#29 - Apolo Anton Ohno: 8-time Olympic medalist – extreme training, discipline, pursuing perfection, and responding to adversity
In this episode, 8-time Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno discusses his remarkable career in short track speed skating, detailing his unique upbringing, intense physical and mental training, and the psychological battles he faced. He shares lessons on grit, self-sabotage, and the pursuit of mastery.
Deep Dive Analysis
18 Topic Outline
Apolo Ohno's Unique Upbringing and Father's Influence
Father's Immigration Story and Career Path
Apolo's Early Athletic Pursuits and Discovery of Skating
Distinction Between Inline, Long Track, and Short Track Speed Skating
The Evolution of the Clap Skate and Eric Heiden's Legacy
Apolo's Early Talent, Move to Lake Placid, and First Self-Sabotage
The Moclips Beach Turning Point: A Father's Tough Love
First World Championships and Realization of Korean Dominance
Embracing Mental Training and the Fighter's Mentality
2002 Salt Lake City Olympics: The Controversial 1000m Silver Medal Race
2002 Salt Lake City Olympics: The Disqualification and 1500m Gold Medal
Post-2002 Olympics: Commercial Success and the 'Short Track Happens' Mentality
Apolo's Tumultuous Relationship and Return to South Korea
Training with the Korean National Team and Adapting to Their Methods
Physical and Technical Transformation for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
The Psychological Edge and Reinvention for the Final Olympics
Transitioning from Elite Sport to Life After Retirement
The Pursuit of Perfection and Achieving Flow States
4 Key Concepts
Clap Skate
A type of speed skate where the rear heel of the blade is hinged and detaches from the boot during a push, allowing the blade to stay on the ice longer. This innovation significantly changed long track speed skating technique and performance, leading to a 5-15% additional advantage per push.
Short Track Speed Skating
A dynamic ice sport contested on an Olympic-sized hockey rink (111-meter oval track) with multiple skaters (5-8) racing simultaneously. It emphasizes strategy, tactics, and agility over pure time, involving close-quarters racing, drafting, and passing.
Cross Tracking
A disqualifying maneuver in short track speed skating where a skater, after coming out of a corner, immediately cuts off an inside lane, impeding another skater. This rule was subjective and became a point of controversy in Apolo's 2002 1500m Olympic final.
Flow State
A mental state characterized by complete immersion and focus in an activity, where time perception is altered, and execution feels effortless and automatic. Athletes often describe it as a 'perfect' moment where they are fully present and performing at their peak without conscious thought.
7 Questions Answered
Long track speed skating is typically on a 400-meter outdoor oval where skaters race against the clock in their own lanes, focusing on time. Short track speed skating is on a 111-meter oval inside a hockey rink, with multiple skaters racing simultaneously, emphasizing strategy, tactics, and close-quarters competition.
Apolo's father instilled a relentless pursuit of perfection and a strong work ethic, pushing him to always strive for better. He used tough love, such as leaving Apolo alone in a cabin for nine days, to force him to commit to his path and develop mental resilience.
In a chaotic final where all other leading skaters fell in the last corner, Apolo instinctively got up and threw his skate across the finish line to secure a silver medal. This unexpected outcome, where Australian Steven Bradbury won gold, became a metaphor for resilience and not giving up, despite not being the 'perfect' win.
Following Apolo's 1500m gold medal win due to a controversial disqualification of Korean skater Kim Dong-sung for 'cross tracking,' Apolo became a symbol of anti-American sentiment in South Korea. He received thousands of death threats and his image was even used on toilet paper, leading to a two-year boycott of Korean World Cups by the U.S. team.
Apolo decided to compete in a 2004 World Cup in Seoul, despite security concerns and initial booing. He performed exceptionally well, winning the 1000m and 3000m races while battling severe food poisoning, which earned him the respect and admiration of the Korean fans by the end of the trip.
Apolo drastically reduced his body weight from 165 lbs (2002) to 143-145 lbs (2010), focusing on a higher cadence and lower torque skating style to improve efficiency. This involved cutting upper body muscle mass and intense, often unconventional, training to reinvent his natural gait and surprise competitors.
Many athletes struggle with a loss of purpose, structure, and identity after retirement, as their adult lives were singularly focused on sport. They often lack work experience or traditional education, making it difficult to find a new career path and adjust to normal societal expectations.
49 Actionable Insights
1. Instill Grit in Children
Instill a strong sense of grit in children, as it is arguably one of the most important qualities for a fulfilling life, teaching them to persevere through challenges.
2. Embrace Mastery Process
Embrace the process of striving for mastery in any field, understanding that the beauty lies in the continuous pursuit of an unattainable ideal, rather than just the end goal.
3. Commit Fully, No Regrets
Commit fully to your pursuits, moving beyond relying solely on talent to develop legendary discipline and work ethic, aiming to finish with no regrets.
