SOCHI SCENE: Too Many Jackets
The Associated Press
SOCHI, Russia (AP) — When Yuka Sato and husband Jason Dungjen go to their closets, they need to be very careful.
Imagine donning the wrong national jacket when accompanying your skaters to the rink.
The coaches from Michigan are working with Olympians representing three nations: the United States, Italy and Japan. It can get quite frenetic with practice sessions piling up one after the other.
"Not yet," Dungjen said of wearing the wrong apparel. "We've been doing a good job on the jackets, but I check the schedule five times before I put it on."
Dungjen has found sizing the jackets to be more of a chore. He is wearing an extra/extra large Japan model — "beyond double XL" — and an extra large for Italy. Large did the trick for the United States, although Dungjen hardly is hefty.
Both are former Olympic skaters, Sato as an individual for Japan, Dungjen in pairs for the U.S. Their athletes are American champion Jeremy Abbott; Japanese pair Marumi Takahashi and Ryuichi Kihara, Japan; Italy singles skater Valentina Marchei; and Italy pair Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek — only Dungjen is listed as a coach for them.
— By Barry Wilner — Twitter http://twitter.com/wilner88
___
Associated Press reporters will be filing dispatches about happenings in and around Sochi during the 2014 Winter Games. Follow AP journalists covering the Olympics on Twitter: http://apne.ws/1c3WMiu
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)