Apolo Anton Ohno
"Extreme Learning & Training: Mastering the Olympics and Dancing with the Stars"
Elliott Masie is pleased to announce that Apolo Anton Ohno will keynote Learning 2010, to be held in Orlando, Florida from Oct 24th to 27th. He will speak about his learning process to become the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian in history.
Apolo Anton Ohno became the best short-track skater in the United States in less than two years, when he began his career in 1995. At fourteen years of age, after training under Pat Wentland in Lake Placid for just six months,Ohno claimed his first overall title at the U.S. Championships. He is now an eight-time Olympic medalist, including two gold medals.
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Ohno became the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian in history and the new Ambassador to the Winter Olympic Games in the U.S. and around the world.
Apolo Ohno competed in the Torino 2006 Olympics, winning one gold and two bronze medals. In Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics, he won both a gold and silver medal in short-track speed skating. Although Ohno did succeed as an Olympic medalist, his road to success wasn't easy.Ohno's original success at fourteen made him a likely candidate to make the 1998 U.S. Olympic team, but he struggled with his fitness throughout the1997-1998 season and finished 16th at the Olympic Trials. Ohno, then fifteen, came to a crossroads in his short-track career when he didn't make the 1998 U.S. Olympic team and needed to decide if he wanted to continue skating.
He committed himself to making the 2002 Olympic squad, and by the 2000-01season he was one of the world's best skaters. The Seattle native won the World Cup title in the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m en route to winning the overall crown, which made him the first American to win a World Cup title at any distance.
Making the Olympic team in 2002, Ohno went on to win Olympic Gold in the1500m and a silver in the 1000m. Four years, three World Cup overall titles later, Torino witnessed a stronger, leaner and poised Ohno gracefully capture two bronze medals (1000m and Relay) and his second Gold in the self-proclaimed "perfect race" in the 500m.
Ohno recently claimed another title as season three champion of the ABC hit, "Dancing with the Stars." After ten weeks of competing with his partner, International Latin Youth Champion, Julianne Hough in dances such as the Cha Cha, Tango and Waltz, Ohno and Hough beat out former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone and world female super middleweight boxing champion Laila Ali in the final Freestyle dance to bring home the gold.
Elliott Masie will interview Ohno to build the connective tissue between his story and the challenges of achieving excellence in our workplaces and lives. Like skating, learning needs to be agile, quick, filled with mastery and based on a vision, goal and a path to achievement. Come to Learning 2010 and explore Learning as the key to world class performance!!