Jim Craig

Olympic Gold Medalist, Goalie for 1980 USA “Miracle on Ice” Hockey Team, Owner, President and CEO of Gold Medal Strategies, Board Member of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Topics: Teamwork, Attitude, Branding & Marketing, Business Leadership, Business, Empowerment, Entrepreneur, Inspirational & Motivational, Innovation, Leadership, Olympic Athlete, Sales, Strategy, Elite Performance, Corporate Culture

Biography

Jim Craig is best known as the backbone of the 1980 Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Team, whose ‘Miracle’ win was voted by Sports Illustrated as the greatest moment in sports history of the 21^st century. Craig, who started every game in goal, was a leading figure in the team’s success. One of the enduring images of the 1980 Games was of Craig, wrapped in an American flag, searching the stands for his widowed father in order to share the gold-medal-winning victory.

Before the Olympics, Jim was an All-American goalie at Boston University, leading his team to a NCAA national championship. After the ‘Miracle’ game, Jim went on to play professionally for three NHL teams, where he sustained a career-ending injury while playing for the Minnesota North Stars. He is enshrined in the Boston University Hall of Fame, the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame, the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and is a co-recipient of both the Lester Patrick award and the Sports Illustrated “Sportsman of the Year” award. He is also a graduate of Boston University and earned his doctorate in humane letters from Mercy College.

Following Jim’s professional hockey career, he transitioned his success into the corporate world as a motivational speaker, powerful salesman and corporate consultant. He has been inducted into the Sales Halls of Fame for two different companies, having increased a sales territory from $300,000 to $50 million in annual sales. Following this role, Jim moved on to become the Vice President of a promotional marketing agency. Under his guidance, the agency increased annual dollar sales by 80 percent and its number of clients by 30 percent in just two short years.

For more than 35 years, Jim has inspired, instructed and provided strategic and winning direction to some of the most prestigious companies across the world, including Kellogg’s, Bayer, Deloitte, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Disney, as the successful owner and president of his company, Gold Medal Strategies. Jim has been selected three times as one of the top five speakers on team building in the United States, and has evolved to not only deliver motivational speeches, but host immersive corporate training programs that teach participants how to think differently and believe in their possibilities. Jim is the co-author of the highly acclaimed business book, Gold Medal Strategies: Business Lessons from America’s Miracle Team and recently released his newest book and legacy piece, We Win! Lessons on Life, Business & Building Your Own Miracle Team. In addition to his role with Gold Medal Strategies, Jim serves as a board member of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, and he has a passion for leveraging his athletic and business success to help others achieve their full potential and lives in integrity with his mission every day!

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Speech TopicsExpand each topic to learn more

Power of Teamwork

Very few things great are done alone. Epic achievement is almost always the result of successful and enduring collaboration. Jim explains and details the elements of winning teamwork. He provides specific examples from the experience of the U.S. “Miracle on Ice” hockey team, and how it confounded the experts, made history and made it to the top of the podium.

Commitment to Excellence

Jim has studied and continues to study and research what inspires the pursuit of excellence in those who achieve greatness. He describes what is it that separates those content with good enough, and with all right, and with the okay and those who have an unquenchable thirst and drive to make history and establish the highest standards.

Conflict Management

One of the nine “Gold Medal Strategies” that Jim teaches that he writes and speaks about is that great teams manage through ego and conflict. Jim tells the story of early on in their journey to Lake Placid and history, the players on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team were not working cooperatively; the team was beset by regional and personal rivalries. But the players got beyond the conflict—and they forged a team, and executed teamwork, for the ages.

Transformational (Change) Management

Had the members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team—under the guidance and direction of Herb Brooks—not thrown off the old ways and play of U.S. international hockey, had they not embraced a revolutionary form of the game, they would not have beat the team that couldn’t be beaten, and won the game that couldn’t be won. There would not have been any gold medal or any stop atop the podium. Jim talks about how he and his teammates executed that transformation and change—and how the example of that transformation and change can aid your organization to perform more effectively.

Fundamentals of Winning