Bonnie St. John

Bonnie St. John (born November 7, 1964) is an American former Paralympic skier, author, and public speaker. St. John had her right leg amputated below the knee when she was 5 years old. Despite these challenges, she went on to excel as an athlete, a scholar, a mother and a businesswoman. She is the first African-American to win medals in Winter Paralympic competition as a ski racer, and the first African-American to medal in any paralympic event. St. John earned bronze and silver medals in several alpine skiing events during the 1984 Winter Paralympics. After graduating from Harvard and earning a Rhodes Scholarship, St. John went on to successful corporate career, first in sales with IBM, then as a corporate consultant. She has also written six books, including one each with her daughter Darcy, and her husband, Allen P. Haines.

Quotes

• I had worked so hard to be able to participate, to qualify, to be a part of it. And then I was completely stunned at how well I did. It was a surprise to me,"
• I trained hard. I spent the summer on a glacier. I trained with two-legged skiers but there weren't as many opportunities back then to compare myself to the other competitors, so I didn't know how I would do."
• "When I won, it was a shock to me and I think to everyone. And it was only later that I realised I was the first African-American to win," "Oh my gosh, that was very special. It was terrific. There's just so few African-Americans in the sport, but that was a great milestone."
• "I had to be an entrepreneur to raise the money, to hire trainers, to travel to where I could train and to create my own opportunities to be able to be a ski racer. There was no farm system to find one-legged black skiers in San Diego, California,"
• "It was awful," St. John said. "When I first started skiing, I fell and fell. Even when I got better at skiing and began racing, it was hard at first. I've learned that it happens again and again."
• "Because I had to work so hard to get the opportunity, I was very committed to make the most of it. "My story is proof that if you have the drive and you really want to make a difference, you can."
• As disabled skiers, we were all used to being stared at and teased because of our differences. I got more guff from able-bodied white skiers, not so much my peers with disabilities,"
• To win medals and then to be the first African-American, all of those things piled on each other was certainly something that strengthened my sense of self-confidence and made me set my goals even higher,"
• After being in the Paralympics, I did as much as I could to support the Paralympic and the Olympic Movement."
• "When I first started working in the White House, I made some embarrassing mistakes but you have to pick yourself up and start again, at every level,"
• "I run a programme to develop corporate American leaders, who are women and minorities," she said. "Women and minorities have struggles to rise in the (Paralympic and) Olympic Movement, which we of course see in the corporate world as well. So being able to make a difference for women and minorities rising into leadership in corporate America is also dear to my heart.
• "It's very important for me to get to be a role model for women, minorities and people with disabilities.
• "I'm not only just a role model to say, 'See what I did, you can do it too', but to actually give people the tools and the techniques and the research to understand how to break through those barriers. I love that I get to do that."
• "We need to continue to provide opportunities for minorities and women, to give them sponsorship and training and to make opportunities to have more diverse winners,"
• "Having more women and minorities achieving in sport helps the (representation in the) corporate world. And having more women in the corporate world, rising in leadership, helps the (representation in the) sport world," she said. "I'm proud to have worked on both sides of the equation to make a difference for women and minorities.
• "I do have to pinch myself sometimes to realise the barriers that I broke through. And I get very excited cheering on those who continue to break those barriers and change the world.
• "Breaking through barriers in skiing has given me a lot of courage and fortitude to be able to make a difference for others. And I'm very proud that I get to do that."
  • First African-American woman to win a Winter Games medal: 'an incredible milestone' International Paralympic Committee (12 February 2023)
• “The Way I See It” campaign: “I was ahead in the slalom, but in the second run, everyone fell on a dangerous spot. I was beaten by a woman who got up faster than I did. I learned that people fall down, winners get up, and gold medal winners just get up faster.”
• “As entrepreneurs, you need to go out and compete at the highest level, but you don’t have everything you would like to have,” she remarked. “You don’t get ideal equipment to fit you. Costs are tight. You get thrown into situations you can’t anticipate. You have to innovate and persevere.”
• “I particularly love the word ‘adaptable’ because it includes both innovation and perseverance. You have to innovate. You’ve heard the Einstein quote about insanity, yes? Well I have the audacity to update Einstein. In today’s world, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same result. You can’t do the same thing you did last year and expect it to work. Things change. I have to keep reinventing myself and adapting my business. Over the years I've added services beyond keynote speaking like leadership training, facilitating global conferences, and writing books. Right now I’m working on a ‘train the trainer’ program on resilience that includes a personal app. You need to constantly be pushing the envelope, growing, developing and remaining agile. You learn those skills in sports, and you continue to use them as an entrepreneur.”
• You learn this principle in sports and you rely on it as an entrepreneur. I had to ski at temperatures that were sometimes 50 below zero. There’s not much to like about living in a glacier over the summer. In Colorado, I used to walk a mile to work in the morning at 5:00 a.m. That’s how I supported myself as an athlete. Entrepreneurship is like that as well: you can’t hire people to do all the things you’d like to do. That is a luxury you may have in a larger organization, but you don’t get the luxury of saying ‘That’s not my job’ in a start-up.”
• “You need a good strategy in addition to an audacious goal. For me as an athlete it was getting more days on the snow and getting access to really good coaches. I had to move from San Diego, had to raise money and over the Summer I had to live on a glacier to train. I think one of the reasons I won was that I had learned to organize myself better than my competitors in taking the initiative to advance myself, hire coaches, figure out how I was going to make it all happen. It was great training for becoming an entrepreneur—you have to wear all of the hats. You have to recruit people, train them, and organize yourself and your team to make something great happen.”
• “I was fairly young when I learned to ski and realized I could be pretty good,” she said. “So I set my sights on going all the way to the Olympics. That drove me, and gave me a real fire. When I was waiting tables in Colorado, I wasn’t just a ‘ski bum’ – I was making my way to the U.S. team. That big goal made even the little things meaningful.” “Starting a business is always hard. When I left President Clinton's economic team, I began working as a writer and speaker and got pregnant with my daughter. I no longer had an office in the White House. So I needed to be relentless again, towards another really big goal—to help the best get even better in Corporate America.”
• “I’ve had the opportunity to participate at world-class levels in so many arenas—sports, politics, academics and business—to work with the top leaders on Wall Street. Global political leaders. Top athletes. I love excellence and I love competition. To see it from so many sides is fascinating to me.”
• “What you do when everything goes right doesn’t tell me who you are. It’s what you do after disaster that really shows your character. Not making the Olympic team. Losing a leg. Or having a market dry up that you were invested in. What are you going to do next?”
  • Business Advice From A Winter Games Champion: Paralympics Hero Bonnie St. John Forbes (January 14, 2014)
• “I think it’s amazing that Barbara invited her one-legged black friend from the wrong side of the tracks skiing,”
• “I never expected to win a medal at all. Over 500 athletes from 22 countries gathered that year for the Paralympic Games. As the third-ranked amputee woman in the US, I had only barely made the cut. I was just happy to be there”.
• In California, they had integration rules, so if you were black and you were going to go to a more white school, they would give you permission to go outside your neighbourhood. We were seen to be helping integration.”
• My mother had married an older man, who was retired, so he was home alone with me frequently while my mother was at work," she said. "He used that time to abuse me sexually, from age two until seven. I later learnt he abused my older sister as well.”
• People fall down, winners get up, and gold-medal winners just get up faster.”
  • Moment In Time: January, 1984 - Bonnie St John becomes first African American to win Winter Paralympics medal The Telegraph (March 18, 2020)
• "I think it's almost more moving because you're watching people that don't have perfect bodies and perfect genetics who are doing excellent and world class," says St. John. "And I think that's a great example for our children, for everyone, to say don't wait for things to be right before you go out and achieve excellence."
• "One-legged black girl from San Diego becomes Olympic ski racer" is a crazy one.
• As a one-legged athlete, I had to find my own coaches, I had to raise money, I had to organize airline tickets, and I got a scholarship to a ski training school, but I did a lot of the initiative for that so I had to organize it," she explains. "Which I think gave me a lot of strength to be in my own business. I've been at my own business now for twenty years."
• The resilience that I had to show to learn how to walk again after my leg was amputated to then become an athlete when nobody would even have me on high school teams. So taking that resilience and turning it around and saying how can I give that resilience to other people?"
• "It’s great to learn that at an early age, that what happens to you doesn’t have to - you know it can make you feel a certain way but then you have the power to turn that around," she says. "And some adults have never learned that, right?"
• By going through meeting these amazing women who were in these high roles in so many places...they brought their own personality, their femininity, their personality, their quirks to the way they led," says St. John. "And (my daughter) saw, 'Oh wait a minute, so I don't have to become like the men that I see. I should bring my own personality and leadership.' And I think that's one the most important lessons we need to give to the next generation of girls."
• "The power of who you are and who you're going to become is really dependent on something inside. It's your vision, your self-esteem, your confidence, and your ability to set goals and communicate and connect with other people," she explains. "So I want to affirm what Girls on the Run is doing and really encourage the community to get behind this because we need the power of girls. We need the power of women, as well as men, but we all need to be leading side-by-side to solve the complex problems we're dealing with in the world today."
  • Paralympic Athlete Bonnie St. John on Leadership & Resilience WUWM (April 4, 2017)
• going towards the problem instead of away from it” and leadership as “helping people to see what isn’t there yet and help them build it.”
• “I am in awe of the self-discipline that it takes and your choice to take the high road,”
• This is impossible,” she said. “I might as well get started.”
• This is my chance for greatness,” “Finding greatness in yourself is uncomfortable, but when has anything great come from being comfortable?”
• Courageous leaders need a community of champions,” she said. “When that happens, everybody goes further.”
  • Paralympic medalist speaks about courageous leadership The Daily Universe (November 15, 2016)
• My mother taught me a lot of resilience,” she said. “She had a really tough childhood. Her father left before she was born. She had a lot of demons that I saw growing up. … She tried to commit suicide a couple of times, dealing with her demons.”
• Wake up your spirit in the morning. You have your task mind and your spirit mind. But if you wake up with your to-do list, you’ll spend all day on tasks. But if you wake up with your spirit mind, you’ll focus on what’s really meaningful and take stock of that. If it’s watering your plants or playing with your dog, taking a little slow time will help.”
• Loneliness is epidemic. I recently sat down with a group of high school seniors and looked at the difference between looking extraordinary and being extraordinary. They said looking extraordinary lasts five minutes but being extraordinary lasts a lifetime. … I think it’s so hard for people going on social media and trying to look perfect all the time. … You don’t get help.”
• “For me it was big dreams, and I didn’t have a good present but I could dream about making my future better. So (it was) seeing what was possible, not just what is, and getting help to do that. So (it could be) sharing your dreams with other people and asking for help and advice and getting support for that to maybe reshape your dream, depending on what happens. But keep dreaming and keep getting help and keep moving forward.”
  • Zukerman, St. John talk resilience at Buckhead women's conference Marietta Daily Journal (March 20, 2019)

External Links

Bonnie Lou St. John