I recently interviewed Olympic gold medalist Bonnie Blair on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:
Adam: Our guest today is one of the greatest speed skaters of all time. Bonnie Blair competed in four Olympic Games and won five Olympic gold medals. Bonnie, thank you for joining us.
Bonnie: Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me.
Adam: You grew up in Champaign, Illinois, in a family of speed skaters and very good speed skaters. By the time you were two, you were on the ice, and by the time you were four, you were competing. Can you take listeners back to your early days? What early experiences and lessons shaped your worldview and shaped the trajectory of your success?
Bonnie: Yeah, so I am the youngest of six kids, by kind of a ways. It was kind of like my mom had three families, or whatever, the oldest three, then the next two, and then I brought up the rear. But yeah, my brothers and sisters had me on skates as soon as they can. As a matter of fact, the story goes that skates didn’t actually fit, so they just left my shoes on and then put my feet with the shoes on in the skates. The thing that I go back to is, no, do I remember learning how to skate? Absolutely not, but my earliest memories that I do have is just looking forward to going to the rink, loving to go to the rink, going to practices, going to competitions. And my son, who grew up doing hockey from a very young age, it’s probably the same thing, like I never had to go, okay, we need to leave in a half hour. He already knew what time we needed to leave. His bag was packed. He would bring it up from the basement. It would be ready to go. My guess is that’s probably how I was, just because of that excitement and loving to get on the ice. So that really takes me to the love for something, because when you have a love for something, a passion for something, it makes it easier to get out there and do it on a day-to-day basis, and especially maybe when those days aren’t going exactly the way you wanted them to. So having that love and that passion for something was huge for me, and even today, here at 61, I still love getting on the ice. Now, it’s not as easy as it used to be, by any means, but it still puts a smile on my face, and it’s something that I look forward to, even getting in the car today.
Adam: I love that when you find something that you love, when you find something that you’re passionate about, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to be a lot better at that than when you spend your time pursuing something that you don’t enjoy.
Bonnie: Exactly. So finding that love, that passion for something, and trying different things, marrying a fellow teammate of mine, a speed skater. Obviously, sports is in our family, so probably our kids were going to be in sports too, but we introduced them to other things for them to then pick their passion. So because you want them to chase their dream, and it might for us, in our family, it’s sports, and somebody else’s family, it could be music, it could be politics, it could be acting, it could be singing, whatever that is. Maybe working in finance, they just love whatever that is, but finding that it does something for you, because, like I said, not every day is it going to be perfect. Not every day is that sun going to come up and just make it all roses. You’re going to have your trials and tribulations along the way, but because of the passion that you have for something, being able to give back to it, especially when those days aren’t going correct, that’s the biggest part right there.
Adam: And you share something so important, which is you have to try things. At least most people do. You were fortunate in that when you were two, you tried skating, and you loved it. You found your passion right away. But for many people, it requires trying a lot of different things, but once you try different things, you’ll ultimately find that thing that is right for you. And you had another advantage, which you shared, which was that you were the youngest of six. You had five built-in coaches, five built-in mentors. You had this support system, and you’ve shared that you’re married to a former teammate of yours, and your kids have that built-in support system, have those built-in mentors. Sometimes we get that support from our family. Sometimes we have mentors in our immediate family, and if you don’t have that, it’s critical to find it, and it’s critical to find it as quickly as possible.
Bonnie: One of the things I talk about when I give some speeches is I talk about balance that we have in our life. And to me, balance is like having that tire on a bike that has all the different spokes, and when you have all the different spokes, and they’re all tuned the right way, the chances of the wheel spinning in a more perfect circular motion is going to be higher. So to me, it’s having all those people around you, and for me, it was teammates, it was a coach, it was my family members, our support staff, so like a physical therapist or something like that, having all those different people that are there that help make that success possible for you and that you know that they’re going to be there, win, lose, or draw. There’s at my last Olympic Games, I took part in three different events, the 500, the 1000, and the 1500, and in those events, if you added all the time together of how much time it took me to do each one event, it was less than six minutes. So to think that my family, there were like 60 of them there. They were called the Blair Bunch, traveled all that way to Norway to watch me race in three races that totaled less than six minutes. That’s a crazy thing to think about, or is that pressure? How do you look at it? But I looked at it as I knew that they’d be there for me, whether I won, whether I lost, whether I was sick and I couldn’t compete that day, because that’s just how we are for each other. You’re there in the good times and the bad times. Luckily, I gave them some good times, but you’re never guaranteeing that outcome. So you know that going in, you don’t know what can happen. One of my best buddies, Dan Jansen, that’s a perfect example of that. Going back to the 1988 Olympics, he was slotted to win the gold in the 500 meters, and on that day, his sister dies of leukemia, and then four days later, he races again, and he falls again, and it’s like, I can’t remember this guy falling like ever, and he’s fallen in two Olympic races. So then he goes to Albertville and comes away with no medals again. And in Lillehammer, his last race, he finally wins Olympic gold in world record time, but he was slated to win all along. So you can’t ever just assume something’s going to happen. You always have to be ready for that unexpected. Or you just can’t show up and think it’s going to happen. You still have to make it happen. But back to your original part is making sure you’ve got all those people there to help make it possible. And when all those people are there to help make it possible, it makes for an easier course along the way. But yet, like for Dan Jansen, then they’re still there to pick up the pieces when things maybe don’t go right.
