Business taught me something that skating never could.
Success in the boardroom is predicated on trust and authenticity. If you can't show your real self to partners and colleagues, you'll struggle no matter how talented or hardworking you are.
That was brutal news for a competitive athlete to hear.
For 15 years, I was trained to wear a poker face at all times. Never show weakness to opponents. Never let competitors see you flinch. Vulnerability was liability. Authenticity was a dangerous exposure that could cost you races.
This served me perfectly on the ice. Competitors studied each other obsessively for any sign of doubt. Showing nothing—being completely unreadable—was a genuine competitive advantage.
But in business meetings, I was lost. My lack of experience in finance, real estate, tech—it made me feel small. Like a fraud who'd somehow snuck into rooms I didn't belong in.
So I studied obsessively. Teaching myself their industries. I probably worked harder on understanding business than I ever worked on skating.
Here's what actually moved the needle:
The moment I stopped pretending I had all the answers.
The moment I said openly: "I don't know this yet. But I guarantee you I'm going to learn it faster than anyone you've ever worked with."
This is one of the most powerful paradoxes I explore in corporate workshops on leadership. That vulnerability—which felt exactly like weakness to my competitive brain—turned out to be strength. People leaned in instead of pulling away. Trusted me more, not less.
I've seen this same pattern in every leadership team I've advised. The executive who can't admit what they don't know. The founder who feels they have to project certainty even when they're completely lost. The team lead who thinks vulnerability will undermine their authority. They're all running the same broken program I ran.
In keynote speeches on authentic leadership, I share this insight: The armor that protects you perfectly in one arena can suffocate you in another. What makes you excellent in one context can make you terrible in a different context. The first step to leadership is recognizing which protective patterns have outlived their usefulness.
People don't trust perfect. They trust real.
The polished facade that never cracks triggers suspicion. The human who admits uncertainty and shows genuine effort to learn? That triggers connection.
When I advise executives through major transitions, we often start by identifying the armor they're still wearing from previous battles. That armor was necessary once. Now it's just weight.
The poker face that won me Olympic medals nearly lost me everything important in business.
Where are you wearing armor that used to serve you but now just holds you back?
Sometimes your greatest asset in one arena is your greatest liability in another.
About Apolo Ohno: Apolo Ohno is a sought-after keynote speaker and leadership advisor known for translating elite performance principles into practical leadership behaviors. His work focuses on authentic leadership, executive presence, and the Gold Medal Mindset - helping executives and teams perform with clarity under pressure, communicate with conviction, and lead with credibility when the stakes are high. In his keynotes and workshops, Apolo helps leaders identify the unseen patterns, narratives, and habits that quietly limit performance, then replace them with a repeatable system for focus, resilience, and decisive action.