Chaunte Lowe’s Inspiring MAXX Keynote Address: “Never Get Tired of Doing the Right Thing.”

Posted by Lynn Heider on October 22, 2024

Chaunte Lowe on the MAXX 2024 Mainstage

What if you witnessed a brief moment that was so amazing, it changed your life’s trajectory? 

That happened to Chaunte Lowe when she was just four years old. Lowe is a world-class track and field athlete with four Olympics, three World Championships, and 12 National Championship titles under her belt. As the MAXX 2024 Closing Keynote Speaker last week, Lowe shared what got her running in that direction: in 1988, she was watching the Olympics on TV and saw Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo-Jo) become the world’s fastest woman ever recorded. 

“So, I see this girl,” Lowe mesmerized MAXX attendees, “She has this beautiful long hair, these beautiful nails, those strong legs…she barrels out of the back of the track, and it looks like the others are standing still.” 

Lowe’s mother told her it would take “hard work and perseverance” if she wanted to grow up to be like Flo-Jo. As a toddler at the time, Lowe had no idea what “perseverance” meant, but she would go on in life to personify that word – again and again.  

She did America proud in the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics.  

Then came her battle with breast cancer. That only made her more determined to try out for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics while she was undergoing chemotherapy. Her goal then wasn’t to set a new speed record – it was to raise awareness about breast cancer. And more than 300 million sports fans heard her message. 

“We have to be bold and brave enough to define what success means to us, and rewrite our story,” Lowe said. “Hope is the fuel that moves us forward even when we want to stop.” 

On the MAXX mainstage, she wove inspired messages in between snapshots of her own remarkable life journey. In addition to being a sports icon, she’s the wife of triple-jumper Mario Lowe, whom she credits with encouraging her to win her fight with breast cancer. They have three children. Lowe is also a business owner, a former high school trigonometry teacher, and for obvious reasons, an in-demand inspiring keynote speaker.  

“The Credit Union Movement is much like my journey. It’s filled with challenges but no matter how tough the road is, you guys do not give up,” Lowe said. “Everything you need is already inside you.”  

She identifies with credit union teams because they’re “able to understand people’s hopes and dreams, funding their futures.” 

Lowe also admires the collaboration that is part of credit unions’ fabric.  

“Our unity,” she said, “is our superpower.” She encouraged MAXX attendees to “never give up on doing the right thing.” 

“Trust your vision. Keep moving forward. No matter what, never give up on hope.” 

Posted in MAXX, MAXX Keynote Speakers.