WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.320 JUDY WOODRUFF: We are just about at the midpoint of the Winter Olympics, and they have been one of 00:04.320 --> 00:09.320 the most unusual and more controversial Games, given COVID and China's record on human rights. 00:11.040 --> 00:16.040 Even so, athletes are trying to compete under enormous pressure at the highest levels. 00:16.240 --> 00:19.440 Amna Nawaz gets the perspective of an Olympic great. 00:19.440 --> 00:24.440 AMNA NAWAZ: Judy, this first week has seen its share of disappointments for the Americans, 00:24.480 --> 00:28.880 but there have been electric moments as well, featuring Chloe Kim, 00:28.880 --> 00:32.400 Nathan Chen, and Lindsey Jacobellis, to name just a few. 00:32.400 --> 00:36.320 And there's also a lot of attention Eileen Gu, who was born in the U.S., 00:36.320 --> 00:39.200 but is competing for China, her mother's home country. 00:39.200 --> 00:42.160 For more on the games from an athlete's perspective, 00:42.160 --> 00:46.960 I'm joined by former speedskater Apolo Ohno. He is the most decorated 00:46.960 --> 00:51.440 Winter Olympian in U.S. history with eight medals, including two goals. 00:51.440 --> 00:54.880 Apolo Ohno, welcome to the "NewsHour." Thanks so much for making the time. 00:54.880 --> 00:56.320 APOLO ANTON OHNO, Olympic Gold Medalist: Thank you for having me. 00:56.320 --> 01:00.880 AMNA NAWAZ: So, how does the most decorated American Winter Olympian 01:00.880 --> 01:03.200 of all time watch the Olympics? Can you just kick 01:03.200 --> 01:06.160 back and kind of watch? Or are you screaming at the TV the whole time? 01:06.160 --> 01:09.920 APOLO ANTON OHNO: I watch them the same way that everyone else watches them, 01:09.920 --> 01:14.920 on the road, like when I'm in transit, when I'm flying, when I have access to just consume this 01:16.000 --> 01:20.160 as much as possible. I wake up in the middle of night sometimes to watch the events live. 01:20.160 --> 01:25.160 And I cheer and scream and cry and smile and shout at the screen like I think 01:25.360 --> 01:28.640 everyone else does. I think the difference now is that I'm no longer, 01:28.640 --> 01:33.120 obviously, on the field of play. I'm on the opposite side. So I know what it feels like 01:33.680 --> 01:38.680 pre-competition, when they're about to go down a slope or do something. It's pretty spectacular. 01:40.240 --> 01:44.320 So -- but I get involved just like anyone else. And, by the way, a lot of this happens when I'm 01:44.320 --> 01:48.480 just alone. And I find myself screaming at the television, which is really fun. 01:48.480 --> 01:49.389 (LAUGHTER) 01:49.389 --> 01:52.240 AMNA NAWAZ: Apolo Ohno is just like the rest of us. 01:52.240 --> 01:55.760 So, who have you been watching? What have been some of the standout moments to you so far? 01:55.760 --> 01:57.680 APOLO ANTON OHNO: Well, I have watched everything so far. 01:57.680 --> 02:01.040 I have watched all the speedskating. I have watched the snowboarding. I have watched the 02:01.040 --> 02:06.040 skiing. I have watched -- obviously, because of my bias with short track speedskating and long track, 02:07.280 --> 02:10.160 in its essence, is something that I love to see, because, I mean, to me, 02:10.720 --> 02:12.400 these Games are unprecedented. 02:12.400 --> 02:15.680 They're unlike anything that these athletes have ever experienced before. 02:15.680 --> 02:18.720 And the past two years have been unprecedented, unlike anything else 02:18.720 --> 02:23.360 all of us have ever experienced before. And so this is a dramatically different Olympics. 02:23.360 --> 02:28.000 Obviously, you know as well as I do the geopolitical tension that exists there, 02:28.800 --> 02:32.640 a lot of different conversations that are happening around what can 02:32.640 --> 02:36.640 and cannot be said when on the podium or even there inside a foreign country. 