Hall of Fame Induction

From Dreams to the Hall of Fame: Jana's Inspiring Journey (Living Lucky® Podcast)

Join Jason as he proudly shares the incredible news: Jana has been selected for the 2025 Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame! This deeply moving episode chronicles Jana's extraordinary path, from childhood basketball dreams nurtured by her father to Paralympic gold medalist and now, a Hall of Famer alongside legends like Gabby Douglas and Phil Knight.

Discover the pivotal moments that shaped Jana's journey, including a teenage car accident that redirected her athletic focus but not her competitive spirit. Witness the impact of her historic 2014 gold medal win, which shattered a 22-year drought and ignited a legacy of three consecutive gold medals for her team – proving that breaking one barrier can redefine what's possible.

Experience the heartfelt emotion as Jana shares this honor with her biggest supporter, her father. This isn't just about athletic prowess; it's a testament to unwavering belief, the power of mentorship (including from fellow inductee Susan Hagel), and how one person's dedication can elevate an entire sport. Get ready to be inspired by a story of dreams realized, barriers broken, and a gold medal life created through perseverance. Tune in and celebrate this incredible milestone with us!

In The Episode:

• Hall of Fame Bound: Celebrating a Lifetime of Athletic Excellence.
• From Basketball Courts to Paralympic Gold: The Foundation of a Champion.
• Breaking the Drought: The Gold Medal Moment that Changed History.
• A Legacy of Gold: Inspiring Future Generations of Athletes.
• The Power of Belief: The Unwavering Support of Family.
• Mentorship Matters: Learning from Legends Like Susan Hagel.
• Beyond Personal Glory: The Impact of One Athlete's Journey.

Key Nuggets: Dreams can lead to the Hall of Fame. Perseverance breaks barriers. One victory can inspire many. Believe in yourself and those around you. Legacy is built through impact.

How to achieve your biggest dreams through hard work. What does it take to become a Hall of Famer? How to overcome adversity and achieve success. The importance of mentorship in achieving goals. How one person can make a difference in their field. Stories of perseverance in Paralympic sports. Celebrating athletic excellence and achievement. Who is in the 2025 Paralympic Hall of Fame? How did

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*Previously Recorded

Chapters

• 0:00 Breaking Big News: Hall of Fame Selection
• 1:45 Fellow Hall of Fame Inductees Revealed
• 5:20 A Father's Influence and Team Journey
• 9:17 Creating a Gold Medal Legacy
• 11:27 Feelings of Celebration and Gratitude

Transcript

Jana Shelfer: 0:00

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start Living Lucky®.

Jason Shelfer: 0:14

Good morning.

Jana Shelfer: 0:15

I'm Jana, I'm Jason and we are Living Lucky®. You are too. We got some big news today.

Jason Shelfer: 0:22

Big news it's huge, it's huge. Some people some big news today. Big news it's huge, it's huge. Some people say it's big. Many people would say it's big news.

Jana Shelfer: 0:30

We were informed that the 2025 Hall of Fame for the Olympic and Paralympic athletes has been chosen.

Jason Shelfer: 0:44

And drumroll athletes has been chosen and drum roll Jana was selected. Jana is now in the Paralympic Olympic Hall of Fame for all of history.

Jana Shelfer: 0:57

You can refer to me as Hall of Famer.

Jason Shelfer: 0:58

I do HOF. I just found out today that I had three Hall of Famers in my wedding.

Jana Shelfer: 1:04

I got tears in my eyes. I've been crying all day.

Jason Shelfer: 1:08

I'm so proud of you because I know we met just before you left for your trip to.

Jana Shelfer: 1:14

Greece to Athens, I know.

Jason Shelfer: 1:16

And I was like if you don't come back with the gold, I don't know if we can continue this relationship.

Jana Shelfer: 1:20

Oh stop.

Jason Shelfer: 1:24

And you came back with that gold baby After 22 years of not being able to get the gold Because you gave me an ultimatum. I gave you that inspiration as well, I gave you.

Jana Shelfer: 1:34

Look at you, listen to you.

Jason Shelfer: 1:37

I'm a facilitator.

Jana Shelfer: 1:39

Oh, so we've been on pins and needles now for weeks Well yeah, so I knew that I was one of three. We got word about a month ago that I was one of three.

Jason Shelfer: 1:52

It was April 25th, is what day it was.

Jana Shelfer: 1:54

And I say I, but it was really my team.

Jason Shelfer: 1:56

Yes.

Jana Shelfer: 1:57

My team was one of three that had been nominated as one of the-.

Jason Shelfer: 2:03

Hall of Fame inductees Honoraries. Who's going to get it?

Jana Shelfer: 2:06

Yes, and so then it was up to the final selection process and they announced it today. It started on NBC on the Today Show at 9 am and then at noon it started dripping out on social media and I got the official word through my email.

