Bonnie St. John

““I think it’s amazing that Barbara invited her one-legged black friend from the wrong side of the tracks skiing,””

““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?””

““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.””

“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.””

““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.””

““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.””

“"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."”

“"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.”

“"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.”

“"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,"”

“"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."”

“"It's very important for me to get to be a role model for women, minorities and people with disabilities.”

“"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.”

“"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,"”

“After being in the Paralympics, I did as much as I could to support the Paralympic and the Olympic Movement."”

“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,"”

“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,"”

“"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."”

“"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."”

“"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,"”