thornton had to cancel his trip to the Canadian Olympic camp because of a family illness.

Thornton’s two-month-old son, River, was in the hospital, and Hockey Canada is obviously fully understanding of the veteran center’s situation.

Two of Thornton's teammates in San Jose expressed their support for Thornton on Tuesday.

"Our wives are best friends. He made the right decision, you got to stay home. Family is the most important thing," Dan Boyle said.

"Obviously, we’re all hoping that his son is OK and it sounds like he’s getting better which is good," Logan Couture said. "We miss not having Joe here. I’ll be headed to San Jose once this camp ends and we’ll get to catch up with him."

The total number of players at camp is down to 45 after Claude Giroux also cancelled his trip to focus on his rehab from surgery on his finger.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Injuries are always going to play havoc with the selection of Olympic rosters no matter which country is involved, but the U.S. management team will be paying close attention to the health of center Ryan Kesler. When he’s been healthy and at his best, Kesler has proved he’s a dominant player, a difference-maker. But the former Frank J. Selke Trophy winner as the game’s top two-way forward has struggled with a variety of injuries over the past couple of years. He is finally healthy.

“I’m good. Finally. Two years,” he said Monday.

The injuries and the time spent recovering from them took their toll on the Vancouver Canuck.

“Mentally tough. It wasn’t fun, especially this time around when you go through 10 months of rehab and break your foot on your first game back, that was tough to take. But it makes you stronger as a person. I’m healthy now and finally able to enjoy a summer with no rehab,” said Kesler, who played in only 17 regular-season games after the lockout.

Not only is Kesler hoping to parlay good health into Olympic success, he’s also looking forward to getting the Canucks back on a Stanley Cup track after two straight first-round playoff exits.

The Canucks were swept by San Jose this past spring, and it cost Alain Vigneault his job as head coach. He was replaced by John Tortorella, who was an assistant coach with the U.S. Olympic team four years ago.

“We have the same core. Obviously we know what that core can do,” Kesler said. “I think we’re going to have a new identity this year. Obviously a new coach behind the bench. He’s going to coach a little differently than our last coach, and that’s good sometimes. Sometimes you need change and a fresh face to energize your group.”

“I’ve played for Torts a little bit, and we all know what he’s all about.”

Looking for luck

If there is one player attending the U.S. orientation camp who could use a little Olympic karma, it’s Pittsburgh defenseman Paul Martin.

As a young player with the New Jersey Devils, Martin was selected to the so-called taxi squad for the 2006 Olympics in Torino. He, Matt Cullen and Hal Gill were in Italy in case of injury but did not stay in the athletes’ village and were in many ways isolated from the rest of the U.S. team.

Four years later, a virtual lock to make the 2010 team, Martin was struck by a puck early in the season and broke his forearm.

“Bill Guerin missed the net by six feet and hit me with the puck,” Martin said.

Initially the prognosis was that he would be out eight weeks, but that stretched to 10 or 11. Then the doctors worried the arm wasn’t healing properly, so Martin ended up at a specialist who ordered surgery the next day.

Even then, with pins and plates in his arm, Martin was hopeful he would heal in time to make the trip to Vancouver. But slowly it became clear it wasn’t going to happen.

“It was tough," Martin said. "As far as disappointment and frustration as far as an athlete goes, that has been my toughest thing to get over so far in my career. I didn’t have expectations as far as was I going to be on the team. But I think when you realize that that opportunity’s there and you get named but you can’t do it, it was a tough pill to swallow, and I struggled with it for a while.”

After a dreadful 2011-12 season, Martin rebounded last season to the kind of form that made him a shoo-in for the Vancouver team. He and defense partner Brooks Orpik were tasked with shutting down opposing teams’ top lines every night and were key penalty-killing specialists, while Martin was also an effective member of the Pens’ power-play unit.

Orpik was a member of the 2010 Olympic team and is also an invitee to the orientation camp.

