PARIS (ABC4) — Chances are, the first time you heard the legendary Apolo Ohno’s name, it was during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. We caught up with Ohno in Paris, France, on Wednesday just moments after Salt Lake learned the Olympics are coming back in 2034.
Currently 42, he retired from speed skating back in 2010 — but not before earning medals in the Salt Lake (2002), Turin (2006), and Vancouver (2010) Games. He exploded onto the Olympic stage in Salt Lake, taking short track speed racing gold in the 1500m. He took home another in the 500m in Turin. Two more silver medals and four bronzes rounded out his career. That makes him the single most-decorated American in Winter Olympics history.
He’s also an eight-time gold medalist in the World Championships, if that wasn’t enough.
Those are his credentials. But Ohno also brings a unique perspective to how the Olympic experience has evolved since the days of 2002 — which he said remains his favorite Winter Games.
“Utah is a powerful place, right?” said Ohno. “It was the place my first Olympic Games and the fact that it’s coming back now in 10 years — it feels like a long time, but this is another incredible opportunity to showcase the best of what Utah has to offer.”
While Salt Lake City residents have fond memories of the 2002 Games and what it did for their city, across the rest of America, the Games had a more profound meaning. They were the first Olympic Games since 9/11.
Ohno said that fact was not lost on him. Nor was it lost on the rest of Team USA. Athletes who had trained individually for one sport — like Ohno did in speed skating — were now looking at the Games in a new light.
“The shift happens, and it did for me — when you think about, ‘I go from ME to WE,’ he said.
Suddenly, Ohno said the games were representative of something much larger in American culture.
“This was a different time,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of social media. There wasn’t a lot of cellphone usage and people on their phones all the time, so people were really living the event.”
While Ohno said the new digital world has had a lot of positive influence on athletes — they can more easily brand themselves and raise their visibility in the market, for one — he also believes something could be lost. Smartphone usage has introduced a level of distraction that Ohno said he doesn’t think he could tolerate as a coach. He said any athletes working under him would have to have digital “cut off times.”
Ohno said competing at the level of the Olympics requires a concentration, a dedication and a “flow state” that modern-day cellphone usage can harm. By being in the present, both the athlete and the spectator can get more out of sport.
Ohno also called for politics to be removed from world sports. Part of Wednesday morning’s Salt Lake 2034 announcement included a bit of grandstanding by International Olympic Committee members over an anti-doping scandal. IOC officials took the opportunity to drive home that their partner, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), was the “supreme authority” over doping in the Games. WADA has drawn criticism from some Americans for what they feel are double standards in which athletes are disciplined for doping.
Ohno said he empathized with with the feelings over double standards, but he ultimately said whatever comes from the controversy should cement the integrity of the Olympic Games. He said it drives home his feelings that politics and sports should not share the same bed.
“Sports should be separated from politics,” he said. “It should never be used in any possible way.”
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