Article: Team USA's Angela Ruggiero to Appear on 'The Apprentice'
August 01, 2006
Three-Time U.S. Olympian Angela Ruggiero to Compete on Season Six of NBC’s “The Apprentice”
May 30, 2006 - COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Angela Ruggiero (Harper Woods, Mich.), a three-time member of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team, will join 17 other candidates selected to ‘interview’ for the title of “The Apprentice” during season six of the hit show. The announcement was made by NBC and Mark Burnett Productions today.
“It’s an honor to have been selected by America – I’ll definitely be bringing my Olympic spirit and competitive edge to the game,” said Ruggiero. “I’m proud to represent all Olympians and especially proud to represent the hockey community.”
Ruggiero was selected by viewers from a group of 12 Olympians via an online vote on NBCOlympics.com, which was open during NBC’s 17-day broadcast from Torino. Her fellow competitors included: Allison Baver (short track speedskating/Reading, Pa.); Travis Cabral (freestyle skiing moguls/South Lake Tahoe, Calif.); Casey FitzRandolph (long track speedskating/Verona, Wis.); Todd Hays (bobsled/Del Rio, Texas); Chad Hedrick (long track speedskating/Spring, Texas); Danny Kass (snowboard/halfpipe/Greenwich, Conn.); Joe Pack (freestyle skiing/aerials/Park City, Utah); Jeret “Speedy” Peterson (freestyle skiing /aerials/Boise, Idaho); Katie Uhlaender (skeleton/Breckenridge, Colo.); Seth Wescott (snowboard/snowboardcross/Carrabassett Valley, Maine) and Chris Witty (long track speedskating/West Allis, Wis.).
“The results are in and I’m thrilled with the viewer’s decision,” said Trump, executive producer, “The Apprentice.” “We’ll see if Angela can ice the competition as we take the boardroom to the West Coast.”
“I’m delighted to have an Olympian in our cast, especially one who went to Harvard,” said Burnett, executive producer, “The Apprentice.” “It’s a unique hiring opportunity for Donald Trump if she’s lucky enough to win. But in order to win, she’ll need to be the best of the best as she battles against many motivated and talented job applicants.”
NBC’s “The Apprentice,” hosted by Donald Trump, returns in January on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT with new twists, new geography – shot exclusively in Southern California – new boardrooms and 18 new candidates. The new location will be familiar to Ruggiero, who was born in Simi Valley, Calif.
In 1998, Ruggiero became the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Team that won the first Olympic gold medal ever awarded in women’s ice hockey at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. She subsequently was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team that won a silver medal in Salt Lake City in the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and most recently, she and her teammates took home a bronze medal in Torino in 2006.
Ruggiero graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in government. She was a four-time All-American and four-time finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, presented annually by USA Hockey to the top player in NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey. She won the award her senior year and was named one of the top 16 female athletes in the world by ESPN.com in 2004. She finished her collegiate career with 243 points (91 goals, 152 assists) in 127 games. For the 2000-01 and 2001-02 school years, she took a leave of absence from Harvard to concentrate on the Olympics. In November 2005, she released her autobiography, "Breaking the Ice."
The current season of “The Apprentice” concludes this Monday, June 5 with a 90-minute live broadcast from Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theatre where either Lee or Sean will be told “You’re Hired.”
The hit reality show “The Apprentice,” hosted and executive produced by Trump and created by Mark Burnett Productions, made famous the now infamous phrase, “You’re Fired.” Candidates selected to be on the show vie for a yearlong $250,000 “apprenticeship” and a chance to work in one of Trump’s organizations. Each week the two teams are given a task – the winning team earns a reward and stands a week closer to becoming “The Apprentice,” while the losing team faces Trump in the boardroom where someone gets fired. The multi-week interview continues to the final boardroom where Trump tells one lucky candidate, “You’re Hired!”
“The Apprentice” is produced by Mark Burnett Productions. Burnett, Jay Bienstock and Trump are executive producers. Conrad Riggs and Kevin Harris are co-executive producers.