Calum Giles

summary

Calum made his debut for England in New Delhi, India in 1995. That summer he made his mark on the International hockey scene when he competed in the European Cup in Dublin, winning a bronze medal, and becoming the first British player to win a top goal scorer trophy in a major competition.

biography

Calum made his debut for England in New Delhi, India in 1995. That summer he made his mark on the International hockey scene when he competed in the European Cup in Dublin, winning a bronze medal, and becoming the first British player to win a top goal scorer trophy in a major competition.

The following summer he competed in the centennial Olympics games in Atlanta, turning many heads with his controversial appearances on the pitch and managing to score 6 Olympic goals in the process.

Calum competed in the 1998 World Cup in Utrecht, where once again his goals helped the team to achieve a top six world ranking.

In 1999, Calum won his second European Cup bronze medal in Padova, Italy.

The year 2000 saw Calum compete in his second Olympics in Sydney, Australia. At the end of this tournament, Calum retired having amassed 143 caps, scoring 110 goals in the process. He retired the joint highest goal scorer of all time for England and Great Britain.

Since then he has made a name for himself nationally and internationally as a highly regarded coach. He has just promoted Havant hockey club back to Premiership status in his first two years in charge of the club, and is employed by England hockey to work with and mentor future Olympic players.

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Testimonials

“Calum’s style is like his life, close to the edge. Calum had a hall of more than 300 young people hanging on his every word, and concluded by leading a 20 minute Q & A session with humour, grace and hard hitting behavioural messages to a large number of pupils.”
Guin Batten
Athlete Programmes Manager & Olympic Medallist

“Calum has been a fantastic supporter of the Youth Sport Trust since becoming a Sporting Patron in the year 2000.
He has attended numerous fundraising events and taken part in press launches, school visits, conferences and camps for young people. He is a strong motivational speaker and a positive role model for young people.”
Helen Vost
Director of Fundraising, Youth Sport Trust

“Sporting Champions is a Sport England initiative, which brings world-class athletes into schools and communities to inspire and motivate young people to participate in sport”
“Calum has been part of Sporting Champions for over four years and in that time has become an indispensable member of the team. As a role model for young people, he is able to create a strong sense of purpose, which is always well reflected in the feedback received from visit organisers.”
“As anyone who has had the pleasure of listening to him speak, be interviewed, or hear his remarks during presentations will attest, he is at all times articulate and an effective ambassador for sport. Calum is very natural whilst enthusiastic, approachable and outgoing - a great communicator!”
Laura Walkerden
Sporting Champions.

“Calum came to our school as our Living for Sport Mentor sent by BSkyB and the Youth Sports Trust. We are a Special Needs Sports College. The aim of his visit to our school was to give the pupils a famous sporting icon to look up to. The project is geared towards pupils with behaviour issues and how they can use sport as a medium to keep out of trouble. After introductions and explanations to the pupils he quickly grabbed their attention. He was a very motivational speaker and I feel that he connected well with all the pupils in the group. The stories he told about his childhood hit home with a lot of our students. They saw similarities in themselves and could relate to him. His jovial manner and rapport with the pupils was great and a lot of what he spoke about was taken in by the group.”

“It was good for the pupils to see where Calum had come from, how he coped with his ADHD and especially how he used the sport of Hockey to help him control his behaviour. We saw a positive impact in the whole group from the 3 visits we had from Calum and many of that group are now regulars at break and lunch time sports clubs, using their time more efficiently and working off their excess energy.”

“Calum also volunteered to join us for our Summer Sports Day this year where he interacted with ALL pupils throughout the school, spoke with teachers and STA’s and even gave out the prizes at the end of the day.”

“I would highly recommend Calum to anyone who would like someone who uses their jovial manner to get across important messages.”
Marc Bernard, Arbour Vale School.