It’s official. Apolo Ohno is the old dude in the rink. Most people watching these games know that Ohno is the most seasoned skater, as well as, the oldest guy in the sport. And, if you’ve watched any of his interviews, you’ll hear him time and again refer to himself as “Grandpa”.

With the 2010 Winter Olympic games coming to a close, and this most likely being his last olympic run, Ohno will be the speed skater that all young aspiring speed skating athletes look up to.  As evidenced by teammate and bronze medal winner, J.R. Celski,who’s eight years Apolos’ junior and stated that Ohno is one of the reasons he switched to speedskating at the age of twelve.

Looking back at the Torino Games, Ohno was in great shape but somewhere towards 2010, he realized that great wasn’t good enough for Vancouver. Knowing that his competition would be younger, fiercer and faster, he decided to drastically reduce his body weight from 165 pounds to 145 pounds with only 2.8% bodyfat. In addition to his weight loss, he also changed his skating style, going from power skater to technical skater.

Obviously, Ohno knew that being lighter and stronger, coupled with his veteran knowledge, would give him the edge he needed to medal over his much younger competitors.

With his sixth and seventh wins in Vancouver, Ohno’s decision paid off.

And even though 27 years of age is far from being old, in a sport where speed, endurance and agility have been known to knock out skill and knowledge, most athletes would agree that age can play a big factor in continuing to be at the top.

As we all look forward to Ohno’s final individual run and team relay, let’s hope that veteran knowledge and skill will continue to put Ohno on the podium.

Jasmine DS Torres

aka MzMarketing

Apolo Ohno, The Elder Statesman by Jasmine DS Torres is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.