4. Relentless Pursuit of Perfection
Continuously strive for improvement and an unattainable perfection, recognizing there’s always another level to reach, and never stop pursuing that goal.
5. Embrace Resilience & Forward Motion
Embrace resilience by focusing on your ability to withstand setbacks and continue moving forward, rather than just your capacity to deliver initial blows.
6. Strategic Reinvention
When facing highly knowledgeable competitors or declining performance, make drastic, unpredictable changes to your strategy, mentality, and training to become an ‘unrecognizable’ opponent.
7. Extreme Mental & Physical Hardening
Embrace extreme mental and physical hardening, including solitary practices like sauna, meditation, and visualization, alongside meticulous control over diet, to cultivate unwavering focus and unlock peak potential.
8. Unconventional Training Mentality
Develop a ‘savage’ and unconventional training mentality, pushing beyond normal limits to create a psychological edge that intimidates competitors and wins races before they even begin.
9. Learn from Other Disciplines
Seek out and learn from individuals in other demanding disciplines (e.g., wrestlers) to cultivate extreme mental toughness, fortitude, and an ‘old school, Rocky mentality’ that prioritizes hardness over conventional sports science.
10. Solitary Reflection for Decisions
Engage in periods of solitary reflection, journaling, and deep questioning to clarify life’s purpose and make significant decisions, especially when at a crossroads.
11. Unbreakable Self-Promises
Make legitimate, unbreakable promises to yourself for intense, focused dedication during critical periods, such as off-season training, to achieve significant improvement.
12. Integrate Sports Psychology
Incorporate sports psychology techniques like meditation, breathing exercises, positive self-talk, manifestation, and visualization to significantly enhance performance.
13. Proactive Life Planning
Develop self-directed structure, purpose, and knowledge in areas like finance, family, relationships, and nutrition before retirement from a highly structured environment, to avoid post-retirement disorientation.
14. Meticulous Coaching & Recovery
Employ a dedicated coach to meticulously monitor all aspects of training, nutrition, and recovery, especially if prone to overtraining, to optimize for specific physiological goals.
15. Train in Challenging Conditions
Seek out and embrace challenging, uncomfortable training conditions (e.g., bad weather, ‘dumb training’ like weight vest in snow) with the mindset that competitors are not, to build mental toughness and a unique driving force.
16. Cultivate Love of Practice
Cultivate a deep love for the practice and process of your craft, as this dedication is a common trait among individuals who achieve greatness.
17. Off-Season Immersion Training
Dedicate off-season time to intense, solitary training, including watching performance tapes daily and training twice a day, to build a strong foundation and improve technique.
18. Prioritize Child’s Experiences
Provide enriching experiences for children, especially through free activities like exploring nature, to foster appreciation and growth, even with limited financial resources.
19. Foster Early Independence
Foster early independence in children by teaching them self-sufficiency, such as cooking for themselves, to build reliance on self.
20. Commit to New Endeavors (30 Days)
When starting a new, challenging endeavor, commit to a minimum period (e.g., 30 days) before deciding whether to continue, allowing time for adjustment and potential enjoyment.
21. Rigorous Educational Approach
Adopt a rigorous approach to education, pushing to re-take tests until mastery is achieved.
22. Channel Child’s High Energy
Engage high-energy children in physically demanding activities to channel their energy and promote exhaustion.
23. Avoid Minimum Effective Dose
Avoid the temptation to seek the ‘minimum effective dose’ when striving for peak performance, as it can lead to underperformance and squandered opportunities.
24. Frame Setbacks as Wins
Frame setbacks and less-than-ideal outcomes as wins (e.g., winning a silver instead of losing a gold) to maintain a positive and appreciative mindset.
25. Cultivate Gratitude in Competition
Cultivate gratitude for the opportunity to compete and perform, even when results are not as expected, to maintain perspective and pride.
26. Move On From Setbacks
After a challenging or disappointing performance, quickly shift focus to preparing for the next event, letting go of past results.
27. View Challenges as Growth
View life’s unpredictable challenges as opportunities to learn, adapt, and return stronger, much like the inherent volatility of short track speed skating.
28. Study & Emulate Top Performers
Study and emulate the techniques of the most proficient practitioners in your field to achieve a high level of consistency and technical mastery.
29. Obsessive Practice in Daily Life
Practice specific, even uncomfortable, physical maneuvers obsessively in everyday life (e.g., driving in a skating posture) to internalize and make them feel more natural for peak performance.
30. Apply Focus to New Ventures
Apply the same principle of complete immersion and dedicated hours to new projects and learning areas, even without prior experience, to accelerate growth and understanding.
31. Transfer Athletic Mindset
Leverage past experiences of overcoming physical and mental barriers in sport to approach challenges in business and relationships with resilience and an open, adaptable mindset.
32. Balance Focus & Social Skills
Recognize when extreme rigidity and single-minded focus, while beneficial for athletic performance, might make one ‘unpleasant to be around,’ and consciously cultivate a ‘softer’ approach in personal life and relationships post-competition.