“I think it definitely helps," Martin said. "I think there is that comfort factor there. Especially after the year last year, I think we found our identity again and especially me. He’s so easy to play with, and obviously he played in the last Olympics and with the coaching staff that we have, I’m very familiar with."

At 32 years old, Martin is a realist. He knows he must take advantage of this opportunity, as it might well be the last chance at playing in an Olympics.

“I’m really excited about this opportunity and the chance to play. Wherever it might be, right side, left side, I just want to play,” the Minneapolis native said.

“I just want to go.”

Where to keep a medal

One member of the Vancouver team who is at the orientation camp has a special place for his silver medal.

“It’s tucked away. I’ve been meaning to put it in a safe, but it’s in this fake stack of books, but it opens up. It’s not really books, it opens up,” forward Zach Parise said.

Does he take it out and look at it sometimes?

“Yeah, I had to bring it out. I don’t just at night grab it and sit on the couch and look at it, but I had to bring it out to New York a couple of weeks ago. I guess that was kind of the first time in a year or two that I’d looked at it. It’s cool to have,” Parise said.

Starting strong

One thing U.S. GM David Poile has made clear is that players who play well at the start of the season will be doing themselves a favor as far as making the final roster. Knowing that they are being scrutinized by the management team that includes NHL GMs Stan Bowman, Dale Tallon, Dean Lombardi, Ray Shero and Paul Holmgren along with former GMs Brian Burke and Don Waddell may be a bit unnerving, especially for the younger players.

“It’s hard to not think about it. The best way to do it is just try not to think about it,” said New York Rangers center Derek Stepan, who is looking to play in his first Olympics.

“It’s definitely not going to be easy at all.”

Building the sport

St. Louis Blues captain David Backes said he still runs into people who talk about the 2010 gold-medal game and how important the game was to them. He said he believes that NHL players being in the Olympics is important for growing interest in the game, not just in the United States but around the world.

“If you watched that gold-medal game and didn’t get turned on to hockey, I don’t know if the game’s for you,” Backes said.

Rising star

One member of the 2010 team who saw his stock rise in recent months is the Colorado Avalanche's Paul Stastny, who was a dynamo for the U.S. at the world championships with 15 points, second among all players as the U.S. won a surprise bronze medal.

After he reached a career-high 79 points in 2009-10, Stastny’s production has declined, but he said he’s hoping to carry over the same style of play that gave his success at the world championships.

“I think I just will try and play the way I did there. Kind of just play at ease again and just have fun,” Stastny said.

Early in a player’s career, he plays with nothing to lose, Stastny noted. “Then sometimes maybe you put a little bit too much pressure on yourself when things aren’t going well,” he said.

With a new coach in former Avalanche star Patrick Roy and new management under former Avs captain Joe Sakic, Stastny said there’s a different buzz around the team, and he’s looking forward to being part of that.

“I think it’s just that sense of urgency, that passion. There was already that feeling going on all summer,” he said.

I'll admit, when I was a kid, I didn't have my sights set on becoming an Olympian. This was mostly due to the fact that the obscure sport I grew up with and loved didn't become an Olympic sport until 1998 -- about 11 years after I threw my first rock and two years after I first represented my state at the national level. Olympians were the best of the best. They were the athletes I saw only on television, in commercials, in magazines and on billboards. They were superheroes. I was a curler. It didn't really cross my mind that curling might be an Olympic sport and I would someday have that opportunity. I loved to curl and I was pretty good at it. So I curled a lot. I thought that was that.

My teams came close to winning nationals. I began to collect a lot of silver medals. Seriously, second place is tough. But we would pick ourselves up and try again the next year. Then something clicked. My team won junior nationals in 2002 and went on to win junior worlds. It was the first gold medal for a women's team in any division in the U.S.

Ten years after I began curling competitively, my team -- nearly fresh out of the junior category -- won the U.S. Olympic curling trials after an impressive week and went on to represent the U.S. in the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006. That was our goal, our dream. I was a curler, and now I'm an Olympian.

