At the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, Nikki Stone became America’s first-ever Olympic Champion in the sport of inverted aerial skiing. What made this performance so unbelievable, was the fact that less than two years earlier, a chronic injury prevented her from standing, much less walking or skiing down a slope at almost 40 miles per hour. Nikki came dangerously close to being sidelined from aerial skiing indefinitely.
Her tenacity and refusal to step down from a challenge brought Nikki Stone back to the top of the freestyle skiing podium. This top spot was far from foreign to Nikki, as throughout her career she earned 35 World Cup medals, eleven World Cup titles, four national titles, two yearlong Aerial World Cup titles, and a World Championship title. She also became the first pure aerialist ever (male or female) to become the yearlong Overall Freestyle World Cup Champion.
Nikki now travels around the world working as a sought-after inspirational speaker sharing her secrets to success. Nikki was even named the 2008 International Professional Speaker of the Year from American Speakers Bureau Corporation. She encourages and inspires her audiences to find their Turtle Effect by realizing their passions, triumphing over obstacles and take life-enhancing risks, like she did, to reach extraordinary goals that may initially seem unattainable.
Nikki has also parlayed her success on the stage or at the podium into an inspirational personal development coaching program. Nikki is personally teaching individuals and groups the tools and skills they need to make infinite improvements in the workplace and in their personal lives. Most recently, Nikki was hired to motivate and support all of the contestants of the new Regional Biggest Loser—soon to be rolled out to a number of cities across the U.S.
Because of Nikki’s successful background, the U.S. Olympic Committee engaged her to help train the current and upcoming athletes on overcoming challenges, finding motivation, and dealing with these pressures at the Olympic Games. And due to her constant referrals as a motivational speaker, the United States Olympic Committee also contracted Nikki to train the Olympians in speaking, presentation, and mentoring skills.
Nikki’s new, empowering book, When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How to Stick Their Necks Out, was recently honored as an Amazon bestseller. Nikki was recently invited on the Today Show to share the success of the book. When Turtles Fly includes inspirational stories from successful individuals from all different arenas (politicians, actors/actresses, Fortune 500 business executives, musicians, bestselling authors, athletes, Nobel Prize winners, etc) and after each story, Nikki gives readers different activities that they can perform to help reinforce the behavior needed for success in their own business and lifestyle. Stone also writes articles and columns for a number of magazines, newspapers, and websites. Nikki is also a contributing author to the inspirational book Awaken the Olympian Within: Stories from America's Greatest Olympic Motivators.
In addition to her skiing, authoring, and speaking endeavors, Nikki is also a Magna Cum Laude undergraduate of Union College in New York and a Summa Cum Laude Master’s graduate of the University of Utah in the field of Sports Psychology. Nikki has helped counsel athletes on a variety of sports, levels, and competition issues. With her incredible academic record and her remarkable presentation skills, Nikki was asked to work as a Visiting Professor at the University of Utah.
Nikki’s contributions span far beyond her professional careers, as she devotes time to charities such as “Right To Play”, “The Make-A-Wish Foundation” & “American Cancer Society”, hosts group skiing adventures, and participates in numerous sponsor promotions for major national and international companies. She has also remained very involved philanthropically by sitting on eight different Olympic, sport, and charitable committees.
You may have seen Nikki through her numerous television appearances on such shows as Late Night with David Letterman, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN Early Addition, MSNBC Morning Line, ESPN’s Cold Pizza, FOX News Sports Express, CNN Business As Unusual, and FOX Sports News live. You could have also caught Nikki in one of her nationally televised commercials for companies like Chevrolet and the Salt Lake Olympic Committee.
Nikki now resides in Park City, Utah and continually works to help people stick their necks out to reach whatever their gold medal may be.
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