American Olympian Apolo Ohno has racked up eight medals in his sport. Although he has since retired from short track speed skating, the 31-year-old still has plenty on his plate to keep him busy during retirement years.

Last year, it was announced that Ohno would be an NBC correspondent for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. It was at this time when he announced he would not be making a return to speed skating.

“I think it’s pretty sure at this point [that the comeback is] not going to be,” Ohno told Sports Illustrated. “It was always in the back of my head. I just didn’t want to rule it out. I’ve been very blessed, had such an amazing career, overcome a lot of obstacles in my life. It’s time to try some different opportunities.”

In addition to working as a correspondent, Ohno was also featured on two seasons of Dancing with the Stars. Up next? An Ironman Triathlon.

“I’m still not entirely sure I can grasp the difficulty of this,” Ohno said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, which was held about six weeks into his training. He will be competing at the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in October. According to ABC, Ohno ran the New York City Marathon in 2011, so he at least has experience in the running portion of the triathlon.

On top of the difficulty of attempting a triathlon for the first time, last year, Ohno revealed details about a breathing condition he’s been suffering from for more than 15 years called exercise-induced bronchospasm. It’s similar to asthma, and is characterized by symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, and feeling out of breath occur during and/or after exercise. 

“I thought that was just a natural byproduct of training hard and being fatigued,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. “I had no idea that this was something that would directly impact my performance as an athlete. I had no idea that I actually had a 35 to 40 percent drop-off rate from what was normal [endurance]. All I actually ever wanted to do was just perform at my normal potential ability.”

While he was in decent shape when he began his Ironman training, he said it wasn’t near the level of what’s necessary in order to compete. His training progress will be shared in an online, eight-part documentary. Ohno said plenty of his struggles and failures along the way will be included, and he hopes seeing an elite athlete face normal challenges will give others the determination to persevere in their athletic goals.

Image from Jmabel on Wikimedia Commons