The year was 2006 and the Winter Olympics was happening in Turin, Italy.
A lot of pressure was on the American skater, Apolo Ohno
for the 500 meter finals in short track speed skating.
"But make no mistake about this and he said it: I want to win."
And it was like something I was deeply in pursuit of
having a perfect strategic race that would go my way.
As he entered the final lap, he maintained a strong lead.
You're almost like a little bit out of control because you want it so badly.
But you're also maintaining composure to protect your lane and your position.
And he pulled it off.
After that gold medal, Apolo Ohno was launched into mainstream fame.
He was in ads.
He was on a Wheaties box.
His bandana and facial hair became iconic.
He competed on Dancing with the Stars... and won.
It was an awesome time.
But as an athlete, those 41.93 seconds meant something else, too.
And not because he was necessarily the fastest skater going into the race
but the smartest and the luckiest.
Every single half a lap had to have occurred in that way
in order for me to have had the perfect race.
Here’s how he did it.
A short track race like Apolo Ohno’s can be broken down into 4 main parts.
The first thing that went right was the start.
In short track, 4 to 6 skaters all start on the same line.
And take off in a free-for-all.
Short track skaters don’t have designated lanes during the race
unlike long track skating or running events.
Short track skaters aren’t racing the clock.
They are only racing against each other.
Which is why short track is all about the way athletes interact:
jostling for the right position on the rink, trying not to fall
and avoiding disqualifications from illegal contact.
When skaters take off in the 500 meter event, they have one goal in mind:
getting to the first turn first.
Research shows that whoever leads in the first turn in the 500 meter event
is far more likely to win the race.
The person in starting position 1 has the shortest path to the first turn.
But skaters in other positions with faster starts could box position 1 in from the outside.
Like the second position skater here, at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Today, short track starting positions are merit-based
that means the fastest skater from earlier rounds gets the first position.
But at the time of the 2006 Olympics
skater positions were computer-selected at random
which would happen right before a race.
I'm in the locker room.
I'm sharpening my skates.
I'm getting ready.
I hear this scream in the hallway.
And it's one of my coaches...
who told Apolo that he was selected for the first position.
That stroke of luck and a fast start
helped Apollo Ohno lead in that first turn
and hold it the whole way.
"He just gets the turn first."
"This is exactly where Apolo wants to be..."
A short track rink is an oval that measures 111.12 meters.
This shape means that skaters are turning nearly half the time.
When they turn, it looks like this.
It actually looks like it doesn't make sense.
At the apex of a corner, skaters are turning on an 8 meter radius.
And can lean up to 22 degrees.
So close to the ice, that their left gloved hands graze it.
One short track skater told me that
at a speed of roughly 30 miles per hour, they are pushing against a g-force equivalent to
2-3 times their body weight.
Like doing a really hard squat: hunched over, at an angle, on one leg.
Which is exactly how they train for turns, like these videos that British short track
athletes posted online show.
In the 2006 race, Apolo Ohno used his strength to keep his turns really tight.
Meaning I would hug the middle of the apex of the corner
all the way to the seventh block.
So there actually was no position to pass on the inside.
There are two common ways of executing a pass.
Both require using the forces of the turn and the right timing.
One is from the inside.
The passing skater uses the draft of the skater in front of them to pick up speed,
then pulls wider on the turn, to slingshot out of the turn
and overtake the skater in front on the inside.
Like this pass from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
The other, trickier pass, is on the outside.
The reason why it's so much more difficult to pass on the outside is because you need
to have significantly more speed.
An outside pass starts at the apex
using the speed coming out of the turn to sprint past the lead skater
as you enter the next turn.
Like this outside pass also at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
It's a confidence crusher.
If you pass someone and they know that you passed them easily
you're signaling to them, "Oh, by the way, the four years of training you just did?
It just wasn't enough."
"You're just not fast enough."
"I'm sorry."
When you’re in the lead, picking a track pattern is how you keep from getting passed.
One common track pattern is the diamond which defends against passes on the outside.
Or the peanut pattern, which defends against inside passes.
The first three laps, Apolo Ohno did a mix of patterns to keep anyone in the pack
from picking up speed.
"This is really a perfect position for Apolo, he's taking it nice and easy..."
So the idea was to kind of skate this track pattern
that was a little bit confusing to them where they would second guess making a move.
It’s like the person walking in front of you in the mall
that keeps stepping in front of you, no matter how fast you go.
You have to restart your speed again.
On the last two laps, Apolo Ohno kicked up the speed...
"And here he goes. He's just kicking into gear..."
... and skated in a peanut pattern to prevent an inside pass.
I knew that the likelihood of someone passing me on the outside
in the 500 meters at the last two laps
if I'm going 100 percent all out, was very low.
And so with two laps remaining, it's exactly what I did.
The last element of short track is the hardest to prepare for.
The best way to illustrate this is another one of Apolo’s races
at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
This one is infamous in short track history.
It was the 1,000 meter final and Apolo was skating against underdog
Australian skater, Steven Bradbury.
I was the favorite to win that race.
Nobody considered Stephen to even be in the running to medal.
As the skaters approached the last lap, Apolo was in the lead
and Steven Bradbury was far behind the pack
until the last minute scramble, resulted in... this:
"A total wipe out!"
"And Bradbury wins!"
"Four skaters go down..."
Falls happen often in short track racing
because of the fight for the best position on the rink.
And sometimes they are beyond a skater’s control.
Which means, like other sports, bad luck can undermine the greatest skill.
It also means resilience is a virtue in short track.
You now have this like unique ability to
either react and respond in a way that will give you a stewed bitterness
for the rest of your life.
Or you have to reset.
Couldn't control that.
I showed up as prepared as possible.
Life and the universe had a different plan for me.
If you’re Apolo Ohno, that plan was that, 4 years later, he would get his perfect race.
No falls, or blunders, or passes.
Just a good clean win.