Speakers

Adrian Moorhouse MBE

Adrian Moorhouse won a Gold medal in the 100m breaststroke in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Adrian is a former SportsAid alumni so fully understands the importance of the grants and the impact they can make in enabling young talent to compete on the international stage.

Amy Williams MBE

Amy talked about how she became part of the British Skeleton development programme while studying at Bath University, going on to represent Great Britain and win the Women’s Skeleton event, achieving Britain’s first gold medal in an individual event at the Winter Olympics for 30 years, and the first by a woman for 58 years.

Anthony Ogogo

Charlotte Edwards CBE

Charlotte is a former English professional cricketer who was captain of the England women’s team.

Chemmy Alcott

4x Winter Olympian, a career high ranking of 8th in the World, 7x British National Overall Champion and the only British female skier to ever win a run in a World Cup, Chemmy Alcott is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest ever skiers.

Chloe Rogers

Field Hockey player and bronze medallist at London 2012

Dame Katherine Grainger

Katherine won Olympic silver at Rio 2016, gold at London 2012 to add to her silver medals from Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, and Beijing in 2008, as well as six world championships titles in her collection. Katherine is Britain’s most decorated female Olympic athlete and the first British woman to win medals at five successive games.

Danny Crates

Danny is described as ‘one of the world’s most inspiring athletes of the modern era’. Recently retired from International competition the former T46 arm amputee, 2004 Paralympic Champion, European Champion, Paralympic World Cup winner and world record holder recently presented Channel 4s coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Danny is renowned global keynote and after dinner speaker, event host, TV presenter, owner of a high-performance coaching business, 1404 Performance and a personal performance & career development coach and a published author.

Derek Redmond

Derek, who was world 4 x 400m relay champion in 1991 and was famously carried across the finishing line by his father at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics after a devastating hamstring injury, kept the audience entertained with stories of life on the athletics circuit. Now a respected coach, advisor and commentator, he was the past recipient of a SportsAid grant, and spoke about the importance of supporting young athletes and what a difference the grant had made to him.

Donna Fraser

Donna was full of insight into the competitive world of British athletics – a finalist in 1998 at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games (where she took a bronze medal), Donna also played an integral part of Britain’s 4×400 relay team, taking medals at the World Championships in 2005, European Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards

Eddie shot to fame by becoming Britain’s first ever competitive ski jumper when he took part in the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics and more recently hit the headlines by winning ITV’s Splash celebrity diving competition. Edwards kept the audience entertained with tales of how he struggled to fund his Olympic dreams – including eating food from waste bins, using equipment donated by other teams and even staying in a mental hospital to save on accommodation costs.

Gail Emms MBE

Gary Rees

The one club man, playing his entire career with Nottingham RFC, Rees enjoyed many years of success with the midlands side until the early 90s, where he severed his playing duties to take over an assistant coaching role. Making over 20 appearances throughout the 1980s for his country, Rees was selected for two Rugby World Cups in 1987 and 1991.

Geoff Miller OBE

Geoff provided the audience with an insight into the many highlights of his sporting career, playing with the likes of Viv Richards, Ian Botham and Geoff Boycott, and talked of the great “honour and privilege” of being the person who makes “players dreams come true” by selecting them to play for their country.

Graham Thorpe MBE

Thorpey is a former English cricketer who played for England internationally and Surrey domestically. A left-handed middle-order batsman and slip fielder, he appeared in exactly 100 Test matches. Graham is now the batting coach for the national team and England won the 2019 One Day World Cup.

Greg Rutherford MBE

Greg memorably won London 2012 gold on Super Saturday when he joined Jess Ennis and Mo Farah who all struck gold in the space of 44 unfathomable minutes on the track. He has also held every available elite outdoor title at the same time: National, Continental, World, Olympic, Diamond League and Commonwealth.

Ian Robertson

Ian, who was fresh from this year’s Rugby World Cup, kept an audience of more than 155 local business people entertained with anecdotes and stories from his lengthy career commentating around the world.

Jessica Varnish

Karen Pickering MBE

Karen has won more major championship medals for Britain than any other female swimmer and has won more Commonwealth medals than any other female athlete in any sport. What makes her achievements even more remarkable is that in 1996 she broke her back in a car accident and fought her way back to world competition!

Leon Lloyd

Leicester Tigers and England Rugby star.

Leon Taylor

Lizzie Yarnold OBE

Luther Blissett

Born in Jamaica and renowned as a striker, Luther Blissett is a former professional footballer and manager who played for the English national team during the 1980s. Blissett is best known for his time at Watford, where he helped the team win a spectacular series of promotions from the Fourth Division to the First Division.

Mark Foster

Throughout his remarkable career, Mark has won 51 major international medals, competed in 5 Olympics, been 6 times World Champion, 11 times European champion, 2 times Commonwealth champion and broke the world record 8 times.

Martin Bayfield

Matthew Hoggard

Cricket legend.

Micky Quinn

Former Wigan Athletic, Stockport County, Oldham Athletic, Portsmouth, Newcastle United and Coventry City striker.

Michael “Micky” Quinn played as a centre-forward for the vast majority of his career. However, despite being a consistent goal scorer, he was more notorious for his large build.

Following his retirement from football in 1996, Quinn has become a professional racehorse trainer and now has stables at Newmarket in Suffolk. He also covers horse racing and football for TalkSport radio.

Neil Back MBE

Neil is a former international rugby union star. He played for England and the British & Irish Lions and also played for Nottingham RFC, Leicester Tigers, and captained both England and Leicester during his career.

Pamela Cookey

• Ex England Netball Captain
• 7x Time Super League Champion (5 with Team Bath and 2 with Surrey Storm)
• 2x Commonwealth Bronze Medals
• 2x World Championship Bronze Medals
• Sky Sports Netball Commentary Team

Paul Merson

Paul Merson is an English football television pundit (appearing on Soccer Saturday with Jeff Stelling) and former professional footballer and manager.

Originally a forward, Merson found success as an attacking midfielder and playmaker, with a glittering career for Arsenal, Middlesborough, Aston Villa and Portsmouth, including 21 caps for England.

With 600 professional appearances and a former PFA young player of the year, Paul won the majority of his honours with Arsenal including 2 league championships, 1 FA Cup and League Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup.

Perri Shakes-Drayton

Perri Shakes-Drayton is the second-fastest Briton of all-time in the women’s 400m hurdles.

Peter Shilton OBE

Former Englisher footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He currently holds the record for playing more games for the England men’s team than anyone else, earning 125 caps, and holds the all-time record for the most competitive appearances in world football – 1,390.

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics ranked Shilton among the top ten goalkeepers of the 20th century in 2000.

Ray Wilkins MBE

Ray is a Sky Sports pundit, former England footballer, and former manager at QPR and Fulham FC, who went on to win the Premiership when assistant manager at Chelsea FC. This was one of Ray’s last appearances as he suddenly passed away in 2018.

Ronnie Irani

Ronnie Irani, retired England and Essex cricketer. He was a bristling all-rounder who settled into his role as “Mr Essex” after leaving Lancashire in 1994.

Sarah Winckless

Sarah won a bronze medal in the Double sculls at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and was world champion in 2005 and 2006. She received SportsAid funding when just 18, and told the audience how the huge amount of support she had had throughout her career had helped her achieve her goals. Having retired from competitive rowing in 2009, she continues to give back to sport as the Chair of the British Olympic Association Athletes’ Commission.

Sharron Davies MBE

Sharron Davies occupies a unique position in British life. In an age of increasingly fleeting fame and notoriety, she has been one of the UK’s best known and most popular sportswomen since bursting onto the scene as a 13 year old Olympian in 1976. More than 30 years later she is still a popular, in demand and much-admired character.

Simon Shaw MBE

Simon, a 2003 Rugby World Cup winner and former Wasps star, spoke to the 140 strong audience about his late development into professional rugby at 16, his sporting career and subsequent transition into business after retirement.

Steve Thompson

Steve made his debut for England in the 2002 Six Nations and scored his maiden test try against Italy in the 2003 Six Nations, a tournament which saw England win the Grand Slam. Steve made a significant contribution to England’s southern hemisphere tour in June 2003, playing in both victorious tests against New Zealand and Australia.

Tom Daley