Post by chika on Jul 28, 2006 21:12:18 GMT -5
laura6 said:
chika said:
www.midweek.com/www.midweek.com/content/story/theweekend_coverstory/apolo_ohnos_golden_years/
which ever goes to the same place
talking mostly about his accomplishments.
I cannot access either site...can you tell me what they say???
oh oops.. sorry. i wonder y though...
i'll just post the article then
Apolo Ohno’s Golden Years
Having made all of his skating dreams come true by the age of 24, Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno ponders what to do with the rest of his life
When you’ve accomplished your life’s dreams at the tender age of 24, where do you go from there?
Such are the questions facing Olympic short track skating superstar Apolo Anton Ohno coming off a second successful Winter Olympics where he took home three medals, including a gold at 500 meters. This gave him five medals for his career, tying him for the most medals ever by an American in the Winter Games - and leaving him with lots of questions for the future.
“Being only 24, I have accomplished every single thing that I could want to accomplish in the sport,” says Ohno, who is hapa-haole and was raised by his Japanese father Yuki.
“Obviously, within the sport, I have the opportunity to make my third Olympics team, that is always going on in the back of my head. So now I have to figure out: Do I want to keep skating or do I want to accomplish other things outside of the sport?”
Before he can move on to other things, he has one more award to receive for his skating, as he is being honored this weekend in the 40th annual Victor Awards being filmed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
The Victors is the longest running televised sports award show and features athletes from all four major American sports as well as the Olympics. This year it will be featuring such stars as Muhammad Ali and Willie Mays to go along with several Olympic standouts.
While this may mark the end of his career, it has been one that has brought short track speed skating from the anonymity of sports such as the biathlon to the spotlight usually afforded to skiing, figure skating and hockey.
Although he is not training now, Ohno’s competitive
nature and love for his sport may draw him back to the
ice
At the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, he became the central figure of the American team, not only as a gold medal contender but with his marketable good looks and the soul patch on his chin that had women swooning. The drama that unfolded did not disappoint the legions of new viewers. In a sport that pundits compare to roller derby - and its star Ohno refers to as “NASCAR with
human propulsion” - contact is inevitable. It was involved in both of Ohno’s gold medal races.
In his first race, 1,000 meters, he led the entire way until a four-skater pile-up on the final lap left him limping in for a silver medal. But it was the 1,500 meters that made him so famous on this side of the pond, and so infamous in South Korea.
Ohno was awarded the gold after Korean skater Kim Dong Sung was disqualified for interfering with Ohno. The bumping by Sung seemed slight, and it enraged South Koreans so much that they actually crashed the USOC Internet server with more than 16,000 angry e-mails.
The hate letters and death threats that followed led Ohno to skip the World Cup event in South Korea in 2003. He returned in 2005 and now says that the controversy that brought so much attention to his sport is behind him.
“Oh yeah, I think so, it was mostly just media hype and a lot of it was political, using me as anti-American sentiment,” says Ohno. “My relationship with the skaters has always been pretty good.
We’re competitors, trying to be the best we can be, so obviously there is going to be a lot of tension there. But off the ice, there’s nothing there, absolutely not.
The sport is pure, and we are trying to keep it that way.”
These controversies have made his life trying at times, but it is these conflicts that convince Ohno that the sport could make it in mainstream America.
“It’s a dynamic sport, it’s pretty crazy when you see it in person,” says Ohno, who stops for a moment to think before continuing. “You know what we got to do? We got to get a competition in Hawaii!
“I’m trying to make it more mainstream, get it on TV. ‘Cause when people watch it they like it and they want to see more of it.”
His passion for the sport is obvious. He’s even floated ideas about bringing sanctioned gambling to the sport as a way of bringing more people to it. But regardless of this love, he is enjoying his time away from the ice, and the training required of an Olympian.
“I am definitely not in training,” he says with a chuckle. “I am far from training. I’ve been taking a big break, my first in eight years, and it feels good in some aspects. But also, me being a competitor, I want to stay fit, but I have been so busy traveling, making appearances and trying to get support for my dreams that it is hard to train.”
When Ohno says “making appearances,” he is downplaying just a little where he has been. Just a few weeks ago, he received a letter from the White House, asking him to attend a state dinner honoring Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
As one of America’s most famous citizens of Japanese ancestry, he was honored to go, but figured he would probably be relegated to a lesser table in the room.
“I get there and everything is so spectacular, and I am wondering where I am going to be seated and, lo and behold, I am sitting next to President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi,” says Ohno, who said they discussed mostly training, sports and the Olympics.
“Just to be sitting with them and what they represent to history and knowing that I can sit down with my kids 20 years from now and tell them Dad was talking to the president directly at the White House!”
Bush’s elbows aren’t the only famous ones with which he has now rubbed.
Before his trip to Hawaii, he was in New York City doing a photo shoot with renowned celebrity photog Annie Leibowitz.
Ohno is as comfortable making public appearances as
he is in the Olympic spotlight
“It definitely was interesting; we did some interesting poses, we did two of them and it was unlike anything I had ever done,” says Ohno, who is not allowed to elaborate on what all the shoot entailed. “To be shot by such an unbelievable photographer was quite an honor.”
The shoot is for a campaign started by U2 frontman Bono called (PRODUCT) RED, aimed at raising money to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. Bono has persuaded several American companies like Nike, The Gap
and American Express to create red products and contribute a portion of the proceeds to AIDS relief.
The items run the gambit from cellphones to credit cards to tennis shoes, and Ohno is a spokesman/model for the campaign.
While he is glad to help out with worldwide problems, his focus is also on helping those in his home state of Washington where he does fund raisers for the children’s hospital and Nikkei Concerns.
The latter is interesting in that it is a unique charity for a young man with which to be involved. Many young athletes gravitate to charities that aid those close to their own age, but Nikkei Concerns is actually a home that assists elderly Japanese Americans in the Seattle area.
This attention to his elders can be attributed to his father, who raised him on his own and always put his son’s needs ahead of his own.
“I am lucky enough to have my father who has sacrificed and guided me to become the person I am today,” says Ohno. “I have been blessed, I really have.”
So it seems that now that Ohno has fulfilled his own dreams, it is time for him to help others start fulfilling theirs
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caption: Although he is not training now, Ohno’s competitive nature and love for his sport may draw him back to the ice
caption:At a recent fundraiser for Nikkei Concerns, Ohno and his father Yuki received this ‘mizuhiki’ artwork by Haruko Shimizu, the ribbon-like cord said to connect the hearts of giver and receiver
caption:Ohno is as comfortable making public appearances as he is in the Olympic spotlight