Jason Shelfer: 2:28

It is official, yes, and now we get to go to the ceremony, or at least you do, I'm going to. Hopefully there'll be an extra ticket for me, I don't even know. Well, we're going to find out. I would like to be there. Yes, I would love for you to be there. I want to see what the other husbands are like and what the other spouses are like. Are they as quality as me?

Jana Shelfer: 2:46

so just so you know the other people that made it gabby douglas strong the gymnast right we call her flippy. No, we don't bodie miller he's an alpine skier I mean, I remember watching him oh yeah, right, yeah, like I mean he, he was huge phenomenal.

Jason Shelfer: 3:09

Huge, huge. Some people would say he's the greatest. Well, he's in the hall of fame with me, that's right with jan, with my wife carrie walsh, the beach volleyball player I used to love watching the beach volleyball guys and girls Not only used to.

Jana Shelfer: 3:26

We still do.

Jason Shelfer: 3:27

But it was a.

Jana Shelfer: 3:29

there was a timeframe where we were dominant Because of Carrie Yep and her partner, and then she even traded partners because her old partner retired and so then she got a new partner and she still dominated.

Jason Shelfer: 3:43

There was kind of like that worry around that, at least the newscasters were broadcasting the worry, yeah, but not her, no, because she's got this. She's an hof hall of famer.

Jana Shelfer: 3:52

She's an hof. That's what she is. The hawk, oh my gosh. And then let's see there was founder of nike oh my gosh. Yes, as a contributor.

Jason Shelfer: 4:03

Hall of Fame. Contributor.

Jana Shelfer: 4:05

Phil. I believe his name is Phil Knight. Phil, yes, which I'm excited to meet him because I would love to say hey, hey, phil, why don't you sponsor an up and coming?

Jason Shelfer: 4:16

sea skier yeah, why don't you try? Or a ballroom dancer Sponsor some of this Living Lucky® activity going on over here. Might mention you once or twice in a podcast. Maybe a podcast that's right. Like if you want to get famous, phil, give me a call. You want to get famous on the Living Lucky® podcast, give me a call, we'll work something out.

Jana Shelfer: 4:37

Yes, exactly, that's exactly the way we need to play that card.

Jason Shelfer: 4:43

Yeah, I think that would work like a turd in church or the turd in a punch bowl.

Jana Shelfer: 4:48

Turd in church, a fart in church. Turd in a punch bowl. Okay, let's get our analogy straight.

Jason Shelfer: 4:54

I don't think Phil cares.

Jana Shelfer: 4:55

Or our metaphors. Anyway, I'm just super excited. And then also Susan Hagel. She's a Paralympian and she actually poured into me. She was on my 1996 team and she, yes, I'm just so, so happy for her, because she was a triple threat, so she was an archery.

Jana Shelfer: 5:23

I don't know.

Jason Shelfer: 5:24

Archer An archer? Is that what an archer athlete is?

Jana Shelfer: 5:27

That's what I call them Archers, yeah she did archery, she also raced, and then she also played wheelchair basketball. She was one of the pioneers of wheelchair sports, weren't you the youngest on the team, in 96?

Jason Shelfer: 5:38

I was the youngest and she was one of the oldest. Weren't you the youngest on the team in 96? I was the youngest, so having a mentor like that was really cool, I'm sure.

Jana Shelfer: 5:45

Yes, and so I can't wait to see her and just hug her and say thank you. Thank you.

Jason Shelfer: 5:52

Put a stick in her spokes.

Jana Shelfer: 5:54

No, I wouldn't do that.

Jason Shelfer: 5:56

Sometimes, when you love somebody, you pick on them like that.

Jana Shelfer: 5:59

You know I've been in a chair for 35 years. I've never thought of putting a stick in anyone's spokes.

Jason Shelfer: 6:05

That's what boys do, like when somebody's riding their bicycle through town.

Jana Shelfer: 6:08

they're like throw a stick out there in his spokes. At any rate, I had the nicest little sentimental moment with my dad today. We both had tears in our eyes.

Jason Shelfer: 6:19

I got to hear that that was really sweet.

Jana Shelfer: 6:21

Right, and just to hear your dad say you know what I reached out to the newspaper.

Jason Shelfer: 6:27

Yeah, I was so proud of you.

Jana Shelfer: 6:30

I was shouting it from the mountaintops. That's what he said.

Jason Shelfer: 6:32

That's what it sounded like. It was very, and the weird thing is, you're not a different person today than you were yesterday.

Jana Shelfer: 6:38

I know, but to think my dad we shot baskets together all growing up and my dad was a basketball coach, and so he poured into not only me but he poured into my friends growing up.

Jason Shelfer: 6:55

Let's go do drills.

