Personal information | |
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Born | Detroit, U.S. | November 7, 1964
Occupation | Alpine skier |
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. [1] St. John earned bronze and silver medals in several alpine skiing events during the 1984 Winter Paralympics. [2] [3] 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. [1] [4]
Bonnie St. John was born in Detroit on November 7, 1964, and was raised in San Diego. [5] Her mother, Ruby Cremaschi-Schwimmer, was a principal at Lincoln High School (San Diego). [6] [7] [8] Her father, Lee St. John, left before she was born. [9] Her mother later married an older man, who physically abused St. John and her older sister. 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. She graduated from The Bishop's School in 1982, [10] and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1986, St. John won a Rhodes Scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford, [11] where she earned her M.Litt. degree in economics in 1990.
At 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. [3] [2]
St. John has written 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 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, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Her latest book is Micro-Resilience, with her husband Allen Haines. [12]
Bonnie St. John was formerly married to Dr. Grant Deane, an ocean acoustician and physicist at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. [13]
At the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, St. John spoke during the opening ceremonies. [14]
In February 2007, as part of the celebration of Black History Month, St. John was honored at the White House by President George W. Bush who said: "[Bonnie St. John] is the kind of person that you really want to be around, and the kind of person that shows that individual courage matters in life." [15]
In 2006 St. John was featured in a nationwide Starbucks campaign called "The Way I See It", which featured beverage cups with inspirational quotes from various public figures. St. John's quote was as follows: "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." [16] [4]
NBC Nightly News selected St. John as "One of the five most inspiring women in America". She has appeared on The Today Show , Good Morning America , CNN, Montel and the Discovery Health Channel. The New York Times and People have also profiled St. John and noted her extraordinary achievements. 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.
Pernilla Wiberg is a Swedish former alpine ski racer and businesswoman. She competed on the World Cup circuit between 1990 and 2002, where she became one of the few all-event winners. Having won two Olympic gold medals, four World Championships and one World Cup overall title, she is one of the most successful alpine ski racers of the 1990s. On club level, she represented Norrköpings SK. She was born in Norrköping.
Cara Dunne-Yates was an American paralympian, lawyer, and advocate. She was a Paralympic medalist in both winter and summer sports. She was Harvard-educated, and the only disabled First Marshall of any major university. She was also a UCLA-educated lawyer (1997), who was the first to legally fight the Law School Admission Council in order to make them use a Braille examination format of the LSAT.
Paralympic alpine skiing has been competed at the Winter Paralympic Games since they were first held in 1976. Events include men's and women's downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined.
Lauren Woolstencroft is a Canadian alpine skier and electrical engineer. Born missing her left arm below the elbow as well as both legs below the knees, she began skiing at the age of 4 and began competitive skiing at the age of 14. She is an eight-time gold medal winner at the Paralympics. In 1998, she was nicknamed "Pudding" by her teammates, due to her sweet tooth. Her life and achievements were celebrated in the Toyota ad "Good Odds" that aired just after kickoff during Super Bowl LII in February 2018.
The alpine skiing competition of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics will be held at Whistler, British Columbia. The events were due to be held between 13 March, and 21 March 2010. Events scheduled for 13 March, however, were postponed due to weather conditions – specifically, low visibility. The snowboard cross event was a demonstration sport until 2014.
Viviane Forest is a Canadian multi-sport Paralympic medallist. She was born and raised in Quebec, and currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the first Canadian Paralympian to win a gold medal at the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.
Jessica Gallagher is an Australian Paralympic alpine skier, track and field athlete, tandem cyclist and rower. She was Australia's second female Winter Paralympian, and the first Australian woman to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics at the 2010 Vancouver Games. She competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, where she won a bronze medal in the women's giant slalom visually impaired.
Melissa Perrine is a B2 classified visually impaired para-alpine skier from Australia. She has competed at the four Winter Paralympics from 2010 to 2022. At the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, she won three gold, one silver and one bronze medals. At the 2018 Winter Paralympics, she won two bronze medals.
Victoria "Tori" Pendergast is an Australian F58 athletics shot put competitor and LW12.1 classified Para-alpine skier. When she competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, she became Australia's first female sit skier at the Winter Paralympics. She competed in two events, finishing seventh in women's slalom sit-ski and tenth in the women's giant slalom sit-ski. She also won a silver and a bronze medal in the slalom and super-G at the 2013 North America Cup, and a bronze medal in the giant slalom at the 2013 IPC World Cup in Thredbo.
Christian Geiger is an Australian Alpine skier, Paralympic alpine ski coach and sighted guide for visually impaired skiers. He was Jessica Gallagher's guide skier at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, winning a bronze medal. He represented Australia at the 2008 World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships and the 2009 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, but his career was cut short when he was severely injured in a traffic collision in 2009. He became Jessica Gallagher's sighted guide in 2013, and guided her to silver medals in women's slalom and giant slalom at the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in Thredbo. Geiger was Melissa Perrine's guide and coach at the 2018 Winter Paralympics where she won two bronze medals.
Sabine Gasteiger is an Austrian Paralympic gold medallist. She was awarded a gold medal in 2006, as part of her Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria.
Denmark sent a delegation to compete at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia from 7–16 March 2014. This was Denmark's tenth appearance at a Winter Paralympic Games. The Danish delegation to Sochi consisted of two alpine skiers, Ulrik Nyvold and Line Damgaard. Nyvold failed to finish either of his events, while Damgaard placed 12th in the women's standing slalom and 15th in the women's standing giant slalom.
Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber is a German para-alpine skier. At the 2014 Winter Paralympics she won five gold medals, becoming only the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events.
Jade Etherington is a British former alpine skier who, with her sighted guide Caroline Powell, won silver in the women's downhill skiing, combined and slalom, and bronze medals in the Super-G at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi. Their three silvers and a bronze at the Winter Paralympics made them the most successful female British Winter Paralympians of all time, and the first Britons to win four medals at one Paralympics. Because of her success at the 2014 Paralympics, Etherington was the British flagbearer at the 2014 Winter Paralympics closing ceremony.
Anna-Lena Forster is a German para-alpine skier who competed at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winter Paralympics winning six medals.
Menna Fitzpatrick MBE is a British alpine skier. She is visually impaired having only 5% vision and formerly skied with guide Jennifer Kehoe until 2021. They competed at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang in March 2018 where they took four medals, including a gold in the slalom, making Fitzpatrick Team GB's most decorated Winter Paralympian.
Major Jennifer "Jen" Kehoe is an author and former professional skier, formerly competing with visually impaired athlete Menna Fitzpatrick as her sighted guide on the IPC World Cup circuit and has represented Great Britain winning four medals including gold at the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympic Games in South Korea becoming Britains most decorated winter Paralympians. She was a British Army Officer.
Sarah Billmeier is an American para-alpine skier. She represented the United States in alpine skiing at the 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002 Winter Paralympics. In total she won seven gold medals, five silver medals and one bronze medal.
Adrienne Rivera is an American para-alpine skier. She represented the United States at the 1994 Winter Paralympics in four events in alpine skiing.
Sheila Holzworth was an American para-alpine skier. After going blind at age ten, she went on to win two gold medals and a silver medal at the 1984 Winter Paralympics as part of the United States delegation, among other achievements.