Competition, Olympic Greatness, and Transitions | Apolo Ohno

Apolo Ohno (0:00)

When I competed against my own teammates, I wanted to psychologically damage their ability to ever want to beat me. It was very violent, right? So like, I didn't want to physically hurt anybody, but I wanted them to never ever dare try to claim the throne.

For 12 years, it was like that in the US. And when someone did and they came close, I took it very personally.

Michael Gervais (0:33)

Right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais. And by trade and training, I'm a sport and performance psychologist, as well as the co-founder of Compete to Create.

And the whole idea behind these conversations is to learn from people who are dedicated to mastery. And we want to understand how they organize their inner life, what they're searching for, how they deal with adversities and challenges, what it means to fully dedicate one's life towards progression, towards mastery.

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Okay, this week's conversation is with Apolo Anton Ohno. And you recognize the name because he's a legend. He's an eight time Winter Olympics medalist and flat out a legend in short track speed skating. So he's got two golds, two silvers and four bronze medals. And Apolo is the most decorated American Olympian at the Winter Olympics. And he continues to remain involved in the Olympic movement as an ambassador to the Olympic Games and Special Olympics. And he also serves as a broadcaster for NBC.

So in addition to that, he's on the 2026-2030 Winter Olympic Committee for Salt Lake City. And he's involved for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

So why would that be? Because he understands what it means to be an Olympian at the highest level and to pursue one's dreams by backing one's life efforts to be able to be committed to that aim. And so this is a little bit of a soapbox moment for me when I think about the difference between the average and the extraordinary and even the high performers and the extraordinaries. So like it's one thing to say, okay, I'm going to stand for fill in the blanks, whether it's gold medals or it's love or it is whatever virtue or value that you have.