02:37.200 --> 02:42.200 But make no mistake, these athletes still want to perform their best. And they're having more 02:42.480 --> 02:47.120 open conversations around how they feel, how they're performing, the stress and the pressures 02:47.120 --> 02:51.840 associated, and how the athletes can really rise to be their best versions of themselves. 02:51.840 --> 02:55.680 AMNA NAWAZ: I want to unpack some of those points you just made, but also to ask you about kind of 02:55.680 --> 03:00.680 another unprecedented moment, which is just this Asian American excellence we are witnessing. 03:01.520 --> 03:06.160 You heard me list some of those names there, Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim and Eileen Gu. 03:06.880 --> 03:11.840 Why do you think it took until this moment to have that kind of representation in these Games? 03:11.840 --> 03:13.280 APOLO ANTON OHNO: That's a great question. 03:13.280 --> 03:18.280 I think that -- and, hopefully, maybe I had some semblance of a fraction of a percent to 03:19.200 --> 03:23.600 do with that, when other athletes were looking and seeing someone who was biracial, who looked 03:23.600 --> 03:26.880 like them, maybe had a similar background of growing up in a single-parent household. 03:27.520 --> 03:31.680 I think, at the end of the day, this is something that is a long time coming, right? I mean, 03:31.680 --> 03:36.560 representation, no matter where you're from, what you look like, who you identify as, 03:36.560 --> 03:41.560 is a really important aspect of making sure these athletes are going there to be their best. 03:41.600 --> 03:45.360 And it does take a few cycles of the Olympic Games. For example, 03:45.360 --> 03:50.360 when I competed in my first Games in 2002, eight years later, in 2010, there were kids 03:51.440 --> 03:56.440 who were on my Olympic team who started skating because they watched the 2002 Olympic Games. 03:57.680 --> 04:02.680 And so this phenomena and dream is very real, where we identify with someone that 04:03.040 --> 04:08.040 looks similar to us, they have some kind of background and story that resonates with us, 04:08.560 --> 04:12.000 and/or they just understand that the Olympic movement is pretty spectacular. 04:12.000 --> 04:16.880 So I think it's important to recognize what's happening in terms of the Asian American 04:16.880 --> 04:21.440 representation, but make no mistake, these athletes are going they're representing as 04:21.440 --> 04:24.560 athletes to be the best versions of themself. 04:24.560 --> 04:28.240 AMNA NAWAZ: We're hearing a lot about athletes' backgrounds, which kind of gives us 04:28.240 --> 04:29.680 much more of a complete picture of them. 04:29.680 --> 04:33.440 But we're also having a conversation about mental health. And credit where 04:33.440 --> 04:37.200 it's due. After the Tokyo Games and what Simone Biles went through and 04:37.200 --> 04:42.200 talked about openly and bravely, it's very much a part of these Beijing Games as well. 04:42.960 --> 04:45.600 I'm curious if you can tell us, what do you think 04:45.600 --> 04:50.600 most people don't understand about the unique pressure faced by Olympians? 04:50.640 --> 04:55.640 APOLO ANTON OHNO: Well, I think it's challenging to see or understand why someone would dedicate 04:56.560 --> 05:01.560 five years, 10 years, 15 years of their life for a race that lasts 40 seconds' long. 05:01.600 --> 05:06.080 And in that race, at a particular Olympic Games, the difference between first place, 05:06.080 --> 05:10.000 being on the cover of Wheaties, getting the commercial attributes associated, 05:10.000 --> 05:14.960 being celebrated and recognized and, effectively, your recognition being changed overnight, 05:14.960 --> 05:19.360 to being in fourth place, just off of the podium, no one knows or watched, 05:19.360 --> 05:22.960 no one remembers even a few days after Olympic Games are finished. 