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Sally Gunnell

One of the UK’s finest female athletes of all time

Sally Gunnell OBE; the Farmers girl who captured the hearts of a nation. She remains the only woman ever to hold four major track titles concurrently – Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth. Since retiring from international athletics, Sally developed a new career path as a keynote speaker and wellbeing advocate.

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Sally Gunnell's videos

What Sally Gunnell's clients say

Here is some of the feedback from audiences and clients who have worked with Sally.
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Check Sally Gunnell's availability for your event

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Sally Gunnell's 2025 biography

Sally Gunnell: From Hay Bales to Gold Medals – A Journey of Grit, Growth, and Greatness

Sally’s rise to the pinnacle of her sport was hard won. She blew the chance to be World Champion in 1991, stormed back to win Olympic Gold in 1992 and defied incredible odds to become World Champion in 1993, setting a new World Record in the process. She contended with injuries, athletes that she saw as more naturally gifted and, a relatively modest support infrastructure compared to her peers.

Her success, by her own admission, was down to a firm grip over her own mind and a lot of very hard graft.

“Raw talent is no substitute for single mindedness and hard graft”

Sally remains a towering figure in British athletics. She has more than 15 years’ experience in addressing a wide variety of corporate audiences. She has covered global conferences of thousands and senior leadership teams of just 6. Her natural, easy-going style belies her relentless focus on achieving and sustaining excellence.

Sally effortlessly weaves the secrets of sporting achievement with the valuable components that underpin success in business. Her key themes hold resonance for senior decision-makers and junior staff alike. No corporate speaks, no clever-sounding management models. Just tried-and-tested solutions and techniques that took a farmer’s daughter from the hay bales of Essex to the winner’s podium at the Barcelona Olympics.

Sally’s honest, down-to-earth approach has won her many admirers over the years. She has written four books and her latest gets right under the skin of what makes a successful, fulfilled person. For the first time, she brings together in one place all the themes that have brought success in her sporting, business and family lives. ’10 hurdles for life ‘is for anyone who knows they have something to accomplish in life and is focused on enabling it to happen. The only limit is our imagination, understand this and the game of life becomes more fun and less hard work.

Sally Gunnell's 2025 talks & topics

Creating The qualities of High Performance

  • Teamwork – no Man is an Island, Why Self-awareness is key to making the team work
  • Stepping up a Gear – New World, new way of achieving – comfort zones , complacency and how we re-align with achieving our goals in a more sustainable way
  • Goals – Why setting them vial to achieving them but equally why work ethic enables us to work smarter
  • Leadership – Leading by example but taking the team with you – honest communication is more vital than ever
  • Failure – In order to achieve we must be willing to get uncomfortable with failure
  • Resilience – Why the Mind, body connection leads to our ability to thrive in adversity
  • Staff retainment – Leading from the front and yet allowing others to achieve their way too
  • Stress – working smarter not harder – Stress and its benefits
  • Hybrid working – the new normal how to embrace the opportunity

Personal Development

  • Change Management – Change is a good thing
  • Overcoming Adversity – We either win or we learn to grow but it’s all in our decisions and our ability to stay in alignment with our why
  • The Space between Talent and Performance – Resilience and Mind set
  • Synergy– Surrounding yourself with talent
  • Importance of wellbeing – The Mind, Body Spirit connection
  • Communication – with yourself and those around you
  • Your why – stay close to this and you never stray too far off course
  • Wellbeing – Working smarter without burnout but with the ambition.
  • Exercise – why is it vial to working well especially with hybrid working

Sustaining Excellence

  • The Gap between getting there and staying there
  • Change – Is a good thing- re-evaluation is vital to this
  • Decisions – Even doing nothing is a decision but with self-awareness they become game changing
  • Failure – In order to achieve we must be willing to get uncomfortable with failure and often we learn more from our failure than our success
  • Mental Health – How do we learn to stay in balance during adversity
  • Fear – How to live with it and enable it to guide us not control us
  • Mindset – Developing a growth one
  • It’s all in the detail so plan for success but be ready for Diversions
  • We are a constant student and life is our teacher – never think you know it all
  • The space is the green stuff – observe this and you will find you grow –
  • Choosing to never lose means you either win or you grow
  • Respect – There is always something or someone better than us but with this fact comes opportunity

Wellbeing

  • Hybrid Working – How do you create the balance.
  • Importance of Mind, Body connection – The gut brain connection
  • Communication – it begins within and when we are honest, we have honest connections.
  • Mental Strength – Its not just mind over matter but resilience is a muscle.
  • Imposter Syndrome – We all get it but how we make the inner voice our guide not master.
  • Living in the Now – Nothing is guaranteed, and nothing is in control – accepting this sets us free to truly live well.
  • Your Why – without this we are not working ‘on purpose’.
  • Giving to others- the more we trust we are on the right path the less we worry about what others are doing and we give genuinely.
  • Exercise and Diet – they are vital to living well but its all about the 80/20 rule not being perfect.

Mental health in the workforce

For decades, leaders would avoid their employees’ mental health concerns. If someone came to them asking for help or struggling, the leader would deflect and pass them off to someone else.

But today’s leaders need to do more. Leaders need to be at the frontline of mental health.

That doesn’t mean you have to be a mental health expert, but leaders play a vital role in checking on employees, building relationships, and helping them work through stress and anxiety.

  • Hormones and how they affect us
  • Prevention – why noticing how we feel vital to staying well
  • Communication – how we talk to ourselves will be reflected on our outer world
  • Connecting the dots – When we take it step by step we find we connect the detail and we find the root
  • Control – Nothing is in control other than our ability to notice and choose to respond not react
  • Peace – staying true to our why and operating from a place of trust not fear

Please note we can adapt our talks and if a topic speaks to your message talk to us so we can make it work for you