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"facebook dialogPinterest\n\nHow did you get started skiing? Was there ever another sport you were interested in?I don't even remember learning to ski! My parents tell me I was about 2 years old, skiing down between my parents' legs. &amp;amp;#xC2; I started gymnastics at about the same time. I didn't start aerial skiing until I was 18, but the background in gymnastics and skiing were the perfect combination for the sport, and I progressed very quickly.\n\nWhat do you love about your sport?The thing I love the most about aerial skiing is that it's given me the opportunity to tackle my fears. &amp;amp;#xC2; Believe it or not, I'm afraid of heights, so flipping and twisting 50 feet in the air was no easy feat for me. &amp;amp;#xC2; When I was 5 years old I told my parents that I'd win the Olympics someday and this goal has pushed me to conquer my fears and take the risk to perform triple back flips. &amp;amp;#xC2; I would have never experienced the rush of adrenaline you get when soaring through the air if it weren't for my sport.\n\nIf you weren't an athlete, what do you think you'd want to be doing?That's a good question. &amp;amp;#xC2; Most kids change what they want to do or be every few years. &amp;amp;#xC2; My goal never changed. I always knew I had the ability to win an Olympic Gold Medal and it was always the driving force in my career path. &amp;amp;#xC2; I'm proud of the fact that I also have an undergraduate degree in psychology, a masters in sports psychology, work as a motivational speaker and have just published my first book. &amp;amp;#xC2; I would hope that I'd still be doing all of these things with or without sports!\n\nWhat made you want to write your book? What's it about?Growing up, my mother taught me that I could achieve anything I wanted as long as I followed the Turtle Effect philosophy. She told me that in order to reach my dreams I had to remember to have a soft inside, a hard shell, and be sure to stick my neck out. &amp;amp;#xC2; The philosophy has been so useful for me that I wanted to help people develop this same confidence and share the tools that are common to those at the top of their given field. &amp;amp;#xC2; The philosophy holds true for any career and I wanted to demonstrate this through a number of contributors who are at the top of their fields; including Olympic and X-Games gold medalist Shaun White, icon designer Tommy Hilfiger, skiing champion Lindsey Vonn, Prince Albert of Monaco, celebrity chef Todd English, perfect ten Olympian Nadia Comaneci, and more. &amp;amp;#xC2; I think we all need some extra inspiration right now, and I wrote this book to do just that!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/qa-with-olympian-nikki-stone>