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When You Are At The Olympic Games, It Comes Down To A Ten Thousandth Of A Hair Between Making The Next Round Or Winning A Race Or Getting Second Or Third.

-Apolo Ohno

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When You Are At

Apolo Ohno

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When You Are At The Olympic Games, It Comes Down To A Ten Thousandth Of A Hair Between Making The Next Round Or Winning A Race Or Getting Second Or Third.

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My Girlfriend Has Been The Ice.

My Dad's Great. He's My Biggest Supporter. He's Always Told Me That Whatever I Choose To Do, I Can Do It. I Just Gotta Put My Mind To It.

I Was Always Active As A Child. My Dad Tried To Place Me In Every Sport Imaginable. I Had So Much Energy, He Wanted To Push Me In A Direction Where That Energy Was Used Appropriately To Keep Me Out Of Trouble And Focused While I Was In School.

It's An Individual Sport, But Collectively Everybody Shares The Same Motto That Ironman Stands For: Anything Is Possible.

When There's Somebody Racing Side-by-side, When Somebody's Right Next To Me And They're Pushing And We're Both Tired, We're Both Fatigued, I Want To Be Able To Beat Them Mentally.

Generally, Speed Skaters Don't Run That Much. I'm A Little Bit Of An Exception In That I Run A Lot.

I Never Had One Day That I Didn't Want To Be On The Ice, Because I Always Had An Objective For That Day. I Had A Rigorous Plan And Schedule In Place That I Had To Adhere To. It Was A Step-by-step Process Of Slowly But Surely Inching Toward The Olympic Games And Using Every Day As A Series Of Goals To Be Accomplished.

The Older I Get, The More And More I Notice I'm Like My Father. It's Funny, Because When I Was Younger I Tried To Just Back Away From My Father As Much As I Could, And Some Of The Philosophies, Some Of The Life Lessons, Some Of The Beliefs That He Had Within Me Are Always Constantly Ongoing, And They're Always Prevalent In My Life, Whether It's Trying To Be Every Single Thing That I Can Be In My Sport Or Life Or Relationship Or Business, Whatever Avenue I'm Pursuing.

If You Put Your Mind To Something, If You Give 100 Percent, If You Sacrifice, And If You Dedicate Yourself, Anything Is Truly Possible.

Inspirational Life

It's Important To Be Driven And Have Goals. You Want An Independent Woman Who Knows What She Wants And Isn't Afraid To Go After It. It's Attractive To Me When A Woman Is Doing What She Loves. It Makes Me Want To Know More.

I Have A Scar On My Left Thigh, Kind Of Almost Near My Knee. I Essentially Fell In The 2002 Olympics And When I Hit The Wall - Because Of The Impact - My Right Leg Kind Of Came In At Like A Knife-type Angle And Stabbed My Leg With My Own Skate Blade.

I Could Never Focus On My Upper Body As A Skater, So I'm Enjoying Having Symmetrical Upper And Lower Body Muscle.

Every Olympic Athlete Prepares Differently. For Me, I Am 100 Percent Into The Sport. And If I Decide To Really Make A Crucial Career Decision To Say, 'this Is Something I Want To Do,' I Want To Leave No Stone Unturned In My Preparation.

All The Suits I Buy Have To Be Tailored, No Matter What. But It's Not Just Because Of My Height; It's Because I've Been Skating For So Long. My Waist Is Very Small, But My Legs Are Just Huge. Most Really Nice Suit Makers Are Italian, And Usually They Make Suit Pants For Italian Men. I'm Like, 'those Italians Must Have Pretty Skinny Legs.'

Winning Does Not Always Mean Coming In First...real Victory Is In Arriving At The Finish Line With No Regrets Because You Know You've Gone All Out.

I Was An Avid Swimmer And Was State Champ At Age 12.

I Can Look Into Someone's Eyes And Feel Like I Know Her Better, Versus A Phone Call, Where You Can't Get That Same Type Of Emotion. That's Why Text Messaging Gets You In Trouble: You Can't Bond, And Emoticons Explain Only So Much.

