Bonny Simi, an Olympic torchbearer and luge athlete, shares what the sport taught her about precision, relaxation, and risk-taking. In luge, a tenth of a second separates winners from the rest. She learned that staying calm under pressure and pushing your limits are what separate good from great.
Chapters
And I had this crazy dream, and I kept thinking about it, about being in the Olympics. Now, I wasn't a great athlete. I was an okay athlete. I was in track and swimming in high school, and I played field hockey. And I hoped to get a scholarship and ultimately did end up with a scholarship here. But it wasn't something I was going to go to the Olympics in. And so would I really be in the Olympics. But it was in the back of my mind for about four years after I wrote those goals, I still was in the back of my mind, yeah, I want to be in the Olympics. So I was fascinated. And the next year, the Olympics, as they come every four years, was on, and I was thinking about it, and lo and behold, there was a magazine article to be a torchbearer for the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. I thought to myself, hmm, well, I don't know if I can be an Olympian, but I can be an Olympic torch bearer. And they were picking one person from every state, so there was going to be 50 torchbearers. And you had to write an essay. And I was from California, and I thought to myself, what are the chances that I could be the one person picked from California as well? If I don't try, I won't get it. You're never going to win a lottery if you don't enter. And I thought to myself, I'm really good at writing, so I can take the same college essay that I used to get into Stanford, rearrange it a little bit, and apply to the Olympic torch bearer. And it worked. So that was my first exposure to becoming a tea person. So I came here my freshman year. I stopped out Winter Quarter, the first of many times. I stopped out at Stanford, and I went to Lake Placid as an Olympic torch bearer. So there I am at 18 years old in Lake Placid. This is the opening ceremonies. And yes, I watched all of Eric Haydn's competitions. And I was a hockey player, field hockey player. And one of my fellow torchbearers said, hey, let's go. You know how to play hockey. Why don't you come watch the hockey games? You know, us is going to get smashed, but let's go anyway. I said, I've never seen an ice hockey game. You know, my very first one ever was USA Russia. So while I was there, I had stopped out for Winter Quarter. So I had. When the Olympics ended, I had not nothing to do and no money to do it with, and I didn't have to be back here until the end of March and the Olympics ended in February. And thinking about that goal I had in my mind of, like, well, should I check off that I had been to the Olympics? Well, there was a sport that I saw called luge, and I thought, you know, they had a beginner's camp. It was only $8. Even I could afford it. And this is another one of those things of just taking those risks and just going for it. So I decided to apply for the camp and started competing in the sport of luge. Now, in case some of you don't know what this is, this is kind of like little flexible flyer going down a hill, except going really, really, really fast. And it looks crazy, but people who are crazy and daredevils do not do well in this sport. Now, thinking about this in life as well, if you're completely and totally crazy and you don't put thought and precision into what you're doing, you'll not succeed. So this was one of those metaphors for me, and metaphors in life was to think about, could I be precise, could I be planful? Yes. The other piece of this, this little sled, There are no shock absorbers on the sled. None. The shock absorber is your human body. And if the human body, if you're stiff, the sled will dig into the ice and you go slow. So this is truly, truly the sports metaphor for all you have to fear is fear itself. Because if you're stiff, the sled won't steer, and if you can't steer, you crash. So the idea was to be completely and totally relaxed, managing and being in precision while riding the sled. I say that this is one of the most purposeful ways for me, as I grew up, of learning how to really relax. Now, let's face it, I was getting ready for today's talk. Was I nervous? Yes. But I thought to myself, just relax. When you relax, you speak better.