Adam: And the flip side of the importance of building a really strong support system is being a part of the support system of someone else, being that person who helps whoever it is around you, whoever it is in your life, know that they have someone in their corner. When you talk about how important it was for you, knowing that there were 60 people there cheering you on, flying across the world, watching you just for a few minutes, how meaningful that was for you, if you can be one of those people for someone else, what a difference that makes.
Bonnie: Now, back to Dan Jansen. At those Olympic Games, I had been in the arena for the 500 where he stumbled and came away without a medal again. My then future husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, was also racing that day, but being in the rink and hearing the gun go off, my pulse almost like I was racing, and it was almost like I was racing every single race. So the day before my race, my first race at the Olympics in Lillehammer, Dan was skating his 1000 meters. And although I wanted to be there at the event, I just knew that it was going to be too exhausting for me to actually be in the arena. And so I was watching it back at the Olympic Village with some of my other teammates, who were also racing the next day, and a few others. And we were actually in the medical staff area, which is funny, because once Dan won, the walkie-talkies were going off. And this is the four cell phones in 94, so all the communication they had were walkie-talkies. And the medical staff was then taking Dan to drug testing, and I heard it cackling, and I’m like, oh, can I talk to him over the walkie-talkie? Just because I knew I’m not going to see him before my race. And here he just won in track record time, world record time, and seeing one of your best friends accomplish something, I wanted to share in his joy with that. So yes, although I came away from those Olympic Games with two Olympic gold medals, being on that walkie talkie and talking to him was one of the highlights for me in the Olympic Games, because it was I’d been there so many steps of the way with Dan and to see the success not come his way at the Olympics, although it did in World Cups and World Championships, things that most others don’t see was a super special time, and to think that we’ve been there for each other as far back as actually before we were born, because our families knew each other and were in the sport of speed skating before Dan and I were born. So that’s how far back our friendship goes, and to share with someone in their success is a lot of times almost as sweet as tasting it yourself.
Adam: As you describe your support system, from your siblings to your coaches to Dan Jansen, clearly instrumental to your success, clearly instrumental to who you are as a person, what advice do you have for anyone listening on how to find the right people to surround themselves with, how to build the right support system?
Bonnie: Part of it is always going to be trial and error, and even within our team of skaters. So yes, it’s an individual sport, but we were still very much a team. And there were obviously teammates that I relied on maybe more than others, or had a closer relationship with some than others. And that’s kind of like everything we have in our life, you find the ones that you gel with that you can lean on in those good times and in bad and being able to trust somebody and know they can trust you. A lot of those all have to go hand in hand with each other. And I also in the different Olympics that I had, each time I had a different coach. And it’s not like in skating, we had a national team coach, so it’s who you were maybe slated with at the time. And yes, I could have gone off and found my own coach at the time, but I just stuck with our national team coach. And it just so happened that different coaches were my coach at the different games, and at the end of the day, they each brought something different that I needed at that point in time. And so maybe if I would have been with the coach from prior to at my last Olympic Games, I might not have come away with any more medals, but I had a new coach who was also a teammate of mine previously, a lot of things that meshed with us as athletes. I figured he was going to maybe try to bring back for us to rely on going into Lillehammer. So with anything, you always try to find those good things that you can take from different people and build upon those. And just because I didn’t have those other coaches at that point in time, I still feel a connection with them, that they helped me get to a place that I needed at that point in time. But maybe that person isn’t going to be there for the long haul, the long run. Mean you’ve seen like Tiger Woods. How many different coaches has he gone through? But I’m sure at different points in his life, different people brought different things to him to help elevate his game, or put him on a new trajectory, or do something different. And I think it’s also knowing to take that step back, to go, I need to make a change. I need to do something different, and being able to jump in then full force and go, okay, I’m going to make this change. It’s going to be the right thing. And then you go on and you just do it. Because I think there’s a lot of times it’s hard to stay with one thing all the way through and expect to always have this success. Even my husband, he coaches our daughter in speed skating. And if you did the exact same training program year after year, you’re not going to change things. So it’s always having that evolution of learning and being open to getting new ideas and filtering those new ideas, and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Adam: Having had the unique experience of playing for so many different coaches, what do you believe makes a great coach? What do you believe makes a great leader?
