Throughout my Olympic pursuit, and even long after I stepped off the ice, whenever something wasn’t working, my instinct was always the same: apply more force. Tighten the grip. Add another hour in the gym. Double the intensity. Push harder. It didn’t matter if I was preparing for a race, testing my limits physically, or building something new in the next chapter of my life. My default strategy was pressure. Grind. More.
But one of the most important lessons the ice taught me is this: not every obstacle yields to force. In fact, sometimes force breaks you long before you “break through”. Over time, I began to understand that in any high-pressure moment - sport, business, or life - you’re really choosing between three options. It’s a framework I now share with leaders and teams as I tackle organizations' constant challenges. The work that we dedicate ourselves to - in forms of advising, consulting, cultivating a high performance mindset or simply what the broader market calls : inspirational speakers navigating uncertainty:
The hard part isn’t picking one - it’s knowing when.
In every stage of my Olympic journey and beyond, I faced moments where more effort alone wasn’t the answer. Learning when to change, accept, or leave became the key to growth, performance, and clarity under pressure.
Leading up to my final Olympic run, I could feel something shifting. Stories from moments like this now form the core of some the material that we work through on stage with teams. In reality the best inspirational talks and sessions occur because we are in depth, authentic, raw & uniquely meeting people where they are. Minute differences are critical because they represent the moment every competitor eventually faces. The ice was the same. But I wasn’t. My lap times weren’t progressing. The rhythm - my rhythm - was slipping. The sport was evolving around me, and if I wanted to stay in the fight, I had to evolve too.
So I rebuilt everything. I narrowed my circle. I brought in people who were aligned with the mission. We tightened feedback loops. Adjusted training cycles. Re-engineered recovery. Rethought strategy.I didn’t just refine technique - I redefined who I needed to become to meet the moment.
When I stepped onto the start line after that transformation, I wasn’t returning as the old version of myself. I was stepping forward as someone new. Someone sharper. Someone prepared.
One of the defining moments came in 2002 at the Winter Olympics. In the 1,000 m final I was leading, in control, then a crash took out me and three others. I ended up sliding into the boards, my left thigh gushing blood. I needed six stitches just to patch me up. And yet I didn’t quit. I crawled, skate-first, the last yards to the line and crossed it for silver.
Four days later, I raced the 1,500 m. I didn’t cross the line first; I crossed second. But when the leader was disqualified for impeding, the gold was mine. It was controversial. But that moment taught me something deeper than victory. I didn’t lose gold, I gained perspective.
Sometimes life doesn’t hand you what you expect. You control effort, not outcome. Accepting that and committing to giving your best regardless is where real strength begins.
After Vancouver 2010, I had medals, momentum, recognition - and physically, I could have pushed for another Olympic cycle. But something inside quietly told me the chapter was closing. Walking away from competitive skating was one of the hardest decisions of my life. It felt like leaving behind a part of my identity, one I had built since I was fourteen years old.
But leaving wasn’t quitting. It was a pivot. A deliberate transition into a life beyond the ice. That’s when I began helping organizations, leaders, and teams - sharing not just victory stories, but the hard choices and honesty that only living under pressure can teach. Today, I bring those lessons to life in my post Olympic career “hard pivot” now seeking a new podium. One that isn’t draped with medals or going in circles on an ice rink, rather I combined this unique intersection of high performance, business, and wellness. Now we are obsessed with creating the best inspirational talks for leaders and teams navigating uncertainty, self doubt, and burnout.
Force can carry you only so far. In business, as in sport, doubling down on the same playbook often leads to stagnation. Markets change. Teams shift. Pressure mounts. What made sense yesterday may choke you tomorrow, or simply - just doesn’t work. The real world reinvention process is hard, necessary but always worth it.
But change with intention. Accept when the outcome is out of your hands, and commit to giving effort where you can control it. (Master class in stoicism) And when things no longer align with your purpose - don’t cling. Pivot. Reinvent. This is why organizations that bring me in, someone who’s lived from the top of the mountain and then into collapse, comeback, reinvention, often look for experiences that are difficult to articulate. It’s a feeling, it’s a flow, it’s a synergistic energy that all team members are now operating from. Their ego diminishes, their end goal is aligned, they are willing to take on a bigger challenge. In short - They get clarity. They get a mirror. They get a roadmap.
These are some of the stories and lessons that remove the noise and things that are non-critical to our end state. When looking for inspirational speakers - We try to take every pre-call and understand culture, what are the themes of the event. Who are we speaking to and where are they at this moment, right here and right now? How fatigued are we as an organization? What must be done? Do we have new leadership? Can we pivot into embracing new technology and assets that we didn’t have 5 years ago? What are we currently defaulting to that no longer serves the culture that we are pivoting into? Let’s engage & create long lasting podium moments together.