Jana Shelfer: 6:56

He would get all of my friends together and say, hey, let's build a team. And we started doing this in first and second grade. He's like, hey, let's build a team, and we started doing this in first and second grade. He's like hey, let's get all the girls together and send them to summer camp. We want a high school state championship is what we want, and so we were doing this in second and third grade. And then, when I was 15 years old, I was in a car accident and so he poured into those AAU teams and he was coaching them, coaching us, during the summers.

Jason Shelfer: 7:25

You had also been a ninth grader playing on the varsity team in state tournament. So when you look at that, so it's a gradual progression. So a first grader, second grader, is not ever going to play in a state ball game, right. But it's that sticking to it, that resilience, that remaining in the practice of progress that literally did build this team by the time you were in ninth grade. So eight years into a state champion contender, that's pretty incredible.

Jana Shelfer: 8:00

It's just crazy to think that you work so hard all those years and then it finally all pays off. In so many ways and it doesn't even need to pay off.

Jason Shelfer: 8:16

That's not my lesson here. This is almost like just an amazing.

Jana Shelfer: 8:21

This is just a cherry on top of the sundae Right this is the icing on the cake, because you never expected it.

Jason Shelfer: 8:29

This is a left field. Call it a left field. Hey, jana, guess what? Yes, your team. Because of the dynamics, because of how it played out in the space and time and history, and you won a gold medal after a gold medal, drought for 22 years, mm-hmm, we would like to nominate you for Hall of Fame. Wonderful, and just kind of let go of the expectation. And then it's the call that says hey, you won. Like it's one of those moments where most people will never experience that.

Jana Shelfer: 9:04

And I'm also proud because this 2014, I was the veteran on the 2014. And we won gold that year. Well, the women went on to win gold for the next three Paralympics. So I do feel that I had a hand in that, you know.

Jason Shelfer: 9:25

So I think some of that is about like the four-minute mile. So it was 22 years of no gold.

Jana Shelfer: 9:35

Then the 2014 says it's possible, we can be done.

Jason Shelfer: 9:37

We broke the barrier. Yeah, the floor is our new ceiling, or the ceiling is our new floor, right? Yeah, so the next three years gold medal, gold medal, gold medal. So yeah it was a domino effect. It was a. I mean, there was an energy. We talk about energy all the time and there was an energy about those next teams. And there still is, and we saw it in the soccer, like women's soccer, able-bodied soccer, rugby matches, whether it's the able-bodied or adaptive Gymnastics. Hello.

Jana Shelfer: 10:06

Uh-huh.

Jason Shelfer: 10:07

It's a. It's one of those things I would have loved to have been in the Olympic City during the Olympics and been like just feel that vibration. Yeah, you've got to feel vibration. I don't know if that's a song or not, but it made me think of that.

Jana Shelfer: 10:22

I was feeling it, though I hear it. I hear it in my head. I don't know the words. I almost started. I think it's good vibration.

Jason Shelfer: 10:28

Good vibration yeah, there you go Good vibration.

Jana Shelfer: 10:30

Oh yes, I'm just excited to be in the presence of greatness.

Jason Shelfer: 10:38

But when we go to the ceremonies, I am taking my tennis racket and I'm going to what?

Jana Shelfer: 10:42

Yeah, because I want oh, because Serena Williams is also I want Serena Williams to see me we didn't even mention her.

Jason Shelfer: 10:48

I want her to see me holding my racket and just what a force I am Really.

Jana Shelfer: 10:53

You think that's a great idea.

Jason Shelfer: 10:55

It's probably not a good idea. In fact, having her sign my Walmart racket would not. I don't know if I'd feel good about that. I do like to get out there and hit the ball around a little bit. Volley, Volley, yeah. Hey, serena, you want to, you wanna go Bali see if you can handle my serve, see if you can handle my serve, girl.

Jana Shelfer: 11:16

Ace what?

Jason Shelfer: 11:18

oh, I could just imagine the punishment she would put me through.

Jana Shelfer: 11:22

Oh, anyway, we are excited and we wanted to share with everyone, so yeah, this is just a feel good podcast it hasn't really sunk in yet.

Jason Shelfer: 11:32

I think it'll sink in on the plane or the drive out.

Jana Shelfer: 11:36

To Colorado.

Jason Shelfer: 11:37

Yeah, that's in July, it's sinking in for me over and over again. Every moment, I'm like I'm married to a Hall of Famer. I didn't sign up for this, but I'm happy about it.

Jana Shelfer: 11:52

Well, thank you, thank you for celebrating, thank you for celebrating with us, and we're just on cloud nine.

Jason Shelfer: 11:58

We wanted to share our good news, and that's it. We just wanted to share it, so thanks for joining us Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer: 12:03

Bye-bye. If the idea of Living Lucky® appeals to you, visit us at www. LivingLucky. com.