Bonnie: My son plays hockey, and he’s semi-pro, and there’s a lot of times where you just see the coaches up here, and the athletes are down here. Like I said, back to yes, I’m in an individual sport, but getting to know each other and being able to know what makes each other tick is super important, and I’m not a big fan of somebody that just thinks they know it all and they’ve got all the right answers, because I always feel that there’s always room to learn. Have your eyes and ears open for something new and something different. And that goes for who’s ever on top, whether it’s that coach or a boss or whatever, they’ve got to be willing to listen to others. So it for sure, always has to be a great give and take. At my last Olympics, when my coach, Nick Thomas, who we had been teammates previously, there was a lot of give and take there. And you have to have a belief in somebody, too. You’ve got to believe that they’re that right tool that you need at that point in time. But it’s important, the more you get to know someone and know what makes them tick, that way you can get more out of them at the end of the day.
Adam: You shared a lot there that I would love to unpack, starting off with that last point, which is the best coaches, the best leaders, recognize that every person who they coach, every person who they lead, is different. We’re all different. We all have different backgrounds, different makeups, different interests, different desires, different motivations, and you can’t treat every single person who you coach, every single person who you lead the exact same way. It starts with genuinely wanting to get to know every person who you’re leading. You spoke about the importance of give and take, not thinking, I’m up here, you’re down here. But rather, we’re all on the same level. We’re all people, we’re all human beings, and we’re all in this together, and it goes hand in hand with those qualities that you described, which are essential for one to be a great leader, humility, curiosity. The very best leaders don’t think they know it all. In fact, they know they don’t know it all, and they continually want to learn more. They’re desirous to consume as much information as possible. And oftentimes that comes directly from the people who they’re leading. And it starts with wanting to listen. The best leaders are the best listeners.
Bonnie: Yeah, for sure. I probably wouldn’t have had the success if I had somebody who was just such a dominant leader above me that wasn’t willing to sit down at dinner and have a conversation, whether it’s about family or a different sporting event. So like I said, getting to know each other, getting to know what ticks, instead of just being somebody that, oh, well, you’re down here, and I’m the one that’s in charge. Even at a younger age, I don’t think I probably would have related to somebody like that. I was pretty lucky within our sport, and of course, within our sport, when I was growing up, the coaches were volunteers. They had to want to be there in the first place. But it’s hard to be a great leader and know that you can be that person that’s on that pedestal, but yet being able to know that you can come down to their level as well and know that they’re all different. For instance, my husband in skating; he can think every single stroke. And if you ask him, well, what about that third stroke in the second turn, he could go back, and I’d be like, well, let’s go back and watch it on video, and maybe I’ll know what you’re talking about. We were so different that way. I’m more like, the gun goes off, it’s automatic pilot, the race is over with, and I’m like, okay, so what was my time again? But my husband can think every single stroke. So hopefully our kids are a little bit of in between all that to make their lives a little bit easier. But we’re all different. We all tick different. And to know that if you have somebody that’s in charge of you that’s willing to have that give and take, you get so much more out of experience.
Adam: I’d love to dive into your path to greatness, how you were able to become one of the greatest at your craft. What were the keys to attaining breakthrough success? How were you able to reach peak performance? How did you get there?
Bonnie: First of all, I mentioned earlier, the love for the sport was a big part. But for me and in our sport, having a clock to chase at the end of the straightaway, that was a big part for me to be able to really focus on that. But before I really started focusing on that and started to have a little bit of success, the East Germans were the ones that were always on the top podium, and I was always striving to get close to the East Germans. They were the ones that were always on the top. And in 1986 at the World Championships, I tied one of them for second, and I was like, oh my gosh, I tied one. I’m not on third anymore. I’m up on second and I’m on the same level. And then the next weekend, I actually beat both of them. And that was a turning point for me, for the sense that I knew that now I couldn’t just look up to them anymore. I needed to look past them. And that’s when I really started focusing on the clock at the end of the straightaway. Number one, it doesn’t lie. But number two, wherever we went in the world, I started trying to remember times that I’ve skated at that specific track, so that when I went there, I tried to beat that time. So it was more that I was competing within myself. And I felt like if I could beat myself, my chances of beating the others were going to be higher. But if I can’t beat me, I can’t beat them. And so to me, focusing on that clock at the end of the straightaway was a big part of it. The East Germans, and getting past them was a launching pad for me. When I beat both of them that one weekend, I had coaches from other countries coming up and congratulating me, saying, now my girls know that we can compete with them. So, how nice is that other coaches from other countries are congratulating me? So although I do think we have a pretty good sport, we’re very friendly rivalries. There’s not a lot of cutthroat within our sport. We have a good sport for that. So yeah, it was chasing the clock. Can I be better? To me, it was always about personal best and trying to find different things in what I did in training or whatever to be better than I was before. And our family motto with our kids is better tomorrow than we were today. That’s what we always try to focus on. And my son in hockey, my daughter in skating, maybe something didn’t go right in that game or in that race, it’s over. Leave it alone. Learn from it. Build on it. And let’s get better tomorrow. We’re going to go out there and try to be better tomorrow than we were today.
