[ windspeaker confidential ]

Page 19

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Billy: Spirituality.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

B: I don't really get mad ... kind of twofold. When I say something, the words, you can never take them back. I wish I could. Most of the time, on a different level, what disturbs me in the United States, it would apply to Canada, it would apply globally, is the lack of understanding of the power of unity through diversity.

W: When are you at your happiest?

B: That is twofold. I'm at my happiest when I'm around my family and grandchildren and am able to pass on-without lecturing, without teaching, but when they're asking-the values that are very traditional.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?

B: Withdrawn.

W: What one person do you most admire and why?

B: In the spirit world, my dad, and on earth, my wife. My dad because he shared with me the philosophy, the way of life I could follow. My wife, because she's helped me support that.

W: What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?

B: It would probably be with me being Native American Lakota, with my wife being white; my tribe not enrolling my daughters so they're not members of the Lakota tribe. ...The most difficult thing was to see them in the pain they would experience when the Native community would attack them because their father was Indian and their mother was white.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?

B: My greatest accomplishment has yet to be determined if it's great. Maybe greatest isn't the right word. The accomplishment that brings me a tremendous feeling is knowing that my gold medal at the Olympic Games . . . I realized I didn't win that; that that moment in time was God-given. It's very humbling. I took things from sport-the spirit to teach that life values are sacred. And the other thing I took from sport is that I was able to travel to 86 different countries to teach that global unity through dignity, through character, through beauty, through global diversity, is not only the theme of the Olympics, but the future of human kind.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?

B: I've really kept my life simple. Where I'm moving toward now, to spend a lot more time with my wife, children and grandchildren, that's reachable. A goal? I don't know if it's reachable. . . to break 80 on the golf course.

W: If you couldn't do what you're doing today, what would you be doing? (Billy is the national spokesperson for Running Strong, talking to young people around the world about character, dignity and pride.)

B: I probably would be coaching a women's cross-country team and possibly Native women, but not necessarily.

W: What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

B: From my dad when he simply said, "You're life is a gift from the Creator. What you do with your life is your gift back to the Creator." It is signed anonymous. He wrote across it, "Choose your gifts wisely."

W: Did you take it?

B: Some days I followed it beautifully. Other days I stumbled.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?

B: I never gave any thought as to how I want to be remembered. I just want to feel comfortable as I pass on to the spirit world that in this physical world I made a difference. That's my personal feeling, not necessarily how I want to be remembered.