To reach the pinnacle of international success Giles Long had to overcome cancer. For twelve years he has represented Great Britain at the highest level in the world of swimming, both as a Butterfly and Individual Medley swimmer and as a relay team member. He won twenty major Championship medals including Paralympic, European, and World Championship Gold medals. Giles is entertaining, incredibly funny and above all a deliverer of core business messages. His speech, titled Changing to Win, highlights to people the importance of perceiving change as a positive and driving change to produce positive outcomes. Giles also demonstrates how everyone is part of many more teams than they are aware of, both in their work and their personal lives, and that everyone is a leader of at least one team.

Giles Long has established himself as a powerhouse of the Great Britain Paralympic Swimming Team. He is one of the most successful and well-respected Paralympic swimmers of our time.

Giles’ life and career delights audiences from many countries with humour and tales of how sheer grit and teamwork can achieve the highest levels of performance. With excellent feedback every time many organisations re-book Giles for further events.

Giles’ journey to elite success is very different from the typical athlete. At the age of thirteen Giles was diagnosed with cancer. The bone tumour in his arm meant that his dreams of going to the Olympics, held as a seven year old boy, were shattered.

Despite the apparent end of his potential competitive able-bodied swimming career, Giles carried on swimming, finding the process of goal setting and building a team around him, in a time of rapid change, not only focussing but exhilarating. But coming to terms with his newly acquired disability was something Giles initially struggled with. The culmination of this anxiety was at a GB Paralympic training weekend when he entered a huge room full of other people with a disability. This made him realise what having cancer really meant, and he faced a decision as to whether to continue as a disabled swimmer.

A chance meeting with an eminent swimming coach changed all that. In what is a very poignant part of Giles speech, Giles manages to have the audience sitting on the edge of their seat. He’ll have you crying one minute and laughing out loud the next.

Giles broke his first World Record at the age of 17 and in 1996 qualified for the 100m Butterfly at the Atlanta Paralympics as the fastest man in the world. But an unexpected beating in the heats by a newcomer forced Giles to re-evaluate where his targets and goals truly lay. He left Atlanta with the gold, though only just. It was a wake up call.

The lessons learned honed Giles’ skills in change management, leadership, in teambuilding and how to create positive teamwork. Giles was able to make the hard decisions necessary to remain at the top even through low periods where stagnant performance and poor results all pointed the other way.

At the Sydney 2000 Paralympics Giles again took gold, setting a new World Record in the process. With one dream realised another had to be created. With that Giles decided to go for 3 Gold medals, from 3 Paralympics, in one event. Taking hard decisions early, driving change earlier and keeping those in his team motivated, produced a performance at the Athens Paralympics in 2004 which Giles tells as a triumph in his speech.

This fantastic performance produces reflection on an exceptional career, giving clarity of how far the extent of each individual’s team stretches, the importance of every individual as a leader, and how they can use positive change to their advantage.

These are all explicit and implicit messages that Giles passes on to the audience in an entertaining, and sometimes subtle, way that allows them to examine their own attitudes and fears, and how they can meet their own challenges.

"Giles gave us just what we wanted, asked for and needed! Motivation, inspiration and sheer entertainment; he rounded off our day perfectly."
Anthony I Joseph, Senior Vice President, Lloyd’s America

"Giles speaking is inspiring and engaging. He leads his audience through his own personal, and often emotional, battle to overcome change and drive towards World class performance - providing lessons to be learnt for all organisations...."
Andy Rubin, CEO, Pentland Brands Plc

"Our conference was designed to make everyone feel part of "The Team"; part of the bigger picture. Giles’ address was both motivational, highly appropriate, was perfect to conclude the day, and far done more eloquently than we could manage ourselves."
Peter Maher, Director, Smith & Williamson Pension Consultancy

"Giles speech was a highlight of our senior management away day. He is an utterly compelling speaker - the audience were gripped - you could hear a pin drop! His story was both inspiring & motivating for our team, touching us both personally and professionally. He lifted our day. The best speaker I have ever worked with! I would highly recommend him to any audience."
Kerry Cooper, Sales & Marketing Director, Automobile Association