Adam: That’s such an important mentality to have. If you focus on yesterday’s game, if you focus on yesterday’s mistake, or if you focus on yesterday, good or bad, you’re going to miss what’s coming up in front of you.
Bonnie: Well, and even my son in a hockey game, okay, like, ah, I turned that puck over the blue line. I shouldn’t have done that. Well, if you’re still thinking that, next time you get out on the ice, you’re thinking the wrong things. And you might not make that same mistake again, but you might make another one. So you’ve got to let it go. Let it go and focus on what you can control, which is here and now and in the future.
Adam: Can you talk about what you were able to control, which was your routine, the preparation that you put in on a day-to-day basis? What were the little things that you did that ultimately added up to make the big difference?
Bonnie: A peanut butter and jelly sandwich before every race. I mean, that’s like the little things, but it is true. I always had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before every race. Skippy super chunk. But that’s a little bit of it. It’s not being too crazy about it, but it’s having a routine and having these things that you do that become so familiar that it’s like you’re just ready no matter what the circumstances are. But for instance, take the Albertville Olympics. When I got there for my race, the race had been delayed for an hour because this was the last time speed skating was done outside, and the sun had been hitting the track, and it had made half of the track a lot softer than the other side. So they wanted to wait till the sun started going down to make it a more fair competition, which is great, and I applaud them for that. But at the end of the day now, I’m at the rink an hour earlier than I need to be. So this was for my first race, and my family is there, and I’m like, oh my gosh, I’ve got an hour. I could go give my mom a hug. Like, I haven’t seen her yet. So I literally hopped the fence and went there, because of course everybody else coming to watch the race think it’s going to be at that time, but now it’s delayed an hour. And as I was visiting with my family, two things happen. One, I get to give my mom a big hug. It’s the first time I’ve seen her since she got to Albertville, and see my other siblings and stuff. And as I turn around and I look out onto the ice, my competitors are out there warming up, and I’m like, what are they doing? This isn’t the right time frame that they should be out there warming up. So in my mind, I’m like, oh my gosh, I’ve got a head start on them already, because now they’re out of their sync of what they need to do. And I’m like, oh, nope, I’m good. But then when I did see my family and I saw how nervous they were, I’m like, all right, I got to get out here. But I didn’t change my routine when the whole rest of the routine had been changed. That’s the other thing. Sometimes you get somewhere and you’re like, oh, I need to do this, and I need to do that. And at the end of the day, stay with what you know and do it how you normally do it. Find a routine. Find what works. And sometimes you have to play with that a lot before you get to that final routine that you like. But once you get there, then don’t divert just because a wrench was thrown into it. Try to do what you need to do to have that ultimate success.
Adam: I love that advice. It speaks to winning the game before the game even starts. And oftentimes we look around and we look at what other people are doing, and we say, well, if they’re doing that, should I be doing that too? Is my method really the best method? And oftentimes, if you’re doing something that’s working, your method probably is the best method for you. So it ultimately comes down to knowing what works for you, being comfortable in your own skin, having the confidence to know that if it’s working for you, go with it.
Bonnie: Yes, if you need to divert, it’s okay, but then know why you’re diverting and figure out how to navigate that. So yeah, it can be a slippery slope, but the whole thing is to take that step back, look at the big picture, and go, how do we navigate this wrench that was thrown into something? And then navigate it the best way, given the circumstances.
Adam: You spoke about how you were able to get to that next level of success. You were really good, and then all of a sudden you realized, I can become the very best. You were the very best over a long period of time. How were you able to remain great for so long, and what are the keys to sustained excellence?
Bonnie: It comes back again to those personal bests and me focusing on the clock and focusing on what I could control. A lot of people, they saw me have the success at the Olympics. They didn’t necessarily always see the other years, and I definitely had my frustrations along the way, sometimes weeks or months, and even entire seasons. But now that it comes back to the love for the sport and the love that I had for it, to never give up, always try to do something different. So I did have a coaching change that last from one Olympics to the next, and that was a big thing. And now that comes back to also belief, belief that now with my new coach, Nick, that we were going to get back to battling that clock at the end of the straightaway, instead of battling my legs that just seemed like they weren’t letting me get there. And sometimes we, in a sense, took a step backwards in order to take a big leap forward. So prior to that, we always thought that more was better, more laps, more bike rides, more weights. And as I was getting older in the sport, your body can only handle so much. But through all that more and more and more, we kind of lost track of the technical aspect of our sport, which had always been one of my strong points. So with my new coach, now, we were going to go back to focusing more on the technical side of things. And by doing that, yes, we were taking a step back, but now I was able to take this big leap forward, and I was able to start battling the clock instead of my legs. So change is a scary thing. When we have a belief in something, and you know you’re doing the right thing, and you know you have to make a change, then you just jump in with both feet and say, let’s go for it. Let’s see how it works. What do we got to lose? We’ve got nothing left to lose. So it was a risk changing coaches there that last Olympic Games, but I was now battling the clock to times I hadn’t skated in six years. So I did make a big leap forward. But it does, it comes down to love. It comes down to challenges. It comes down to goals. It comes down to surrounding yourself with all those great people that help make that success possible.
Adam: And your love of the sport is evident.
Bonnie: First and foremost, if
Adam: Not from this conversation, certainly from what you do right now, which is your involvement in and leadership of Dash, where you spend your time focused on building the sport back up. What are the best lessons that you’ve learned from your experience leading Dash? What are the best lessons that you believe anyone listening, whether they’re an Olympic-caliber skater or whether they’re someone like me, who you don’t want to see anywhere near the ice?
Bonnie: Let’s get you out there anyway.
Adam: You don’t want to see that. I was in Milwaukee for a keynote not too long ago, and everyone in Milwaukee knew who I was by virtue of how I was dressed. I looked like the Los Angeleno in Milwaukee, but I had a great time. It was truly a great experience. And I’ve been there a few times and really love the city.
Bonnie: Milwaukee is a great state on a great lake, but yet I didn’t grow up in Milwaukee. But this is where one of a few speed skating ovals that we have, one of two that are enclosed in the United States, the other one being in Salt Lake. Both my husband and I, growing up in the sport, we knew we wouldn’t want to be too far away from it now. Brandon, we have a daughter that is skating, so that helps us to keep us a little bit more connected. But we’re also excited to share what we’ve learned through sport. So we do feel that there’s a lot of opportunities out there for kids these days. But we wanted to get a club going, try to reach more kids. Can we get another Olympian that comes through the Dash program, from everyone from, I call them the Rugrats, the little guys, all the way up to the older kids? And starting something in a sense from scratch is not easy, as I’m sure you well know. But that too goes back to love and passion, and when you have something for that, you want to keep giving to it. And we want to try to be able to reach more kids and get them excited about our sport. We live in such a great area here in the Milwaukee area to be able to draw kids. The rink is situated right at State Fair Park. And kids nowadays, they spend so much time on their phones or digitally somehow, with athletics really not in schools anymore. Physical education, we’re definitely seeing that there’s a lack of physical literacy out there. So just trying to get kids to be able to do a cartwheel, a somersault, be able to jump rope, we’re finding that a lot of kids don’t have a lot of those dexterities. But not only is that physical literacy maybe lacking, but we also want to just share great lessons we learned through sport. There’s so many great life lessons that you take from sport that go into anything else that you do in life. And so if we can share those things, get kids excited about our sport, we feel like we’ve touched somebody and we’ve done some good. And we are a 501 c3. We’re not curing cancer, but we hope we’re making a lot of the kids of today better for tomorrow.
Adam: Bonnie, what can anyone listening to this conversation do to become more successful, personally and professionally?
Bonnie: It comes from a passion that you have for something, and it really does come from surrounding yourself with a great team or cast or people that just want to be in your court and being able to feed off of each other so that everyone can have success in one form or another. And I feel very lucky to have grown up in a great family that although I’ve lost a lot of my siblings due to one reason or another, it was still a great family where there was a lot of love and a lot of caring, and that makes a difference in your life. And when you have a lot of that, if you don’t have it from your family, hopefully you can get it from friends or coworkers. But having those people around you to help make success possible is so much fun too, because then you’re all in it together.
Adam: Bonnie, thank you for all the great advice, and thank you for being a part of Thirty Minute Mentors.
Bonnie: Thanks for having me today.