Michael Phelps Is A Good Friend Of Mine, So I'm Very Supportive Of Him.

We All Naturally Want To Become Successful... We Also Want To Take Shortcuts. And It's Easy To Do So, But You Can Never Take Away The Effort Of Hard Work And Discipline And Sacrifice.

I Tend To Build Bulk And Muscle Easily, And Running Seems To Make Sure I Stay Kind Of Stringy, If That Makes Sense.

I Think So Many Times We Focus So Much On Just The End Result When When We Finally Reach That Point We Realize That Was Never The True Goal. That Was Never Really What It Was All About.

I've Always Wanted To Play A Role In Inspiring People To Be Better, To Live Higher Quality Lives And To Feel Good About The Way That They Look And Feel.

I Had A Ton Of Energy, Ran Around Like Crazy - More Than A Handful For My Dad. I Was Crazy. Dad Barely Handled It. I Was Never Diagnosed Adhd Or Anything Like That, But I'm Pretty Sure I Had It When I Was Younger. It's The Only Thing That Would Explain Me Getting Into Trouble All The Time.

It's Just A Goatee. That Sounds Kind Of Weird. A Soul Patch? I Don't Know How 'soul' It Is.

It Is Not Up To Me Whether I Win Or Lose. Ultimately, This Might Not Be My Day. And It Is That Philosophy Towards Sports, Something That I Really Truly Live By. I Am Emotional. I Want To Win. I Am Hungry. I Am A Competitor. I Have That Fire. But Deep Down, I Truly Enjoy The Art Of Competing So Much More Than The Result.

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When I'm Done Skating, I Guarantee You That I Will Not Look Back And Remember Standing On The Podium. I'm Going To Remember These Days - Being With The Team. Training Alone, In My Basement. Training When Everybody Else Is Sleeping. Doing Things That Nobody Else Is Doing. Digging Down. Seeing What Kind Of Character I Truly Have. I Love That Stuff.

I Love To Work Out And Really Enjoy The Outdoors. I Like To Immerse Myself With Sport-related Activities And Spending Quality Time With People. I Find People To Be Very Inspiring, And I Get A Lot Of Motivation From Listening And Interacting With Them, Sharing Stories And Similarities - And Differences - In Our Lives, And Learning From Each Other.

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I Know That Bmw Is Now A Sponsor Of The Usoc - Of The United States Olympic Committee - So They Offer The Use Of Their Aerodynamic Speed-tunnel For Testing And Such For The Athletes, Which Is A Great Advantage. But To Be Honest With You, I'd Rather Have A Free Car!

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When You Are At The Olympic Games, It Comes Down To A Ten Thousandth Of A Hair Between Making The Next Round Or Winning A Race Or Getting Second Or Third.

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With Speed Skating, It's Like Doing One-legged Squats Over And Over Again, With That One Leg Absorbing More Than 80 Percent Of Your Weight. It Takes An Enormous Amount Of Strength, And You're In Such A Weird Position.

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Who Cares If Somebody Dances Better? Doing My Very Best Is Rewarding Internally.

U.s. Speedskating Has Been Riddled With Problems Since When I Started My Career, And We Were Always Able To Look Past That. When It Came Down To Performing On The Ice, Regardless Of Funding Issues, We Were Always Able To Make It Happen. And That's What It's All About.

When You Watch A Tea Ceremony, Every Single Movement, Every Single Gesture Is Very Calculated. It's Very Precise, And It's All Protocol. It's All A Part Of The System. And It's Almost Like They've Sacrificed Every Single Thing To Make That Perfect. It's Like Their Craft.

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I Rolled The Second Car That I Ever Owned, A Toyota 4 Runner. This Was Winter In Colorado, Two Weeks Before The 2002 Olympic Trials. I Was Driving In The Outside Lane, And My Rear Tire Caught Some Black Ice, And We Totally Turned Sideways To The Point Where We Were Heading Right Toward The Median.

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