Steve’s Bio
Steve Mesler is a three-time United States Olympian and 2010 Gold Medalist in 4-man bobsled, motivational speaker, and philanthropist who has dedicated much of his life-to-date to achieving one major goal- winning an Olympic Gold Medal. He is now committed to sharing his experiences and the life lessons he learned while breaking a 62-year American Olympic Gold Medal drought and a 50-year American World Championship drought with his teammates Steven Holcomb, Justin Olsen and Curt Tomasevicz aboard their Bo-Dyn Night Train Bobsled.
Steve’s 20 year path to Olympic glory started when he was 11 years old and was filled with many highs and lows that included: a high school track and field national championship and All-American honors; college track scholarship; 5 years of injuries culminating with elbow reconstructive surgery that changed his mindset and subsequently turned him into one of the toughest athletes in all of Olympic sport; representing his country in three Olympic Games; moving to a foreign country without a dime, vehicle, or shelter in order to put himself in the best training environment possible to accomplish his goals; literally falling on his face while missing out on Olympic glory during his second Olympic Games; an international scam of his family that drew worldwide media attention within days of his third Olympic Games; and many personal battles that shaped him into the person that he is today and will be evolving into tomorrow. To read more about Steve’s path, click here.
“The Olympics move people,” said Mesler, a push athlete for the reigning four-man world and World Cup championship sled from the U.S. “That’s the bottom line. I’ve thought that since I was a kid.” -ESPN.com
Steve has been featured in countless media outlets world wide- including the cover and pages of Sports Illustrated, four appearances on NBC’s Today Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Colbert Report, Sports Illustrated for Kids and USA Today to name just a few. One of the most tech-savvy Olympic Athletes in the world, Steve has blogged and vlogged for NBC, his hometown paper The Buffalo News and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), along with guest commentating for Universal Sports Bobsled World Cup and World Championship TV and Internet broadcasts. He has the largest Twitter following of any male team-sport Winter Olympian in the world, currently at over 40,000. As well, Steve originated and made famous (produced, cut and sang for) the ‘Holcy Dance‘ and ‘Holcy Dance Mix‘ videos- a playful dance rendition filmed around the world with teammate Steven Holcomb that was featured on NBC’s The Today Show and dozens of other media outlets. Steve has also been a popular guest lecturer at his alma mater, The University of Florida, speaking on topics ranging from sport psychology and teamwork to event management to excelling in the business world and achieving your personal best.
“Be that person you would want to be inspired by. No matter what you do, kids are going to look up to you just as you looked up to others who were successful. Be that inspiration you wanted.” -Steve Mesler, speaking to MBA students at the Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management
Steve has also created a brand new, innovative way for the outside world- namely Olympians and professional athletes- to use technology to communicate with America’s classrooms in his non-profit organization Classroom Champions. Classroom Champions puts the latest technology and communications tools into high-need classrooms around the United States (and eventually the world) and has garnered press from across the country, including the tech website CNet, for his efforts. The program utilizes the symbolic power and wisdom of the top athletes in the world to teach students about goal setting, perseverance and achievement while providing them with the technological tools they’ll need for success in the 21st century. Steve is both the CEO and a member of the Classroom Champions Board of Directors. He created the program during the 2009-2010 season, formerly the Back to School Project, himself adopting 9 classrooms around the country with the aid of his sister, Leigh Parise, a PhD candidate in Educational Policy at Northwestern University.
Steve has been invited to speak to and on behalf of some of the world’s most remarkable organizations and schools, including the Hilton Group, Deloitte, AXA Financial Advisers, Harvard Business School, The United States Air Force, MassMutual Financial Group, Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Columbia Business School, among many others. He has also been invited to speak and keynote at OC Tanner’s Executive Appreciation Summit, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) National Convention, and the Hilton Global Marketing Group Annual Conference.
“Let the records show the Americans won by 0.38 seconds, their first bobsled gold in 62 years. Anyone who knew Mesler understood it was so much more. It was for everyone who appreciated the sacrifice and commitment he made, what pushed him throughout his childhood, what pushed him to push the sled.” -Bucky Gleason, The Buffalo News
Steve was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and graduated high school from the prestigious City Honors School. He received his B.Sc. with honors in Exercise and Sport Sciences from the University of Florida in 2000. He has been on the USOC’s Team of the Month seven times, as well as the USOC’s Team of the Year for 2009 and was the first team to repeat that distinction in 2010. He has also been nominated to the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Steve and his team were voted as the Best Moment of 2010 by Universal Sports as well as ESPN’s Howard Bryant’s Top Moment of the 2010 Olympics.
To see more of Steve on the internet:
Steve Mesler on Twitter
Steve Mesler on Wikipedia
Steve Mesler’s United States Olympic Committee Blog
