Olympic High Jumper Chaunté Lowe Shows How Safety Leaders Can ‘Raise the Bar’
Four-time Olympian and breast cancer survivor Chaunté Lowe opened the NSC 2025 Safety Congress with a keynote urging safety professionals to advance with audacity, forge resilience, and anchor their work in meaning.
- By David Kopf
- Sep 15, 2025
Hope, too, was central to her message. Lowe encouraged attendees to “hope forward past adversities,” citing challenges ranging from homelessness in her childhood to injuries and near-career-ending defeats. “It’s a brave endeavor to decide to hope forward,” she said.
Forging resilience also means sharpening one another, she explained, much like teammates pushing each other to higher performance. “It’s okay to forge in the fire,” Lowe said. “When we are faced with challenges and change, we don’t shrink back. We collaborate, we sharpen each other’s skills, knowledge and experiences, and we move forward boldly together.”
The Four Ps
In one of the most practical takeaways, Lowe outlined her “Four Ps”:
- Pain is weakness leaving the body — the ability to grow capacity through discomfort.
- Excuses are patches sewn on the garment of failure.
- Fire-proof your goals — anticipating obstacles before they arrive.
- Practice doesn’t make perfect; practicing perfection does.
She told the audience these lessons are directly relevant to safety. “As people concerned with safety, you have to create environments where your teams can practice in low-cost, low-stakes conditions so they can perfect the skills that keep people safe in the future.”
Redefining the Win
Lowe also challenged attendees to rethink traditional definitions of success. After near-podium finishes, she realized that “success” for her included being a mother and role model as much as winning medals. “It’s okay to reclaim the narrative and be the author of your own story,” she said. “In safety, that means defining success not just by numbers but by the people who get to go home at the end of the day.”
Integrity, she added, is central to that mission: “True integrity is doing the right thing behind closed doors when it costs you something.”
Closing on Family and Purpose
Lowe ended on a deeply personal note, recalling her late nephew, who recently died after sustaining a blow in a boxing class. Though she will deliver his eulogy in two weeks, she shared his story as a reminder of why safety matters. “Your work has meaning,” she told the audience. “It’s not just numbers and sheets. It’s people who are able to prevent accidents, to commit to safety, and return to their loved ones.”
For Lowe, the lessons of the high jump extend well beyond sport: the bar is always being raised. “I challenge you to ask yourselves,” she said in closing, “‘How did you raise the bar from here?’”
About the Author
David Kopf is the publisher and executive editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine.