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Bonnie St. John Quotes (1964-)
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About 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.
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βThis is impossible,β she said. βI might as well get started.ββ
ββI am in awe of the self-discipline that it takes and your choice to take the high road,ββ
β"It's very important for me to get to be a role model for women, minorities and people with disabilities.β
βAfter being in the Paralympics, I did as much as I could to support the Paralympic and the Olympic Movement."β
βCourageous leaders need a community of champions,β she said. βWhen that happens, everybody goes further.ββ
βgoing towards the problem instead of away from itβ and leadership as βhelping people to see what isnβt there yet and help them build it.ββ
βThis is my chance for greatness,β βFinding greatness in yourself is uncomfortable, but when has anything great come from being comfortable?ββ
β"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,"β
βI 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,"β
β"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,"β
β"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."β
βAs 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,"β
β"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."β
βTo 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,"β
βI 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."β
βIn 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.ββ
β"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."β
ββI 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 thereβ.β
β"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,"β
About 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.