16Aug2018
Speaker Spotlight: Rapid Fire with Lindsey Vonn
by: Nordic Business Forum
About Lindsey Vonn
Lindsey Vonn is the most successful female alpine skier in the history of the sport and is on her way to becoming the most successful ski racer ever. Over the course of her career, she has captured a world-record 82 World Cup wins en route to 20 FIS Alpine World Cup titles (surpassing Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark), including four overall crystal globes and two World Championship titles. In 2016, Vonn broke the all-time Downhill record (37 wins), claiming the season’s Downhill title outright, on top of achieving the sport’s Super-G record (27 wins).
In February 2015, she launched the Lindsey Vonn Foundation. Staying true to her values, LVF is a non-profit with the goal of empowering young girls to grow as athletes and individuals through opportunities and experiences that build self-esteem and create a positive self-image. We recently spoke with Lindsey and asked her some rapid-fire questions about her upcoming session at Nordic Business Forum 2018.
Speaker Spotlight Interview
Nordic Business Forum: Can you give us a teaser of what to expect from your upcoming NBForum 2018 discussion on “Peak Performance, Winning, and Coming Back”?
Lindsey Vonn: Well, I’ve had a long and successful career but I’ve also had a lot of injuries and obstacles along the way. Nothing stops me because I refuse to give up. I’m going to talk about what drives me and what has led me to 82 World Cup wins.
NBForum: What’s your proudest accomplishment (on or off the skis)?
LV: Winning an Olympic gold medal.
NBForum: What’s the best advice you have ever received?
LV: Always trust your instincts and don’t ever stop working.
NBForum: What has been the hardest lesson that you’ve had to learn?
LV: Sometimes when I look back at my injuries, I think that I could have changed things…but my hardest life lessons were worth having because it made me who I am today. “Our greatest assets can be our failures.”
NBForum: What are the biggest issues in sports, entertainment, and/or business that we should be talking about?
LV: We should be talking about the challenges of finding ways to promote and market sports, entertainment or business in a truthful and meaningful way. In this age of social media and short attention spans, we, the athletes, have to hold our values as real people and competitors but still draw others in.
NBForum: We often talk about “peak performance” in business in terms of sports metaphors. In your experience, how do the lessons in sports translate to lessons in business? (Are we oversimplifying them or misusing them?)
LV: The lessons I’ve learned in sports are very much relatable to business. Hard work and dedication have always been the cornerstones of my career in skiing and when I retire, I will 100% be using those tools to help me succeed in my next chapter.
NBForum: You have a strong voice in both the sports and entertainment world – how do you use that platform?
LV: I have always tried to be more than an athlete. I want to help the next generation by empowering them to follow their dreams and by helping them get the tools they need to get there. Hence why I started the Lindsey Vonn foundation. We can use our platform to be a positive voice in the world. Athletes give kids something to look up to and I take that responsibility seriously.
NBForum: What are you working on now?
LV: I have a lot of upcoming projects that I will be working on at the end of my skiing career next winter. I’ll be an executive producer on an amazing project, an ambassador to help entrepreneurs in another project and of course, building out my foundation even more. However, as of this very moment, I’m preparing for my last ski season. My goal is to break the all-time win record of 86. Only one man has more wins and I’d like to change that.
NBForum: What’s one thing you want your audience to learn from you?
LV: I want people to learn that obstacles will always come at you but you have to work harder to get past them. Never lose sight of your goals.
About Nordic Business Forum 2018
Nordic Business Forum will host its 9th annual business and leadership conference by the same name in Helsinki on the 26th and 27th of September 2018 for 7,500 C-level executives and business owners. Our 2018 main event will bring to the stage some of the world’s preeminent experts on strategy, artificial intelligence, and peak performance for two action-packed days.
NBForum 2018 is a place where you will uncover strategic success principles, discover how to apply new technologies to win in business, and learn how to drive and sustain personal performance. It’s also THE place to network and drive business development. The networking opportunities presented by our guests are unparalleled in the Nordics. You’re getting more than just a conference ticket — you’re getting access to some of the greatest business minds on the planet!
Nordic Business Forum is Europe’s leading conference organizer with events in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Our 2018 event is sold out, but you can tune in to the event from anywhere in the world with our live stream licenses, which are tailored to individuals and groups (communities).