To sum up our Olympics run, we had a great world championship immediately after the Olympic trials -- winning another silver medal. I'm very proud of that silver medal. It was recognition of our hard work and gave us confidence leading into the Olympics. But we didn't fare as well in Torino. We ended up eighth out of 10 teams. The week didn't go as we had hoped. The precision wasn't there. We had some bad luck on key shots.

We didn't have any regrets. We played our best in those moments, and the other teams played better. Now I want to go back and be that better team.

Maybe you're wondering how I got into curling. I was introduced to it because it was like a tradition in my family. My parents curled, their parents curled, and so on. In the very early years, my Sunday nights were spent at the local curling club arena, where my sister and I gathered with other rosy-cheeked kiddies roughly the same age whose parents, like ours, volunteered to teach us how to throw rocks at houses.

Now, if you haven't heard of curling before, that last statement sounds like we were on the path to becoming experts at vandalism, but that's not what curling is. Imagine pushing a polished chunk of solid granite down a sheet of ice toward a target painted just under the surface. Yeah, it's like bowling. And shuffleboard. Even similar to golf in some ways. But it's also much more than that. You might be asking, "Is that where you have the sweepers? And they go back and forth and stuff?" You got it. That is what I do. Well, if you ask my teammates, they would say I don't do much of the sweeping part. Skips tend not to get much credit in that department. We each have our own job out on the ice, much like each player on a football team has their job. But I'll expand on that another time.

For now, I want to introduce myself.

Hi there. I'm Cassie and I'm a curler. To be more precise, I'm the skip, or captain, of a team on the United States Curling Association's High Performance Team. I was also skip of the 2006 Olympic curling team. I'm married, and mom to a 4-month-old little girl. We have two lovable dogs that are complete opposites in personality. Because curling is an amateur sport and doesn't pay the bills, I also have a full-time job.

Life usually gets crazy for me from September through March and this season is no exception. My team is one of a select few that will be competing in the upcoming 2014 U.S. Olympic team trials this November. We will be training hard and traveling more in the months to come, all while juggling families, jobs and life in general.

I would love to wear USA on my back again in Sochi in 2014. Having been to the Olympics before and falling short has been a heck of a motivator for me to get back and do even better. It's not going to be easy and it's going to require a lot of preparation to get there. Throughout this season, I'll be posting here to give you a glimpse into our team's season -- win or lose -- leading up to Sochi, life as an athlete and new mom, and reflections on seasons past.

Is there anything you want to know about our team or curling in general? Contact me via Twitter: @ccpotter

Last week was quite the week! It was our national push championships and training camp in Calgary -- and marked the beginning of the process to make the 2014 Olympic bobsled team.

For most of my potential Olympic teammates, the first step to Sochi is to make the 2014 U.S. World Cup team, but I've been preselected to that team based on my results from last season. So for me, the week was about testing where I was in my training, while for others it was about making a statement to earn a spot on that team.

I trained hard this summer, and was hoping to see the results in my performance. I did worse than I expected in my combine (dry-land testing that including running and lifting), and was a little discouraged. I was forced to remind myself that the goal is to be as fast and as strong as possible in February at the Olympics, and I have to keep working in order to get there.

The week ended on a positive note, though, as I won my sixth consecutive push championship, and posted strong combos with every brakeman during the doubles competition. (The drivers like me are routinely paired with different brakemen to see which combination is the fastest.) Even though I'm not where I want to be yet, I am still pushing well and know that I've got much more time to improve.

And that's what was important about last week, with six months to go until the Olympics. It was an opportunity to see where I'm at and also to see where I need to go. It's going to be an intense time, but as long as I continue to work hard and trust the plan laid out by my coaches, I know I'll be where I want to be in February 2014.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at what the week was like. Sochi, here we come!

Drug testing in Canada after only a few days! They'll find you wherever you are.

Family mealtime in the house we rented: There were six bobsledders in one house!

Bobsled spikes I had created for the upcoming season. They sure do stand out, which is just what I wanted.

Some of the girls warming up for the lifting portion of the combine.

