Clara Hughes

Today was a full day of the sales conference and most of it was focused around company stuff.

The "motivational" speaker this afternoon was a surprise ... it was Clara Hughes.

Clara is a Canadian cyclist and speed skater and has won multiple Olympic medals in both sports. She is one of only five people who have won medals in both the summer and winter games and is the only person ever to have won multiple medals in both.

She spoke for over an hour and told us how she got started and what was her inspiration.

Afterwards she let everyone hold/wear her medals, signed autographs and had pictures taken. She seems very nice and genuine.

Here are Clara and I ...


I'm wearing the bronze medal she won at the 2010 Winter Olympics in 5000 metre speed skating. It weights 2.5 pounds and seems heavy.

This was the final Olympic race of her career. Her time of 6:55.73 became a new track record, though it was soon beaten by silver medalist Stephanie Beckert of Germany and gold medalist Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic. She said though she was proud of winning the bronze medal, she was more proud of racing the race of her life.

Clara's mantra ... open mind, open heart, warrior.