Sally Gunnell OBE

Sally Gunnell’s unique journey from world-record holder to health advocate inspires organizations to achieve peak performance and well-being.

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“Sally was extremely natural and engaging which helped our colleagues and clients immediately settle into the event. There was a feeling of familiarity right from the start with Sally but also something very special having a national sporting icon talk to us directly and honestly. The subjects discussed touched diversity, racism, motivation and determination, mental well-being, the Olympics, coming up in sport. Varied and inclusive for all with some nice overlaps into the corporate world. I obviously loved having a special audience for 5 minutes at the start with a sporting heroine from my sprinting days at Loughborough and curly hair chat!”

Elena Folkes - Director, Strategy & Market Development

Thomson Reuters

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Why you should book Sally Gunnel for your next event

Benefit from Sally’s world-record achievements to implement extraordinary strategies for success and personal balance.
Leverage Sally’s gold medal-winning experience to inspire your team and drive exceptional performance.
Draw from Sally’s unparalleled track record to apply world-class principles for achieving excellence in your organization.

Elevate your event with Sally Gunnell, Britain’s legendary sportswoman and record holder. With unparalleled expertise in achieving success and balance, Sally delivers powerful, actionable insights that inspire peak performance and well-being. Her dynamic presence and personal stories will captivate your audience, driving them to excel both professionally and personally. Secure Sally for a transformative keynote that combines elite athleticism with profound motivational impact.

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Keynotes

Keynote by Sally Gunnell: Inspiration & Motivation

I will explore the fundamental traits of winning, particularly focusing on mental attitude and goal setting. Learning how to emotionally perform at a high level does not come overnight, but by sharing my own experiences the audience will be able to translate them into their own lives.

Once goals have been reached it’s important to understand how to sustain this high level and to cope with setbacks and disappointment. This all requires resilience and a positive mindset and that in itself is a great challenge. I will talk about how I coped after my Olympic gold and what I learnt about performing under pressure. In this keynote, I will tell my story as a professional athlete, and how I realised that the skills that helped me become an Olympic champion are just as relevant in helping me succeed as a businesswoman and also supporting me on my personal journey. For example, at my first public speaking engagement I was absolutely petrified, but I quickly understood that as an athlete I was a performer and therefore standing on stage was actually not that different from standing in the starting blocks.

Teamwork isn’t always associated with an individual sport; however, my keynote will examine the importance of team work. I don’t believe it’s possible to achieve your goals without the support of others. A poignant moment in my journey to ‘Gold’ was putting a team around me who supported and prepared me for the moment when it was just me. The audience will see that the same can be applied to their own life and that we don’t have to do things by ourselves.

Finally, I will discuss the importance of visualisation. This skill can be easily learnt and is often the last and most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to reaching our goals.

I love the synergy between sport and business. The five big lessons that I learnt from running I use in my everyday life, both at work and at home and I hope that the audience will be able to take these lessons and transfer them to their own situations. Like the audience, I am simply trying to be ‘the best I can be’ in my business, at supporting my family and staying healthy.

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Keynote by Sally Gunnell: Resilience & Sustaining Performance

Sustaining high performance and resilience is a popular topic. One that I am very passionate about and also often asked about. In today’s fast moving world, just when you think you have achieved what is required of you, someone moves the goal posts and you have to find a little bit more. More often than not this is a recurring theme in life.

In this keynote I focus on what it took for me to stay at the top of my game, and how I utilise those skills now, in business and day to day life. Having achieved my dream of standing on the podium at an Olympic games winning gold, I asked myself ‘What’s next?’

I loved that sense of achievement so I decided to see if I could secure further major championship titles. I soon came to realise that in order to do that it took a slightly different skill set. I still had to maintain the basics but now there was a stronger focus on my mental strength, managing expectations, and a greater understanding of how to take care of myself to avoid injuries and setbacks.

Resilience was the key to my further success and I believe that resilience is something that everyone should have, and can have. It enables you to deal with life when things don’t go to plan, when you hit those bumps in the road. When I talk about the lessons I learnt in high performance sport, the audience will be able to evaluate where their resilience levels are and how to improve them.

There are four key areas that are pivotal in achieving and sustaining a performance and a healthy level of resilience. I will look at each of these areas, providing understand on how to improve and maintain them. With simple tips and tricks to take away from my keynote the audience will understand that building up your resilience won’t stop problems occurring but will certainly make it easier to cope when they do.

When I look back on my career I consider myself very lucky to have been able to achieve the goals I set myself, however, I do appreciate that my story would have been very different had I not realised the importance of maintaining a high level of resilience. In the present I regard myself to be in a fortunate position that I can pass on those valuable skills and experience to my audience.

