the state gymnastics championships.
This is just the beginning of Nikki’s amazing story. After excelling in gymnastics, Nikki went on to become the America’s first Olympic champion in inverted aerial skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
After a chronic back injury that left her unable to stand or walk, Nikki fought back by remembering her gymnastics experience. Her perseverance earned her 35 World Cup podiums, eleven World Cup titles, four national titles and two Overall World Grand Prix titles in addition to the Olympic gold medal. Nikki also applied her drive to succeed to college, earning a Magna Cum Laude degree from Union College in New York, and a Summa Cum Laude Master’s Degree in Sports Psychology from the University of Utah, where she also taught as a visiting professor. Nikki earned these honors based on her college work (straight A’s). Today, Nikki travels worldwide as an inspirational speaker, ski host, and sports psychology consultant.
Nikki’s advice about perseverance for kids is:
“The biggest obstacle I overcame was my spinal injury. It is incredibly defeating when you can’t sit for more than 30 minutes, can’t stand for more than 15, and you have 10 doctors telling you to quit your sport and try to figure out something else to do with your life. I thought my lifelong dream could be over when I injured my spine. Then, I decided to prove all the doctors wrong, pushed through the pain to build the muscles in my back to support the injured disks, and returned to jumping 12 months later.”
Daniel Fells (NFL)
Daniel Fells was born in 1983 in Anaheim, California, and attended nearby Fullerton High School. He was an All-Freeway League athlete in football, basketball and baseball, and received All-CIF honors in football and was his team’s MVP. He also received All SoCal Hoops Division II-A honorable mention in basketball.
Daniel started his college football career at UC Davis as a wide receiver, but soon switched to play tight end, his NFL position. At the end of his freshman year of college, Daniel was told he couldn’t play because he struggled with his grades. After taking courses at a community college, Daniel returned with his grades up and completed a successful college career. During his junior year at UC Davis, Daniel made the Great Western Football Conference all-conference team, with 35 receptions for 520 yards and 1 touchdown. Daniel then decided to follow his dream of playing in the NFL. He tried out for the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2006: he made the roster. In 2009 and 2010 he had two successful seasons with the St. Louis Rams. In 2012, he signed with the New England Patriots as a tight end. Daniel’s own sports hero is Magic Johnson.
Daniel told me:
“When I was in college at UC Davis, I was kicked out of school my second year due to bad grades. No school meant no football, and no future for me. It would have been easy for me to just accept that, move back home and look for a minimum wage job. But I wanted more. I had to pay my way through a community college for a semester, take online courses, and repeat a class I had failed in summer school. During spring break, I took a lifeguarding course, even though I am not a very good swimmer, because I could use those credits towards my re-enrollment. After busting my hump, I was reinstated at college, and got to play ball that year, and the rest is history.”
Nicole Barnhart (Pro Soccer Player)
Nicole is one of America’s top female soccer players. She played on the 2007 Women’s World Cup and 2008 Olympic teams, and she is a volunteer coach for the Stanford women’s soccer team.
Nicole’s advice for kids about perseverance is:
“I played on boy’s teams growing up, which was a challenge itself, but one that I think helped build me into the person and player I am today. When I first tried out for the State ODP (Olympic Development Program) team, I actually only made the B team, where I saw limited playing time. In high school, I was on the boy’s team (we didn’t have a girls team), and again, I didn’t see much playing time. My freshman year of college, I think I played in a total of four games all season, and that was just a few odd minutes here and there. My sophomore year of college, I tore my ACL, so I missed that whole season. In 2006, I did not play in a single game for the national team. To start 2007, the year of the World Cup, I was not on contract or even in training camp with the national team. In May, 2008 (a month before they were naming the Olympic roster) I had knee surgery. Despite all of this, I made the World Cup Team, where we won bronze and I made the Olympic Team, where we won gold. Had I given up at any point in this journey where things were not going my way, I definitely would not be where I am today.
I know that many people will get angry, upset, frustrated, and down when things don’t go well, they lose a game, or maybe they are not getting the playing time they think they deserve, but my message to them is that I have three times been a member of teams for world championship competitions. Despite not playing a single second, I helped our team in those events, and I have a silver and bronze medal from the World Cup, and a gold medal from the Olympics to show for it. And you know what else I have? Many amazing memories and friendships from the journey.”
Consuella “Connie” Moore (Track & Field)
Growing up, Consuella “Connie” Moore was the fastest kid on her block. When she was about 10, she realized that no one in her neighborhood could catch her. She knew she was fast, but she said, “I really did not think much of it, I was just having fun.”
Connie attended an inner-city high school in Chicago with 98 percent of students coming from low-income homes. During her time there, only a small percentage of students met the standards for reading and math in Illinois. Connie used her participation in track and field to keep focused. The faster she finished her school homework, the sooner she could get back on the track. Connie not only got straight A’s, she graduated first in her high school class.
Penn State University was different. Connie referred to herself as a “bookworm” in high school, but she struggled in her first semester at college. She was declared ineligible to participate in track and field at Penn State because her grades had fallen.
She made a turnaround when she saw her fellow teammates suiting up and competing.
“I didn’t know what it meant until that point when I saw my other teammates competing without me,” she explained. “Then I knew I had to do it, and I made that turnaround.” The first time Connie stepped on the track in the blue and white Penn State uniform, she knew she had persevered. She compared her hard work on the field to the classroom.
“Athletes never back down from a challenge,” Connie said. “It’s the same thing in the classroom. If I could go through track practice every day and go through the tortures I go through in workouts, I could sit down and open up a book. It just reinforced my desire.”
Later on, in college at Penn State University, Connie worked with kids with special needs through the Life Link program. She was a mentor to the kids, bringing them to the college campus, to sports events, and helping them with their education and life plans. Connie achieved a degree in psychology and then got an MBA in marketing.
Connie Moore gave me her advice about perseverance:
“Perseverance has been the story of my life. Every day my goal is to be better than I was the day before. Whether it is to be a better person, a better athlete, or a better friend, it is a daily perseverance. I grew up in inner city Chicago where drugs and violence ran rampant. Simply getting out of the neighborhood was a form of perseverance. When I was at Penn State University, I failed to meet the academic standards at the school. I was very tempted to drop out, go back to Chicago, and let my track and field career fall by the wayside. But instead I decided to work harder in my classes, train harder on the track and try to leave my mark in the Penn State history books. What happened is that I became an 11-time All American, 8-time Big Ten Champion and the first Penn State Olympian in women’s track and field history. Because I worked harder in my classes, my schooling didn’t stop there. I went on to get my MBA in Marketing.”
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