05:22.960 --> 05:25.920 And that difference between gold and off the podium... 05:25.920 --> 05:26.245 (CLAPPING) 05:26.245 --> 05:29.680 APOLO ANTON OHNO: ... is two claps. 05:29.680 --> 05:34.560 So, this entire pressure around these athletes who are going to the Games, everything is riding 05:34.560 --> 05:39.280 on this one moment, and being so married to the outcome and the result, is challenging. 05:40.160 --> 05:45.120 I think it is a different time. We're talking about mental health. The associated challenges 05:45.120 --> 05:49.520 with microtrauma and trauma that exists throughout the experience of a human, whether it's sport 05:49.520 --> 05:54.320 and/or not, is important. And it's good. And we should be having these open conversations. 05:54.320 --> 05:59.320 More importantly to me, how we identify with the word strength and champion, 06:00.080 --> 06:04.240 and what that means to us. And when I grew up, the conditioning that I had was, 06:04.240 --> 06:06.960 doesn't matter how you feel, doesn't matter your emotion, 06:06.960 --> 06:11.960 your job is to churn medals and perform under the highest amount of pressure possible. 06:12.560 --> 06:17.120 And that is what you have to do, you have to do at all costs, even if it comes 06:17.120 --> 06:21.600 down to your own internal unhappiness. And so now we're moving towards a society that says, 06:21.600 --> 06:26.320 hey, I can be strong, I can be extremely performant, I can win medals, 06:26.320 --> 06:31.320 and I can also be vulnerable, show empathy, and show that I'm actually human, and I have the same 06:31.680 --> 06:36.680 type of insecurities and self-doubts and maybe missteps that everyone else does who's watching. 06:36.880 --> 06:41.520 AMNA NAWAZ: Do you ever look back and say, man, I wish I had that kind of support, 06:41.520 --> 06:44.560 that kind of ability to talk about all this stuff when I was coming up? 06:44.560 --> 06:48.240 APOLO ANTON OHNO: I mean, it's easy to say yes to that type of a question. 06:48.240 --> 06:53.240 I think that life has been a gift to me in every essence. And good, bad, right or wrong, a fight, 06:56.640 --> 07:01.640 I always stand back up. I do my best to dust myself off and recalibrate. And life is hard. 07:02.880 --> 07:07.880 One of my favorite quotes of all time with these poems is, good timber does not grow with ease, 07:08.800 --> 07:13.800 the stronger wind, the stronger trees. And everyone carries their own pain, 07:13.840 --> 07:17.520 their experiences with them throughout life. But those are just mere chapters. 07:17.520 --> 07:20.240 And the way that you respond and react to them are really important. 07:20.240 --> 07:24.160 Do I wish I had an outlet to speak about? I don't know if I even would have. I don't know 07:24.160 --> 07:29.160 if I was comfortable in my own skin to be able to even actually let people into my mind. So 07:29.200 --> 07:34.200 it's easy to say yes, but I take everything that I have had with immense gratitude. 07:34.720 --> 07:38.000 And I'm grateful for the challenges that I have been able to shoulder. 07:38.000 --> 07:41.360 And as I grow and I hopefully become a more wholesome human, 07:41.360 --> 07:46.000 maybe we can deliver these types of insights to the next generation, so they can be better, they 07:46.000 --> 07:51.000 can show up for the communities, find purpose, and ultimately show up fully on a daily basis. 07:51.120 --> 07:54.720 AMNA NAWAZ: I can't think of a more inspiring message to end this week on, 07:54.720 --> 07:56.560 whether you're an Olympian or not. 07:56.560 --> 08:00.000 Apolo Ohno, I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much for your time. 08:00.000 --> 08:01.680 APOLO ANTON OHNO: Thanks for having me. 08:01.680 --> 08:05.760 JUDY WOODRUFF: Inspiring, for sure. Thank you.