Olympic Drama with Apolo Ohno

It was while participating in a 1500 meter speed skating semifinal in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy that American sporting legend Apolo Ohno unfortunately fell and ended up finishing fifth, despite looking earlier in the race like he might take the gold medal. Needless to say, this result was a huge disappointment for the Ohno, who had come into the race as the favorite to win after achieving a gold medal at the 2002 Olympics. This devastating result had a huge impact on Ohno mentally, and was arguably the reason he then came only third in the 1000m race, achieve bronze medal, rather than a gold. Now, while most would see winning a bronze medal as something of an achievement, so driven and confident was Ohno that he saw this essentially as a failure, and in the aftermath he suffered considerably from anxiety and stress. There was one more race that year left in which he had the chance to take the gold, and this was the 500m sprint. However, he was heavily haunted by his two losses, and he told a reporter that he was aiming to perform a “perfect race”, and that nothing else would do. He was under considerable pressure from both himself and from his country to get a gold, and so driven and focused was he, that he managed to do just that. He was in the lead from the start to the finish, and as he crossed the finish line the crowd went wild for him. He had achieved his lifelong goal of becoming an all time great in the sport of Short Track Speed Skating. He had held this dream from early childhood, where he had watched the sport avidly on the TV and known that he was destined to participate in this high speed, high risk activity. He had a natural affinity for sports in general, and was also at the time a great swimmer. After achieving his success in the sport, he decided to retire, and decided to see if he could achieve some kind of success outside of the sporting world. He therefore went into business, and became a hugely competitive and successful business man in this field too. His biggest success came with his health and wellness company that produced a supplement designed to help athletes with their mental performance, undoubtedly inspired by his experience at the 2006 Olympics, where only his mental strength kept him together.