| Josh Sundquist | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 6, 1984 |
| Occupation | Writer, Motivational speaker |
| Genres | Memoir |
| Notable work(s) | Just Don't Fall |
Joshua Sundquist is a Paralympian and a bestselling author and motivational speaker.[1] He lost his left leg to cancer at age ten and later became a Paralympic ski racer. His memoir, Just Don't Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness, and Made it Down the Mountain, was released in January, 2010.
Contents |
Six years after surviving a battle with cancer and losing his leg, Sundquist began ski racing. At age 17 he moved to Colorado to pursue the sport full time.[2]
He trained and competed for six years, and in 2006 he was named to the United States Paralympic Ski Team and raced in the IX Paralympic Games, which were held in Turin, Italy that March. Sundquist competed in two alpine skiing events for men — slalom and giant slalom. He did not win any medals.[3]
After the Paralympics, Sundquist retired from professional racing and returned to Williamsburg, Virginia, where he graduated with a degree in business from The College of William and Mary's Mason School of Business the same year.[4] He later earned a Master's in Communications from the University of Southern California.[5]
After the Paralympics, he won the Body-for-Life contest in 2006.
His ski-racing slogan is "1mt, 1mt" which stands for "1 More Thing, 1 More Time."
Sundquist was sixteen when he gave his first motivational talk and has been speaking to groups ever since.[6]
He is now a nationally recognized speaker and continues to present to groups around the United States. Sundquist's audiences and clients have included Wal-Mart, The White House, RE/MAX, Boy Scouts of America, National FFA Organization, YPO, and Children's Miracle Network.[7][8][9][10]
In 2001, Sundquist became a contributing writer for the Daily Guideposts, and he has also written for Guideposts Magazine, a monthly publication that features first-person narratives of faith in daily life and a subscriber base of 2.3 million.[11]
He has been published in The Washington Post and in Newsweek's now defunct college magazine, Current.[12][13]
Sundquist's memoir, Just Don't Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness, and Made it Down the Mountain, was released on January 21, 2010 and became a National bestseller.[14]
Sundquist was chosen as one of CNN's 2007 Heroes, in recognition of his work within the amputee community. In particular, CNN profiled Sundquist and his founding of the social networking website for persons with amputations, LessThanFour.org.[15]
Sundquist just started an already existing YouTube account with the name "JoshSundquist" in late 2009 (as the account already was existent since 2006) . Sundquist has had much support from other elite Youtubers including iJustine (Justine Ezarik) and Nalts (Kevin Nalty).
He had said before that YouTube was the only place where he felt like he looked normal. Most people watching his videos did not know about his past until his third video.
A contest run by YouTube Global that ended on January 14, 2011 asked users to vote to put one of four nominees on the front page of YouTube.com on January 22, 2011. Sundquist won the featured spot by 478 votes, beating out Luke Conard by one percentage point.[16]