Alaska Airlines and Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno unveiled a specially-themed Boeing 737-800 Tuesday (Nov. 17th) at Sea-Tac Airport, painted with a larger-than-life image of the celeb athlete and telling people to “follow Apolo.”

Also, to celebrate Ohno’s race for gold, passengers boarding the “Follow Apolo” jet received Ohno trading cards, copies of Ohno’s signature bandana and press-on faux facial hair (faux facial hair??? dang…now we’re sorry we missed this photo op!).

While we certainly don’t know any humans who’ve actually sprouted wings and can fly on their own, the unique design features a huge painting of the Seattle native on the aircraft’s fuselage and also promotes his new Alaska Airlines-sponsored website www.followapolo.com as he pursues winter gold in Vancouver, BC during the upcoming Winter Olympics.

“It’s an honor to be featured alongside Alaska’s trademark Eskimo and have the support of my hometown airline for the most important race of my life,” said Ohno, after seeing the plane for the first time.

A team of Seattle-area youth speed skaters aspiring to follow in Ohno’s path accompanied the athlete onboard the aircraft as it was unveiled at Sea-Tac Airport Tuesday. The skaters are members of Pattison’s Team Extreme and train at Pattison’s West Skating Center in Federal Way, where Ohno trained as a teen:

Apolo Ohno and members of Federal Way's Pattison's Team Extreme.

A native of the Seattle area, Ohno began his speed-skating career at age 14 in Seattle and Vancouver. He went on to become the youngest skater to win a World Cup event title in December 1999. Ohno has since won 11 national champion, 18 world champion and five Olympic medals.

If you’d like to “Follow Apolo,” you can either grow wings and attempt to fly behind (or alongside) his cool new airplane, or you can just click here and check out his website.

(Photos courtesy Alaska Airlines)