Alumna conquers health crisis to earn World Fitness Instructor award

Christine Conti ’02 could have easily said “I can’t” in the days and months after being diagnosed with advanced rheumatoid arthritis in 2009.

After all, Conti’s grandmother received the same diagnosis decades earlier, confining her to a wheelchair until her death when Conti was 10. The aggressive autoimmune disease, which attacks the body and can cause permanent joint and organ damage, left Conti facing treatments of chemotherapy and other medications — and initially feeling devastated.

“I’m only 30!” she recalls thinking. “I have a young child and two cats and a picket fence! … It was almost like a death sentence. It took me back to my childhood with a quadriplegic grandmother.”

Instead of giving in to the pain and the fears of suffering, Conti summoned the words that would become her life mantra: “Yes, you can.”

“I’ve always thought: You’re not taking me down that easily,” she says. “It got to the point where I said: ‘You can do something or do nothing.’ Always choose ‘something.’ You have the ability to help others through what you’re doing.”

Conti has certainly helped herself and others over the past 15 years. The former English teacher and investment banker reinvented herself as a medical fitness specialist and educator, a podcast host, a motivational speaker, an author and a business leader. Conti’s health improved so much that she has run more than 50 marathons and ultra-endurance races. She’s also a four-time IRONMAN. And in July 2023, Conti’s wellness work with chronic disease patients helped earn her a prestigious national honor: The IDEA World Fitness Instructor of the Year Award.

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Conti, fitness and Binghamton University have been connected for 40 years. As a child, Christine Van Schaick traveled to campus with her Babylon, Long Island, family to watch older sister Julie (a 1988 Binghamton graduate) play for the Colonials’ volleyball team.

“I was exposed to Binghamton — and the SUNY system — at a young age,” Conti says.

Familiarity made the college decision easy: Conti followed in her sister’s footsteps to not only attend Binghamton but also play volleyball. She started and excelled as an outside hitter, while receiving a degree in English and taking business, psychology and exercise-science classes.

“I came out of college with a great degree and a great experience,” she says. “I got to play, be a leader and be part of intelligent conversations on campus. I was only four hours from home. It was an amazing choice.”

That Binghamton base played a role in Conti’s life and career changes after her advanced rheumatoid arthritis went into remission. She researched exercise science, wellness and nutrition in an attempt to develop ways to help people — physically and emotionally — with chronic diseases. Conti also started running, making a “bucket list” of challenges.

“The only reason I ever ran in volleyball was when we got in trouble,” she says with a laugh. “I said: ‘If my legs are going to give out, I’m doing this, this and this first.’ I wasn’t going to talk about the negatives: Let’s go out there and be the change.

“The love for movement my entire life was the foundation for what I was meant to do,” she adds.

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Conti already had written Medical Fitness Educational courses and developed programs for chronic disease patients by the late 2010s. National workshops and keynote talks gave her findings a greater audience, and soon she was getting help requests from people with ailments ranging from late-stage cancer to Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to autism to spinal stenosis.

The patient work was supplemented by a podcast (“Two Fit Crazies and a Microphone”) and a 2022 book called Split-Second Courage, which encourages readers to “charge headfirst into their fears,” think positively, and turn their misfortune and pain into the best life possible.

“I was given a sickness,” Conti says. “It changed my life in a positive way. The diagnosis made me realize that my life was finite and there was a reason why I’m here: to inspire other people who feel like they can’t go on.”

Conti was able to further spread her “anything is possible” message when she received her World Fitness Instructor of the Year Award from IDEA, an international association representing fitness and wellness professionals. Conti did not use her acceptance speech to the IDEA World Fitness Convention in Los Angeles to read a list of “thank yous.” Instead, she used the platform to stress the power of positivity to inspire others to use exercise and nutrition to prevent disease.

“That night and that award gave me the ability to make a bigger impact,” says Conti, adding that she does not “tolerate negativity.”

“Negativity causes stress. Stress causes inflammation. Inflammation affects the body and the mind, which affects your overall health,” she says. “The goal is to be the lighthouse. The lighthouse doesn’t go chasing boats in the harbor. People say social media can be toxic. I shine so bright you would’ve been blinded and deleted me 10 years ago!”

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An example of Conti’s life-changing impact can be found on the IRONMAN course in Hawaii, where she helped to guide Marlynne Stutzman in 2023 as the first woman with autism to compete in the IRONMAN World Championship. Conti, who took part in her first IRONMAN (defined as a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26-mile marathon) in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 2018, became a guide after being inspired by people who weren’t letting ailments prevent them from competing in races. She met Chris Nikic, the first athlete with Down syndrome to complete all of the major marathons, and guided him in a half-IRONMAN.

“When I had some races under my belt, I felt like I could give back,” Conti says. “A guide does the [entire] race with the athletes. But you can’t worry about yourself. You need to have the experience and education to navigate the race.”

Conti is now training Thomas Welsh, a 29-year-old with autism from Florida, who plans to complete the World Marathon Majors in the next couple of years. For these athletes, the rewards are more than physical, Conti says.

“Exercise isn’t just about exercise,” she says. “It’s not just lifting weights or how fast you can run: It’s about feeling good. … When you see someone in a marathon being pushed in a wheelchair, they’ll say they don’t have a disability. They’re in a race. They feel like everyone else. They forget they have Down syndrome or one leg or a disease.”

Conti, based in New Jersey with her husband and two children, continues to display her “yes, you can” attitude in 2024. She co-founded Reinventing the Women International with author/ speaker Lisa Charles. The organization mentors women of all ages and professions, working to connect them and help them grow brands and support systems. She’s also CEO of FitFixNow, an online, continuing-education company for fitness professionals, personal trainers, athletic trainers and more.

“It’s all an offshoot of: Let’s get people healthier and happier,” she says. “From empowering women to FitFixNow to my book, everything is about being as healthy and independent for as many years as possible — because there is no other way to think.”