Rebecca Adlington

Retired British Swimmer Rebecca Adlington is one of the most successful female British swimmers of recent times. Having won double gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Adlington was thrown into the public eye as a role model, inspirational athlete and someone to aspire to be like. Smashing the World Record for the 800 meters event on her way to gold, Adlington retired in 2013 after also experiencing double bronze at London 2012; the most decorated female Olympian in Great British history, alongside Katherine Granger, Rebecca Adlington is perfectly poised to serve as an Olympic Speaker and after dinner speaker.

Accomplished sports speaker and the first female gold medallist swimmer since Anita Lonsbrough tasted success in 1960, Adlington soon became a household name across the country. Away from the Olympics, Rebecca Adlington experienced more success at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games coming home from India with two Gold and two Bronze medals, reinforcing her dominance throughout the sport.

Away from the pool, Adlington undertook the challenge of staring on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! where it appeared she had faced a mass amount of abuse and hate mail over social media sites attacking her personally. This cause a public uproar and masses of the media and other social networkers jumped on the bandwagon to support Rebecca. Since this surfaced Adlington has become a role model and idol to other young people who might be suffering through Internet bullying, helping others to face the issues they could be facing.

Other TV appearances she has made include becoming a contestant on Channel 4's The Jump and joining the panellists of ITV's Loose Women as a guest. Rebecca continues to be a face within sport as she has offered commentary and analysis to the BBC team during various events, including the 2016 Rio Olympics, 2017 World Aquatics Championships, the 2018 European Championships and most recently the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Most recently, Rebecca was a BBC commentar for swimming events at the Paris 2024 Olympics - presenting alongside host Clare Balding and former Olympic champion Mark Foster. Also in 2024, Rebecca announced that she was a Judge of The Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year 2024 awards, sharing her perspective on who should claim the coveted award as a former elite sportswoman.

An exceptional role model, Rebecca Adlington is available not only as an Olympic Speaker, but also as a motivational speaker to help others reach their potential and overcome adversity. An inspiration to everyone, she has also appeared alongside Mark Foster and other giants of the swimming world as a commentator with the BBC, fronting and offering expert analysis and overview of the most prolific swimming competitions.