Bonnie St. John

““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.””

“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.””

“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.””

“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.””

“Courageous leaders need a community of champions,” she said. “When that happens, everybody goes further.””

“This is my chance for greatness,” “Finding greatness in yourself is uncomfortable, but when has anything great come from being comfortable?””

“This is impossible,” she said. “I might as well get started.””

““I am in awe of the self-discipline that it takes and your choice to take the high road,””

“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.””

“"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."”

“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."”

“"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?"”

“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?"”

“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."”

“"One-legged black girl from San Diego becomes Olympic ski racer" is a crazy one.”

“"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."”

“People fall down, winners get up, and gold-medal winners just get up faster.””

“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.””

“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.””

““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”.”