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Roger Black MBE is one of Great Britain’s most successful athletes winning 15 major championship medals throughout his career.
His greatest achievements were winning the Olympic 400m silver medal in Atlanta in 1996 and two World Championship Relay Gold medals in 1991 and 1997.
After retiring in 1998 Roger Black MBE began his career as a professional speaker as well as working for BBC Television specializing in live broadcasts for BBC sport at major athletics events as well as hosting “City Hospital” and “Tomorrows World”. He has become a popular TV personality appearing on “Strictly Come Dancing”, “Celebrity Masterchef” and most well known quiz shows. In 2008 he founded consultancy Backley Black with fellow Olympian Steve Backley delivering workshops transferring Olympic performance into the workplace with leadership teams both in the UK and globally.
Roger is an experienced and popular corporate speaker, ambassador, event host and after dinner speaker.
His keynote speeches combine the lessons learned during an athletics career that he never planned or even thought possible after being born with aortic valve disease – a career full of highs and many lows that taught him the power of passion, clarity, accountability, resilience, perseverance and, most of all, collaboration and teamwork.
As both an individual and team player he is well placed to distinguish between the traits required for both environments.
He is an Ambassador for The British Heart Foundation and Heart Valve Voice. After surgery in 2025 to replace his aortic valve he now actively supports people preparing for and recovering from open heart surgery as well as raising awareness of heart disease.
As an athlete I trained and focussed for most of my career to compete at the highest level as an individual 400m runner. Once or twice a year, however, I would train and compete alongside my British rivals in the 4x400m relay – a very different challenge requiring a very different mindset.
Top performers in sport and business recognize that success both individually and collectively require the ability to adapt and change mindset for each scenario and the lessons learnt throughout my career have inspired and challenged audiences to adopt this win/win mentality.
There are many factors that contribute to Olympic success but only a few are non negotiable for an athlete aiming to stand on the rostrum:
Find Your Passion, Create Empowering Beliefs, Power Through Clarity, Surround Yourself With Talent, Deliver Your Maximum.
I share the lessons learnt throughout a career full of highs and many lows that taught me to adopt these traits to ultimately fulfil my potential towards the end of my career at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
I’m often asked what kept me motivated to continue pursuing my dream of standing on the Olympic rostrum during a career beset with injury and illness.
My athletic career forced me to admit that having talent and “wanting”
to win was never going to be enough to overcome adversity. Finding a deeper meaning, developing a “need” to achieve and truly understanding what success was for me is an important part of my story and has always resonated with audiences around the world.
Nobody stands on the Olympic rostrum alone – there are a team of coaches, training partners, advisors and friends that have all played their role.
Top performers acknowledge this but also know that to deliver when it matters in an Olympic Final, when the stakes couldn’t be any higher, they have to take full accountability for their performance in order to achieve their goals.
It took me a while to learn this but when I did it set me free and sharing this process is an important part of my presentations.
“If you want to go fast then go alone but if you want to go far then go together”
As a two time World Champion I have experienced the joy of being part of a world class team.
I usually end my presentations telling the inspirational story of being part of a team that won the World Championships in 1991 in Tokyo and in doing so changed our event forever.
By collectively challenging convention, taking ownership of our destiny and putting our egos to one side for the greater good of the team we made a very small change that created a huge result.
“ The ability to change a winning formula actually is a winning formula”
My conference presentations are usually for an hour ( including Questions and Answers if appropriate) with an emphasis on motivation and performance.
My after dinner speeches are usually for 30 minutes and tend to be more anecdotal, light hearted yet still thought provoking and inspirational.
The feedback has been fantastic. You managed to be both entertaining and highly relevant – no mean achievement given we had around 45 nationalities represented!
Roger was an excellent guest speaker and leads the way in style and content. He held the audience’s complete attention with inspirational messages on achieving potential on both a business and personal level. There was something for everyone and his interaction with delegates was much appreciated.
Inspirational Speakers has been providing high profile keynote speakers and entertainers for over 25 years.
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Inspirational Athletes connects schools & communities with elite athletes who inspire, motivate and engage young people through talks, workshops and sports sessions.
