TEDxCalgary - Steve Mesler - Olympian Inspiration: Classroom 2.0
Channel: TEDx Talks
Date: 2011-12-29

Steve Mesler's story is one of gratitude and a deep sense of responsibility to give back to the communities and people who believed in him on his 20-year journey to Olympic gold. From an early age, he was a talented athlete, achieving national level success in high school and a track scholarship to the University of Florida. When injuries kept him from his full potential on the track, he was not content to let his dream of being an Olympian die. Switching to the sport of bobsled, it was another 10 years of dedication and focus to achieving a gold medal finish in 4-man bobsled in Vancouver. Since retiring from competition in 2010, Steve has dedicated his time to leadership consulting and motivational speaking as well as his true passion, helping kids.

Leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Steve, along with his sister, Leigh Parise, PhD, co-founded Classroom Champions, a non-profit organization with a mission to inspire, motivate and educate students in high-need schools to recognize their potential, set goals and dream big. Using pre-recorded video, live video chats, and blogs, Classroom Champions connects these students with Olympians and Paralympians, who share their messages of Olympic values, hard work and dedication.

His personal philosophy is pretty simple, yet powerful: Be that person you would want to be inspired by. Steve has had the opportunity to bring this message to an amazing and diverse audience: From executives at multi-national corporations to students at Harvard University as well as elementary school kids at across the U.S. Whether participating in the International Olympic Academy forum in Olympia, Greece on communicating Olympic values around the world, or being a nominee for Champion for Peace of the Year by Peace and Sport in Monaco, Steve is a role model who gives tirelessly of himself to inspire others to pursue and achieve their dreams.

About TEDx

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)