Bonnie St. John

Who is Bonnie St. John?

Bonnie St. John is the first African-American to win medals in Winter Paralympic competition as a ski racer. In the 1984 Winter Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria, St. John won a bronze medal in the slalom, a bronze medal in the giant slalom, and was awarded a silver medal for overall performance thereby earning her the distinction of being the second fastest woman in the world on one leg in that year.

At the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, St. John was asked to speak during the opening ceremonies.

Due to a condition called pre-femoral focal disorder, St. John had her right leg amputated below the knee when she was 5 years old. Despite this challenge, she went on to excel as an athlete, a scholar, a mother and a businesswoman. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1986, St. John won a Rhodes Scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford, where she earned her M.Litt. degree in economics in 1990. She worked in the White House during the Clinton administration as a Director for the National Economic Council, and is currently CEO of Courageous Spirit, Inc.

St. John has written and published six books: Succeeding Sane; Getting Ahead at Work Without Leaving Your Family Behind; Money: Fall Down? Get Up!; How Strong Women Pray; Live Your Joy; and her latest work, written with her teenage daughter, Darcy Deane, How Great Women Lead. Together, they traveled around the world on an extraordinary mother-daughter journey into the lives, and life lessons, of fascinating women leaders including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, fashion designers, CEOs, women’s rights activists, and many more.

Famous Quotes:

• "I was ahead in the slalom. But in the second run, everyone fell on a dangerous spot. I was beaten by a woman that got up faster than I did. I learned that people fall down, winners get up, and gold medal winners just get up faster."