The crammed car ride back from a long day of combine testing. We got everyone in there!

Emily Azevedo, who was first to go, at push testing for brakemen.

Nic and I enjoying some sushi on a rare carb day that doubled as a date night.

From left: Me, Lauryn Williams, Jazmine Fenlator and Lolo Jones after push championships were over. We could finally relax.

The simple truth is that summer training can be a grind. But this is what we need to do to prepare for the winter season, and now that we're six months from a date with the Olympics, we want to make sure we do everything we can to be ready.

So we hit the gym every day except Sunday, doing weights, stair intervals, cardio; you name it. Three days a week we jump at Utah Olympic Park, on the K90 (normal hill) and the K120 (large hill). In Sochi we will be jumping the K90, but 99 percent of the girls who jump the normal hill are more than capable of jumping the large hill. This is the first time women's ski jumping will be held at the Olympics, so hopefully by the next Games, in 2018, we will have a large-hill event as well as a team event -- just like the men.

Temperatures have skyrocketed into the lower-to-mid-90s in Park City during the day, which makes jumping in our foam-like suits not the most comfortable experience. Our summer jump training mimics almost exactly what we do on snow in the winter. But instead of landing on snow, we land on plastic turf that looks like green, uncooked spaghetti that overlaps.

Some of the team, including me, have side jobs, too, so it's common for us to leave training and go straight to work for a few hours. I'm a waitress at a barbecue restaurant on Main Street in Park City. We try not to work too much, though, because a late night working in a restaurant isn't the best for recovery, especially if we have to be up by 7 a.m. the next day. After a hard workout and a big night at the restaurant, I am exhausted by the time I get home -- both mentally and physically. My legs ache and my feet throb, but by the morning I am ready to go again.

But fortunately, it's not all work all the time. Park City in the summer is one of my favorite places because of the gorgeous weather and the many things to enjoy outside, like barbecues, concerts and farmers' markets.

And my older sister got married earlier this summer, right here in Park City. It was great to avoid traveling, but she doesn't live in Park City, so a lot of wedding responsibilities fell on me. Of course, I would do anything for my big sister (wink, wink) and I was happy to be a part of it all. I had to schedule my training around the three days of wedding activities, so I packed a week's worth of gym sessions into three days so I could be in 100 percent wedding mode on the big weekend.

I'm glad I did, because her gown, the flower girl dresses and our bridesmaid dresses weren't delivered on time and we had to emergency-shop for new gowns two days before the wedding!

We went to every bridal store in the Salt Lake Valley and managed to find five bridesmaids gowns that were similar to the ones we had originally ordered. We bought two new flower girl dresses and Shannon found a gown at a boutique in Salt Lake that needed only minor alterations.

The morning of her wedding was her final dress fitting and I went with her. I'm not an emotional person, but when she walked out in her gown and it looked perfect, I actually cried. Then I laughed and told her she looked ugly and the only reason I was crying was because I was relieved everything was finally ready to go. (Joking, of course, though believe me, there was a lot of relief that it had come together!)

Next up, we're on the road again. Our Visa women's ski jumping team has two big European trips planned for August and September for summer Grand Prix competitions and training. I'm so excited to get back into competition mode, and to see the other jumpers we travel with all season long but don't get to see in the summer. Our team is pretty close with the Norwegian jumpers and we generally keep in touch during the offseason, so it will be good to catch up with our friends.

It's not lost on any of us that this year is an important one, and that there are only six months left until the Sochi Games and our Olympic debut. But for me, every year is important. I am always doing everything I can to better prepare myself for the upcoming season. Last week we ran a few physical tests and the results showed that I'm the strongest I have ever been. I broke my personal record in the jump test, with a vertical of 60.4 cm. I am thrilled about that and it only makes me want to work harder, every day. We'll survive this daily training grind, because competition is just around the corner, and we want to be at our very best.

