Olympian speaker Mark Colbourne's motivational story of transformation in order to compete at the London 2012 Paralympic games is undoubtedly an amazing individual achievement. Following a near-fatal paragliding accident in May 2009, Mark broke his back, left with lower leg paralysis and foot drop in both feet. Mark fought continuously for twelve months to learn to walk again with the assistance of walking aids and now has achieved his dream of becoming a full-time Paracyclist for the nation. A fantastic Olympic speaker, Mark breaches topics including overcoming adversity and success maximisation during his talks, making him a highly sought after personality on the after-dinner speaker circuit.
Mark won Great Britain’s first medal of the 2012 Paralympic games, winning a Silver medal for the 1km individual time trial. The very next day, Mark smashed the 3km Pursuit world record twice in one day at the state of the art London Velodrome. Initially breaking the record by seven seconds in the morning and by 0.2 seconds the very same night. Mark went onto win Gold in the event, obtaining his first-ever Paralympic Gold. Delivering anecdotal tales of his great achievements as a sports speaker, Mark is a compelling character who seeks to boost others performance whenever he can.
Not happy with his already amazing achievement, Mark Colbourne did not stop there. Five days after his Gold medal-winning performance, Mark entered the 10 miles individual road time trial at Brands Hatch Circuit.
His efforts certainly did not disappoint the crowds, finishing a close 12 seconds behind the winner to pick up his second Silver medal of the Olympic Games. He was later appointed MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours for his services to cycling before announcing his retirement from para-cycling. Mark’s talks as an after-dinner speaker suit corporate conferences, events and seminars wonderfully. His motivational style and almost unbelievable life story inspire every audience member, never failing to deliver key messages that are applicable to almost any walk of life. Flexible to tailor his presentations as an Olympic speaker to suit the needs of his clients, Mark is comfortable in any environment and is able to interact with a wide range of people. Mark has the ability to host events and conferences as well, ensuring your event runs smoothly whilst reinforcing key themes to your event.
How to hire Mark Colbourne
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Mark Colbourne for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
** We do not accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
"Mark came to award the Prizes at our end of year Speech Day, addressing an audience of 750 people aged between 6 and 86 who he had them rapt with attention. Mark spoke for 30 minutes, without notes, and told us his story. You could have heard a pin drop. Afterwards, many speakers would have politely made their excuses, offered their apologies and slipped away. Mark stayed for lunch and then spent two and a half hours amongst us, signing autographs, posing for photographs with pupils with his Olympic Gold Medal and chatting to parents and children, during the Inter-House Athletics event which followed the speeches, despite knowing that he and Rachel had a very long journey home to Cardiff from Junction 5 on the M25. Mark was quite simply inspirational. Everybody is still talking about him. He has set the bar at a very high level and he will be the standard against which all future outside speakers will be judged from now on. I do not envy them. I would recommend Mark Colbourne to anybody who wants a speaker who will be inspirational and memorable. Quite superb!" - James, Holmewood House School
"Excellent style and delivery. I have engaged the services of many speakers in my career and Mark is by far the best. He is friendly, relaxed and a good raconteur. He completely engaged the audience. On the night we had a gentleman who collapsed during Mark’s presentation and he dealt with this extremely professionally and when he started his talk after the situation had been dealt with he didn’t miss a beat — just got straight back into it. We had people in the audience give him a standing ovation at the end – I’ve never seen that before. Mark had quite clearly done his homework about the local authority and on the evening presented one of the councillors with a framed gold winners stamp, which was a lovely touch. Mark had obviously read the brief I had sent and covered the points we had discussed in his presentation." - Macdonald Portal Hotel, Tarporley
"Mark’s recent presentation to our national Sales team was uplifting, inspirational and a fantastic way to end the event! His personal story of courage in the face of such adversity, setting really stretching personal goals and his commitment to achieving them will inspire even the most cynical amongst us to achieve more…" - Peter, Lucozade Ribena Suntory LTD
"We are incredibly grateful to Mark for presenting at the Sports Awards evening on Tuesday. With the change in leadership and priorities of the school, it was so important that we made this an outstanding evening. With Mark’s contribution, it was indeed just that. The fact that he was given a standing ovation was a testament as to how good he was. The feedback from the headteacher was that Mark was the best guest speaker she had been witness too despite having a seen a considerable number over the years. To have obtained someone of Mark’s calibre as the guest speaker meant the evening will live long in the memory of those fortunate to have heard Mark’s story." - Stefan, The North School
"Mark Colbourne MBE was an absolute pleasure to have at the Wiltshire Business and Sports Annual Gala Dinner this year. This is the second dinner that Mark has spoken at for us and his emotional story had enough variation that it was just as brilliant as the first time. Mark is truly inspiring and thoroughly recommended." - Zac, Wiltshire Council
