Seeking Progress Over Perfection with Olympic Champion Apolo Ohno, Part 1

Apolo Ohno is a household name, famous for being the world’s best short track speedskater and the most-decorated U.S. Olympian in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. The mentality and wisdom Ohno has acquired from years of hard work and dedication, however, are applicable to more than just athletics.

On this week’s episode of the Start With a Win podcast, the record-breaking skater, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame inductee, bestselling author and Dancing With the Stars champion joins RE/MAX CEO Adam Contos to share the trials and tribulations he’s faced throughout his journey to becoming one of the most successful athletes of all time.

The work ethic Ohno applied to competitive sports was inspired by his father. He would tell a young Ohno, “Apolo, don’t forget that you have control over the effort level, over the commitment [and] over the dedication you put toward something.”

His father also helped instill the value of self-analysis to assess performance and aspire to achieve higher. And looking back, Ohno values the times he didn’t succeed as much as the times he won because both scenarios taught him perseverance and appreciation.

The first award Ohno ever received for skating was a silver medal, won during a race in which he was slated to win gold. After a collision led to a tumble, Ohno was fortunate enough to still place. Despite the letdown, he calls this particular honor his “favorite medal” and a “metaphor for life.”

“You can prepare your entire life for something. You feel like this was your destiny and you were meant to be, and at the snap of the finger, something happens where you don’t get what you thought you deserved,” Ohno says.

“Now it’s up to your brain and up to you as a person to re-identify with what is important and [figure out] how to carry on, how to carry forward and how to reinvent yourself so you can still create high performance mechanisms throughout your life.”

Tune in to this week’s episode of Start With a Win to learn Ohno’s process for goal setting, and how establishing goals for yourself leads to micro-wins, which according to Ohno are more important to success than major feats.