Jessica Jerome, 26, is a World Cup ski jumper and member of Women's Ski Jumping USA. She's a 10-time national champion and has two sixth-place finishes in world championship competition. Jerome helped lead the effort to get her sport into the Olympic Winter Games, where it will debut in Sochi in 2014.

American figure skater Johnny Weir-Voronov talks about Russia's new anti-gay law and its impact on the Sochi Olympics:

Michael Phelps said he was done with competitive swimming after the London Olympics, but did his comments Monday open the door for 2016?

ESPN.com's Jim Caple explains why it may be difficult for Phelps to stay away from the pool:

Here is the complete U.S. roster for the IAAF World Championships, which will be held Aug. 10-18 in Moscow:

Women's events

100 meters
Carmelita Jeter
English Gardner
Octavious Freeman
Alexandria Anderson

200
Charonda Williams
Kimberlyn Duncan
Allyson Felix
Jeneba Tarmoh

400
Natasha Hastings
Francena McCorory
Ashley Spencer

100 hurdles
Dawn Harper
Brianna Rollins
Queen Harrison
Nia Ali

400 hurdles
Lashinda Demus
Dalilah Muhammad
Georganne Moline
Christine Spence

800
Alysia Montaño
Brenda Martinez
Ajeé Wilson

1,500
Jenny Simpson
Treniere Moser
Mary Cain
Cory McGee

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What Tour de France riders do for three weeks is pretty astounding. But what if they couldn't hear? That's the situation for John Klish, a deaf cyclist who will compete at the upcoming Deaflympics in Sofia, Bulgaria (July 26-Aug. 4).

Imagine biking on a road if you weren't able to hear the sound of an approaching car. Or racing when you can't hear a competitor coming up behind you.

"That was one of the reasons why I started with mountain biking when I was 15 years old. I was intimidated by cars," Klish wrote in an email. "Eventually, I started riding road bikes in college and that help me break that barrier. I just needed to know how to ride along the road.

"I never hear cars coming. I just stay to the far right and keep an eye out, look behind me every minute or so. For mountain bike races, I look back behind me more frequently and take the responsibility to move over if I see someone. I also can look down between my arms and see how close the person is if he/she is right on my butt.

"I've had the typical near misses where people are just driving by you too close. I've learned over the years, it's better to wave thank you to those that do move over and do not respond to those who cut close to you. Save your energy for the beautiful ride ahead of you and for thanking the right actions!"

Klish says he was born with bi-lateral profound hearing loss of at least 85 decibels. He is deaf in both ears and requires hearing aids to hear any conversation. Even then, "I only hear voice sounds, so I have to look at the person speaking so I can comprehend what the sounds are."

The Deaflympics http://www.deaflympics.com/ have been held every four years since 1949, and more frequently before the interruption of World War II (the first competition was in Paris in 1924). They are separate from the Olympics and Paralympics, and as Klish understands it, they are operated almost exclusively by the deaf and hearing impaired. Competitors must have a hearing deficit of at least 55 decibels. They must also cover their own expenses.

Klish raised enough money by sponsoring bike rides and starting a webpage, and with savings from his job with the Colorado Department of Transportation. But others still need help. "I think it's also important for the fans to know that there are other deaf athletes that need help to raise money, raise awareness and support them," he said. "Please seek out your favorite deaf athlete and support them to attend this year's Deaflympics."

Klish will be one of 120 American athletes competing in Sofia. He'll be riding in the 1000M sprint, the 40K time trial, the road race and the 50KM points race.

"The only disadvantage I can think of is not being able to hear anyone come up from behind right before a sprint," he said of riding while deaf. "I have to look around a bit more and be more aware of these riders urging forward. I just started road racing again a couple of years ago and it's just a bit different world for me.

"I'm learning how to overcome that challenge at the moment. I'm almost there -- that's what I love, anyway -- challenges that push me to learn more techniques, skills and ideas to overcome certain obstacles and disadvantages. I immensely enjoy learning how to find strengths in those weaknesses, and then teaching others these invaluable tools."

