NBC has announced that Olympic medalist Angela Ruggerio has won last February's stunt casting promotion that allowed viewers to vote a member of Team USA's 2006 Torino Winter Olympics squad into the group of candidates who will compete on the sixth edition of The Apprentice.

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Ruggiero, a three-time U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Olympian and Harvard graduate who won a gold medal in the 1998 Winter Games, will join seventeen other candidates competing on The Apprentice 6, which will, for the first time since the series began, move the Donald Trump reality series out of New York City and into Los Angeles.

"The results are in and I'm thrilled with the viewers decision, we'll see if Angela can ice the competition as we take the boardroom to the West Coast," Trump joked in the announcement. "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.

Ruggiero, who was born in Panorama City, CA, was one of twelve pre-screened 2006 Winter Olympic athletes that viewers for which viewers were allowed to vote. The other eleven were:

• Allison Baver from Reading, PA (Short Track)

• Travis Cabral from South Lake Tahoe, CA (Freestyle)

• Casey FitzRandolph from Verona, WiI (Speed Skating)

• Todd Hays from Del Rio, TX (Bobsleigh)

• Chad Hedrick from Spring, TX (Speed Skating)

• Danny Kass from Pompton Plains, N.J. (Snowboarding)

• Joe Pack from Park City, UT (Freestyle)

• Speedy Peterson from Boise, ID (Freestyle)

• Katie Uhlaender from Breckenridge, CO (Skeleton)

• Seth Wescott from Farmington, ME (Snowboarding)

• Chris Witty from West Allis, WI (Speed Skating)

Although it was originally expect to air this fall, last month NBC announced that The Apprentice 6 will premiere in January 2007 and serve as the anchor of the network's new post-Sunday Night Football Sunday night programming lineup. Despite the delay, The Apprentice is still scheduled to begin filming its first Los Angeles edition later this month.

The Apprentice's currently airing fifth edition will end its season with a special 90-minute finale broadcast on Monday, June 5 at 9:30 ET/PT. Due to the decision to film The Apprentice 6 in the Los Angeles area, The Apprentice 5's live finale will take place at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.

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