33. Strategic Retirement Planning
Plan for a complete transition post-retirement, aiming to pursue and ‘win’ in entirely new, unrelated fields to avoid the temptation of returning to past glories.
34. Heed Transition Advice
Actively engage with and take seriously advice on post-career transition, even when feeling invincible, to prepare for the inevitable end of a focused athletic career.
35. Visual Goal Reinforcement
Use visual reminders (e.g., post-it notes) throughout your living space to reinforce key goals and mantras (e.g., ‘zero regrets,’ ’no stones unturned’) for unwavering focus and preparation.
36. Endure Discomfort & Doubt
Be prepared for periods of intense physical discomfort and self-doubt when pursuing extreme physiological changes, and maintain conviction in the chosen path despite internal questioning.
37. Value of Preparation
Recognize that the feeling of profound preparation and successful personal reinvention, achieved through significant risk and effort, can be a powerful ‘win’ even before competition begins.
38. Post-Preparation Mindset
Once preparation is complete and ’no more could have been done,’ shift focus entirely to strategy and competition, free from regrets about effort.
39. Post-Retirement Life Priorities
Prioritize health, cultivate strong personal relationships, seek diverse experiences, and embrace continuous learning from both successes and failures in new ventures.
40. Happiness Through Self-Awareness
Cultivate self-awareness to identify the few things that genuinely bring happiness, and then prioritize exploring and learning in those areas.
41. Value of Sports Participation
Encourage participation in sports for everyone, regardless of skill level, to learn invaluable life lessons about winning, losing, commitment, dedication, sacrifice, and enduring physical pain.
42. Manage Past Obsessions
Recognize when past obsessions are no longer serving current goals and consciously ‘put them away’ to focus on present priorities.
43. Open-Minded Continuous Learning
Cultivate an open mind to learn from diverse individuals and readily access information through modern technology (e.g., podcasts) to continuously grow and expand understanding.
44. Achieve Flow State
Strive for a ‘flow state’ in performance where peak execution feels effortless and automatic, leading to unexpected personal bests.
45. Conditions for Flow State
Cultivate a deep care for the outcome and embrace psychological consequences to ‘force’ yourself into a flow state, enhancing performance.
46. Synthesize Learnings for Life
Synthesize learned information to apply it to your life, aiming for higher quality and fulfillment.
47. Optimize Performance & Health
Cultivate a hunger for optimizing performance, health, longevity, and critical thinking to drive personal growth.
48. Review Podcast Show Notes
Review the detailed show notes for the podcast, as they provide additional information and clarity on topics discussed.
49. Subscribe to Weekly Email
Subscribe to Peter’s weekly email for updates on his activities, interesting papers, and topics related to longevity, science, and performance.
8 Key Quotes
It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
Peter Attia (quoting Rocky Balboa)
Superman without the Cape.
Apolo Ohno
The harder it snowed outside, the less people that are outside. I want to be out there with the weight vest doing some dumb training.
Apolo Ohno
I didn't lose the gold. I won, I won the silver.
Apolo Ohno
That's short track. That's short track. Like, look, man, like you plan everything. You are the best. You've been undefeated for years. You get to the Olympic games, boom, you fall down. And shit, that's short track. Like that's the sport that you signed up for.
Apolo Ohno
You are leaving here in a much better place than you did when you arrived.
Mr. Chang (Head of KSU)
My life really kind of began after I retired from the sport.
Apolo Ohno
There's no plan B. And when there's no plan B, you really commit to plan A.
Apolo Ohno
2 Protocols
Father's Tough Love Decision-Making Protocol
Apolo Ohno (describing his father's actions)- Take Apolo to Moclips beach, a remote, rainy location Southwest of Seattle.
- Drop Apolo off alone in a cabin with food, a stationary bike, and a pen and pad for journaling.
- Instruct Apolo to stay there until he figures out what he truly wants to do with his life and commits to it.
- Allow Apolo to spend nine days in solitude, running, praying, and reflecting on his purpose.
- Pick Apolo up after he makes a firm decision, without asking what the decision is, trusting in the process.
Apolo Ohno's 2010 Olympic Preparation Strategy (Reinvention)
Apolo Ohno- Commit to drastic changes in training and body composition after realizing loss of dominance in 2007.
- Hire a strength and conditioning coach to live with and monitor every aspect of diet and training.
- Focus on shedding body weight (targeting under 150 lbs) by creating a catabolic environment to lose excess upper body muscle mass.
- Shift training emphasis from pure power to higher cadence and increased aerobic base, while maintaining lower body strength.
- Implement unconventional training methods like daily treadmill sprints, intervals, and extensive use of the Manitou Incline (often with weight vests and jumps).
- Prioritize recovery, nutrition, and mental fortitude, using visualization and self-talk to build confidence and project a different energy to opponents.
- Aim to be completely unpredictable to other athletes by changing natural gait, rhythm, and racing style.