For professional athletes, greatness rarely lasts forever.

Most spend their childhood and youth training relentlessly, eventually reach their peak, and then gradually decline with age.

That cycle is natural in sports.

Shohei Ohtani, who turned 29 in July 2023, spoke candidly about his own peak with unusual honesty and self-awareness:

“In my own calculations, I think my peak has already begun. So part of me wonders how long this will last, knowing that someday it will inevitably come to an end.”

At the time, however, Ohtani was already producing numbers so extraordinary that many people found it difficult to believe he had not yet fully reached his best form.

His performances in 2023 and 2024 were historic.

In fact, many fans and analysts wondered:

“If this isn’t his peak, then what would his actual peak even look like?”

For Ohtani, the 2025 season — when he is expected to fully return as a two-way player again — may become the clearest measure of what his true peak really is.

Because of his intense drive for improvement, Ohtani also seems aware of the emotional reality that comes with greatness.

As long as performance continues rising, motivation remains easy.

But eventually every athlete faces decline.

Part of Ohtani’s reflection reveals an understanding that even extraordinary talent cannot escape time forever.

Still, according to his own calculations, his peak may continue for years to come.

One reason he challenged himself in Major League Baseball at such a young age was because he wanted to experience the best years of his career on the sport’s biggest stage.

How long Shohei Ohtani can sustain this historic level — and how he adapts as age gradually changes him — may become one of the most fascinating stories in modern sports.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese magazine published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Number 1069, p.15