You can say that again. In addition to being deaf, Klish also overcame testicular cancer. There is a certain other cyclist who survived that, but of the two, I find Klish to be more inspiring.

In the early 1990s, snowboarder Chris Klug was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a life-threatening disease that led to the death of his boyhood hero, Walter Payton. But it took years for Klug to finally receive the liver transplant that saved his life.

"I was on a waiting list six years, and in critical stage for three months," Klug recalled. "It was the most difficult part of my life -- being on a waiting list, hoping and praying and not knowing what would happen.

"I was just hanging on. It was such a tough place to be. Each week and month that passes, you're weaker and weaker. I hadn't given up hope, but I was thinking, 'Will I die on this waiting list?'"

Klug did not die. He received a transplant in July of 2000 and recovered so quickly he was back on a bike within a week. Even more impressively, he won a bronze medal in snowboarding less than two years later at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Today, he says, he is healthier and stronger than he ever was.

Unfortunately, not everyone who needs an organ transplant is so fortunate. There are more than 115,000 people currently awaiting transplants in the United States, according to David Fleming, the CEO of Donate Life America. And approximately 6,500 will die each year while waiting for the transplant that will never come.

"We just don't have organs available,'' Fleming said.

Klug wants to help change that, so he's working to get the word out. April was national organ donor awareness month, and Klug and Fleming want to get more people on the donor list. The more on the list, the more organs that will become available and the more people who will live. Fleming says the majority of Americans support organ donation but that not all of them take the necessary step of signing themselves up as potential donors.

"Support is very high -- the challenge is that a lot of people postpone their decision to donate an organ,'' he said. "A lot of people think you need a driver's license. You don't. Just go to donatelife.net.''

Klug competed in three Olympics -- 1998 in Nagano, 2002 in Salt Lake and 2010 in Vancouver, where he finished seventh. He retired after the 2010 Games.

"My story speaks to the fact that transplants are mainstream,'' Klug said. "I had a pretty speedy recovery. Obviously, I'm alive today because of an organ donor that said yes. They're the real heroes of my progress.''

Veteran Christian Vande Velde is one of three Garmin-Sharp riders who will start this week's Tour of Catalunya in Spain, their first race since serving doping suspensions that were reduced in exchange for cooperation with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's case against Lance Armstrong. Vande Velde, 36, of Lemont, Ill., signed with the U.S. Postal Service team before the 1998 season and rode in support of Armstrong at the Tour de France in 1999 and 2001. He subsequently competed for two European-based teams before joining the Garmin organization in 2008, and finished fourth at that year's Tour.

In 2010, Vande Velde was among numerous witnesses interviewed by federal investigators then gathering evidence in a criminal investigation of organized doping on the Postal team. Last year, he and 10 other former Postal riders gave sworn testimony, including their own admissions to performance-enhancing drug use, that collectively formed a crucial and compelling part of USADA's case.

The five riders who were active at the time received six-month suspensions and had some past results nullified. Armstrong's longtime teammate George Hincapie has retired. Levi Leipheimer was fired by his Omega-Pharma-Quick Step team and remains unsigned. Vande Velde, David Zabriskie and Tom Danielson, whose suspensions ended March 1, will compete at Cataluyna this week. It marks the beginning of what Vande Velde says will be his final professional season. His tentative schedule includes the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado, a race he won last year in dramatic fashion in a time trial on the last day.

Vande Velde spent much of his suspension in suburban Chicago with wife Leah and daughters Uma, 5, and Madeline, 4. He also trained by himself (and occasionally with Zabriskie) in Southern California, where he struggled emotionally. "It finally dawned on me that I really enjoy this, and I'm really thankful I have my health and have the opportunity to race at the highest level cycling has to offer,'" he told ESPN.com in a telephone interview Saturday from Girona, Spain.

"I don't want pity from anyone. That's my biggest fear of saying these kinds of things, and that is the farthest thing from the truth. I'm just saying what I was going through. There were plenty of times when I questioned what I was doing at this stage of my career and why I was doing this. I definitely stumbled for a while there."

