By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
CULVER — An Olympic gold medalist had advice to achieve success for Culver Academy students.
Nikki Stone is the first United States athlete to win gold in the event of inverted aerial skiing. Now retired from the sport, Stone uses her experiences as a world class athlete to help others to focus on achieving their best.
“There is a common thread that makes people successful,” she said. “I want to give people the steps and tools that allow them to expand and grow in their careers and their lives.”

Stone has gained that experience first hand. Before winning her first gold medal, she was told by doctors that she would never ski again. A spinal chord injury made it difficult to stand, let alone do the sort of acrobatics necessary to compete in the sport that hurtles skiers off a 12-foot wall of snow 50 feet into the air to perform acrobatic stunts.
“I had to build enormous muscle strength to compensate,” she said. “I was determined to compete again.”
Stone also has helped both of her parents through  battles with cancer. Both are survivors, but their fight has also inspired her. Enough so that she has written a book “When Turtles Fly: The Secrets of Successful People Who Know How to Stick Their Neck’s Out” that includes not just her experiences, but the stories of many other successful people around the world — Shaun White, Tommy Hilfiger, Todd English, Lindsey Vonn, Tim Shriver, Prince Albert of Monaco just to name a few – and the inspirational tales of how they became a success.
A Magna Cum Laude undergraduate of Union College in New York and a Summa Cum Laude master’s graduate of the University of Utah in sports psychology, Stone speaks on what she calls “The Turtle Effect.”
“You have to be soft on the inside, have a hard shell and be willing to stick your neck out,” she said. “Each of the contributors in the book relates back to ‘the turtle effect.’ Often they have astounding stories to tell of the odds they have overcome.
“I really hope this can help people become more committed to their lives, to overcome plateaus or obstacles they face in achieving their goals and moving forward in their careers.”
The book has helped Stone herself while writing it.
“One of the biggest challenges is being able to take what you learn and use it to become more successful,” she said.
Helping others is a big part of what Stone does, and she has pledged 25 percent of her proceeds from the book to the American Cancer Society.
“It’s a chance for me to give back to an organization that meant so much to me while my parents were going through their battle with cancer,” she said.