What Race is Apolo Ohno and How Tall is He?

Apolo Ohno rocks the short track, but what's his race and just how tall is he? Apolo Ohno is hoping to surpass Bonnie Blair's winter Olympic medal count by being the record holder for the most medals won in a winter Olympics by an American. If you're wondering the race or ethnicity of Apolo Ohno, along with his height, you have a lot of company.

First of all, Apolo Ohno's race. He is half Japanese. His father's first name is Yuki and he is Japanese, and his mother Jerrie is described as being "American," according to Wikipedia. Interestingly, Apolo Ohno, born in May of 1982, has had very little contact with his mother.

He has been in three winter Olympics thus far, including 2010. Now, the next question people are wondering, is how tall is Apolo Ohno? According to International Movie Database, he stands 5-8. However, during his first Olympics, I heard that Apolo Ohno was 5-7 tall. But that's close enough. You'll notice that short track athletes are on the short side.

Apolo Ohno's height blends in well with any pack of short track athletes whom he is racing against. Short track is definitely a sport in which being short is an advantage. You can imagine the drawbacks of being tall. A tall short track athlete's legs would sooner or later get tangled up under him, and/or, he wouldn't be able to make the turns as efficiently and would wipe out.

You may be wondering who cares what Apolo Ohno's race and height are, and why would anybody want to write an article about something like the handsome athlete's race and how tall he is. Well, much of the Olympic articles so far seem to be focusing on tragedy and cauldron malfunctions, so why not something more lighthearted?

I might also add, if you are reading this article, this means that to some degree, you yourself were interested in reading about Apolo Ohno's race and how tall he is. Height is always an interesting aspect of sports. If it weren't, then why is the height of basketball players so frequently mentioned? Same for football players. In fact, the weight of football players is often listed.

So yes, stats like height and weight are part of the game. And sometimes so is race, which is why I decided to write this article about Apolo Ohno, who has enjoyed tremendous celebrity status since his first Olympics, and will continue doing so. According to 2010 Olympic commentary, he trained four times a day, two hours at a time, to ready his body for more short track medals.