Short track star aims for U.S. medal mark
Apolo Anton Ohno burst onto the scene along with his sport, short-track speedskating, during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
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It seems like a long time ago. A shaggy-haired teenager at the time is now 27 and a self-described “old man” compared to his younger American teammates. Ohno won’t say if the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which start with Friday’s Opening Ceremony, will be his last. But he knows he is on the cusp of history. Ohno needs just two more medals to surpass longtrack speedskater Bonnie Blair (five golds, one bronze) as the most-decorated American athlete ever at the Winter Olympics. He is currently tied with longtrack speedskater Eric Heiden at five overall.
“I try not to think about it,” Ohno said earlier this week from Vancouver. “My goals are a little bit different than what the media would like to portray. So I’m just staying the course and staying focused.”
It has always been that way. After his brilliant performance at the 2006 Games in Torino — a gold in the 1,500-meters race and two bronzes — Ohno stepped away from the sport. But his downtime included performing on the hit ABC television show “Dancing With the Stars.” He and partner Julianne Hough won the event after a grueling 10 weeks and his fame grew far beyond the Olympics when the program aired in the spring of 2007.
Ohno returned to short-track speedskating renewed, even before the program aired — winning his eighth national title at the United States championships and then a gold and three bronzes at the World Championships in Milan. It was a brilliant comeback and showed that Ohno was far from finished with short track.
“He’s our Babe Ruth. He’s the face of the sport, both socially and performance-wise,” said Ohno’s United States teammate Jordan Malone. “That’s a big deal … You wait to find a weakness and it doesn’t happen. That’s something that the competition doesn’t get to see, but we do every day. He leads and we try to follow.”
Of course, all that guarantees Ohno absolutely nothing. Short-track speedskating — at its core — is the most unpredictable of Olympic sports. Falls are common and what looks like a sure medal can vanish in an instant. Ohno has put himself in a good position. He claims he is in the best shape of his life and that he’s ready for a run at history. Ohno will compete in four different events in Vancouver — the 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 5,000-meter relay. A native of Federal Way, Wash. (just south of Seattle), Ohno also is competing just 160 miles from his hometown. If this is the end, he would like nothing more than to go out on top.
“With our sport, everything and everybody has to evolve with it,” Ohno said. “There’s constant change every single year and I’ve been lucky enough to change myself — physically, mentally, my technique, equipment. All hopefully letting me progress into a better skater.”
