updated 1:17 a.m. ET Feb. 9, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Apolo Anton Ohno and his girlfriend, Allison Baver, both happened to have their short-track races scheduled for the day after Valentine’s day.

Sorry, Allison.

America’s speedskating sweethearts have an agreement: Feb. 14 will not be a special day together at the Olympics.

“I don’t know. Girls like Valentine’s Day, so that was kind of tough, but, like — we race the next day, so ..." she said Tuesday, her voice trailing off wistfully.

“I’d like it,” she added, “because Italy, you know — romantic.”

Ohno, who made a sensational debut at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 by winning a gold and a silver in the rough-and-tumble sport, has been focused intensely on training, living in a spare apartment at the national Olympic center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

And keeping distractions at a minimum.

“Competitions, our preparation, our time and our focus are much different than most people,” he said, who has been seeing Baver for two years .

“Dating is hard” for an athlete, he said. “It’s very hard.”

Asked at a crowded news conference what he has been doing since arriving in Turin, Ohno’s answer was as spare as his lifestyle when preparing to compete.

“My activities have been going to the ice rink, eating, sleeping, training, and this is pretty much the only thing out of the ordinary,” he said. “We’ve been trying to keep it pretty simple every day.”

Later, answering questions from smaller knots of reporters, Baver alluded to Ohno’s Spartan reply.

“It’s part of his personality. 'I’m eating,' that’s it,” she said. “He’s not concerned about anything else except training, competing.”

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