Meet Our Founder

As a professional water skier for over 20 years and the World Record Holder in women's slalom from 1992-2010, KRISTI OVERTON JOHNSON took to the waters of the world with passion, perseverance and desire to impact the world of water skiing. This wife and mother of three now focuses her passions and gifts to encourage people to run the course of life victoriously.

Kristi married best friend Tim Johnson in 1994. Kristi and Tim met while attending the University of Central Florida. Upon graduating, they attended the University of Florida College of Law where they received their Juris Doctorates and licenses to practice law. They have three children, the youngest two adopted from Russia in 2004. They live in Keystone Heights, Florida, home base to Champion's Heart ministries.

Professional Skiing Career

A native of Greenville, NC, Kristi began her competitive water ski career at age five on the shores of the Pamlico River in Bath. With the help of her Lord, family, friends and sponsors, Kristi captured state, regional and national records in the slalom, trick, and jump events before turning professional at 13.

Although a Master's champion and number one world ranked athlete in the trick event, Kristi began to specialize in the slalom event in 1988 due to a hip deformity. For 15 years, Kristi dominated the women's slalom event, accumulating 80 professional wins and capturing more number one world rankings than any other female skier in history. She is an 8-time US Masters Champion, 4-time US Open Champion and held the world record in women's slalom from 1992-2010.

Kristi travelled the world bringing home the gold and setting records as a World Champion, Pan American Games and US Pro Tour Champion. She won the British, French, Italian, Australian, and Austrian Masters. Her ski career was honoured through her induction to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in May 2012.

Kristi departed from the professional circuit in 2004 after 10 major surgeries, including a complete reconstruction of her pelvis. Although Kristi's professional ski career has ended, her life on both the water and shore has only gotten busier.

A Champion's Heart

With a passion to share the life lessons she learned on the water and a desire to encourage the hearts of people through her faith, Kristi founded her non-profit ministry Champion's Heart! Through Champion's Heart outreaches, Kristi seeks to equip people with the tools necessary to soar in life to victory!

Champion's Heart provides life resources, addiction recovery, quarterly magazine publications, leadership training, and sports outreaches. In His Wakes, the water-sports outreach of Champion's Heart, has helped over 10,000 at-risk youth from across the nation and world have hope, experience victory and discover their purpose through the sport that brought Kristi fame!

Kristi is a sought after faith-based motivational speaker who has a unique ability to encourage hearts in an exciting way through analogies from her life experiences. She is also the published author of her book Running the Course and a weekly columnist for The Washington Times Communities. Kristi launches weekly encouraging videos and writings to help develop the heart of a champion in people across the world.

If you are interested in Kristi coming to speak at your function, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .