Olympic Gold Medalist, Swimmer, Motivator

The twin misfortunes of losing his hair when he was ten years old and being dyslexic spurred Duncan Goodhew on to win Olympic Gold for the 100m breaststroke in Moscow. Duncan is an excellent corporate motivational speaker and after dinner speaker.

Duncan captained Great Britain between 1978 and 1980, during which period he was undefeated throughout the world over 100 metres. In 1982 just before retiring from serious competition, he entered five events in the inaugural World Master Olympics in Philadelphia and won five gold medals.

At the age of twenty-three Duncan adapted the lessons learnt in the pool to assist business teams to find inspiration and effective ways to overcome the obstacles to success. Inducted by IBM, he has worked with 100’s of leading businesses and organisations. Many of the projects have been leading edge such as the Partner Survival Course he launched into PricewaterhouseCoopers, which pulled together his passion for improving overall personal and team performance with the knowledge gained from working in the corporate, sport and health & fitness sectors. Other projects include co-designing a programme for Microsoft Europe executives who rarely meet and therefore have to function as a `virtual team’.

As President of Swimathon, Duncan is proud of the 410,000 swimmers who have raised a staggering £17 million for thirty national charities. In 1994 he set up the immensely successful Youth Sport Trust, which now operates in every primary school in England.

In his book, Sink or Swim, published in April 2001, Duncan draws on his own challenges, training and competition to show how to acquire sustained motivation. The book redefines the nature of success and sets out very clearly how to achieve it.

Duncan is an excellent motivational speaker, his style is both inspirational and entertaining. His past speaking engagements include conference presentations for IBM, ICL Barclays Bank, Prudential Insurance, Marconi Limited, TSB, Legal General, Nixdorf Computer Limited, The Chartered Insurance Institute, Coutts International Bank, Robson Rhodes Accountants, Ford Motor Company, The Gas Board, Royal Mail Barclays Bank International, Mazda Cars, Reliance Mutual, The Life Insurance Association and many other major companies. He has also made three successful motivational films for Kellogs, Ford and British American Tobacco Limited.