The following are excerpts from Vande Velde's conversation with ESPN.com.

What have the last six months been like?

It's been hard. I'm not going to lie. And I didn't foresee a lot of the things that would be hard. Like, for example, a training camp in November-December that a lot of times I didn't want to go to. I've been at a training camp at that point in time for the last 20 years of my life. Having that gaping hole there and not being retired, it blindsided me. I know I'm going to race this year, that'll come, and I wasn't freaking out about that. But it was definitely being away from the team, having that communication like I always have, that was hard, much more than I thought it would be.

I put myself out there and did quite a few public speaking [engagements] and it was all met really well. I was happy to do it, too, because there aren't too many questions I get asked now that I can't answer honestly. [Editor's note: USADA still has pending cases against former Postal director Johan Bruyneel and other staff members that could involve evidence from riders.] I enjoyed it, and I think most of the people I spoke to enjoyed it too. That was a different side that I didn't foresee being so positive.

I spoke to the Challenged Athletes Foundation [charity ride] three or four days after [USADA's evidence] was announced. That was one that I was pretty scared about, in all honesty. Of course people threw some hard questions out there and I addressed them. I definitely made it so that I wasn't that elephant in the room: "Come up and ask me, I don't want you to be avoiding me.'"

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LONDON, Ontario -- American pairs skaters are surely tired of being asked when U.S. pairs are going to pull out of their long tailspin on the international scene -- a slide at least partly attributable to the musical-chairs transiency among teams in recent years.

Friday, after making a notably strong statement for a new tandem at the world championships, Alexa Scimeca had an equally strong answer about the staying power she expects of herself and partner Chris Knierim.

"We're in it forever," said Scimeca. "You can quote me on that."

Scimeca and Knierim, together for less than a year, earned a personal best score of 117.78 points for their free skate, set to music from the soundtrack of "Life is Beautiful." Their total score of 173.51 placed them ninth, and that finish, combined with a 13th place from Boston-based Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, guaranteed the United States two entries in the discipline at next year's Olympic Games. (Combined placement of 28 or better was required.)

Scimeca two-footed her landing on an early throw triple-flip jump, but the pair received high marks for their opening triple-twist lift and other elements, including the dramatic death spiral.

"We got everything we went for," Knierim said. "We felt really good out there -- calm, relaxed, another day at the office."

Scimeca and Knierim are both skilled skaters who are well-matched physically on the ice and exude chemistry that appears to be nourished by their romantic relationship outside the rink. He gently kissed her forehead before releasing her from their program-ending clutch, and she made sure she'd wiped the last trace of lipstick from his cheek before they faced reporters and cameras in the bowels of the Budweiser Gardens arena.

Knierim said they haven't had any problems making sure what happens at home stays at home, and Scimeca added that their open channel of communication complements their training. "We can say to each other, 'I'm not feeling good today, don't take it personally.'"

Their coach Dalilah Sappenfield also works with U.S. pair Caydee Denney and John Coughlin, who are in their second season together and opted out of worlds as Coughlin continues to recover from hip surgery.

"Teams want quick success without [putting in] the time behind it," said Sappenfield, whose training group works in Colorado Springs. "It takes a good team three or four years to jell, and my teams are finally understanding that concept."

Castelli and Shnapir, skating first out of 16 pairs Friday, weren't crazy about their free skate score of 108.32, well under their season's best of 117.04. But they, too, said they're committed to the long haul after nearly breaking up a year ago. Their coach Bobby Martin told icenetwork.com earlier this month it was only the latest of "at least nine times, and maybe more, that one or the other was standing on a cliff, ready to jump."

Shnapir said longevity is going to be the key to any eventual U.S. renaissance in pairs -- "Decades [together], not single digits."

Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman's bronze medal in 2002 was the last podium appearance for a U.S. team at the world championships. Jenni Meno and Todd Sand won a world silver and two bronze medals in the mid-to-late '90s, and Americans have been shut out of Olympic medals in the discipline since 1988, when Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard finished third.