Book one of the best speakers around and join the many thousands of people who have been inspired to be there best.

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Keynote by Sally Gunnell: Health & Wellbeing

This keynote explores what I have learnt about nutrition, goal setting, and building resilience during my time as a professional athlete and how I continue to use this knowledge in both my personal life and in my new career, and how important maintaining my wellbeing is. I will explain how putting simple boundaries in place can help you focus on different areas of your life separately, which will in turn increase productivity and reduce stress. I discuss the importance of:

Exercise

Eating Well

Sleep

Meaning & Purpose

Leadership

Managing Stress

and how with these factors in place, mental resilience improves, enabling you to handle the stress and demands that come with day to day life and stops your physical and mental health spiralling when challenges occur.

I look at my life like a wheel, if one of these things is out of place then the wheel cannot turn smoothly. They are all vital to keep me going.

During this keynote, I encourage the audience to look at their own lives, and by using simple questions and exercises, try and work out where the balance is off so they can identify what changes they need to make to find wellbeing both at work and at home. The audience will leave the event with not only practical tips for increased wellbeing, but with inspiration and motivation to put these tips in to practice.

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Customer Reviews

Elena Folkes - Director, Strategy & Market Development Thomson Reuters

“Sally is one of the most inspirational and motivating speakers we’ve ever had join us on our TechWomen programme, one of BT’s key diversity programmes. Throughout the past 12 months, Sally has joined us numerous times on our programme and our TechWomen always love her stories. More recently, Sally created a bespoke session for us around mental fitness which went down a storm. Sally always gets on board with your goals and objectives to make sure your attendees get the most out of their time with her and is an absolute joy to work with!”

Rachel Brackenbury - Talent Programme Manager BT

“Sally joined us for our 2021 kickoff meeting and it was the perfect way to start the new year with the team. It was over zoom, of course, but that did not take away one bit. She was so engaging, funny, and extraordinarily inspirational. We're an HR tech company but Sally did a wonderful job of tying her Olympic experience to ours as individuals. We highly recommend having Sally join you for a speech!”

Amanda Cianni - Project Manager Apploi

“Sally’s speech was highly inspirational and motivational. Her story, while unrelated to our profession, was easily translatable to our line of work. She went down a storm with our delegates and would be an ideal speaker for virtually any audience.”

Matthew Stephenson - Chair IRMS

“The girls were full of Sally Gunnell’s talk after the event. Girls have told their teachers they have been inspired in their sport and academic studies to aim high. At a Parents’ evening two days later, parents were volunteering positive comments about the visit and explaining that their daughters had recounted the messages given by Sally. I have no doubt that Sally’s wise words will stay with the girls for many, many years.”

Headmistress St Albans High School for Girls

“Sally Gunnell is a big name, who has achieved so much by working hard. Sharing her personal experiences with us was priceless. I was very impressed when she spoke about mindset; how we can achieve anything if we are mentally strong and put all of our hard work in the right direction. I felt like I could relate to her and her sporting experiences; she spoke my language. I found her inspirational and awesome!”

Delegate Armadillo Self Storage Conference

"Sally was the ideal speaker to engage our audience of HR Directors. Our company regularly engages with HR Directors and are always trying to find a topic and speaker who will resonate with them. Sally delivered a highly interactive talk on 'resilience' explaining to our audience of HR Directors the challenges she overcame in her athletic career and how this translated into her business career. Sally provided an ideal blend of theory and practice, which resonated perfectly with the audience. I would thoroughly recommend Sally to other organisations.”

Kevin Matthews - Global Head of Marketing Leathewaite

Sally Gunnell OBE

Balance and Success from Athletic Excellence

Keynote Speaker Sally Gunnell is renowned for her extraordinary achievements in athletics, holding the unique distinction of being the only woman in history to simultaneously hold all four major track titles and the 400 meters hurdles world record. Beyond her athletic prowess, Sally Gunnell is a celebrated motivational speaker who brings a wealth of experience in achieving balance, success, and fulfillment.

Sally’s career offers invaluable insights into overcoming challenges and achieving peak performance, making her an ideal choice for organizations seeking to inspire their teams. As a dynamic motivational speaker, Sally provides practical tools and strategies for enhancing personal and professional success, drawing from her unparalleled experience on and off the track.

When you book Sally Gunnell for your event, you gain access to her unique perspective on excellence and well-being. Her engaging presentations are tailored to empower audiences, fostering a culture of high performance and resilience within organizations. Sally’s candid and relatable approach ensures that each keynote delivers impactful and actionable takeaways.

Discover how Sally Gunnell’s expertise can transform your event. Book Sally Gunnell for your event and experience firsthand the motivation and strategies that have inspired thousands.