Sally Gunnell OBE

On February 4th 2010, Sally Gunnell OBE, arguably the most prestigious and successful athlete to visit Ardingly College in recent years, gave a 'Sports Talk' to students in the Senior School.

In a fantastically motivating and light hearted talk, Sally told us about her dreams as a five year old child to succeed in sport. At that stage she was not sure what that sport would be, but as she grew, her natural ability to sprint led her to athletics and ultimately, the 400m hurdles. Sally spoke about the struggle she had with her body to push herself to the limit. She discussed the different types of training she went through; 6 hours a day, 6 days a week as well asthe importance of good nutrition. The strongest message students took away with them was to never give up on a dream. Sally spoke about the losses and set backs, the financial problems she had to face, the intimidating opponents and how she chipped away at her dream to become a finalist in an Olympic games to winning a Gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Sally Gunnell is the only woman to have ever held 4 major track titles concurrently; Olympic Champion, World Champion, European Champion and Commonwealth Champion. We look forward toseeing Ardingly Students taking Sally's inspirational words to heart and competing at a National level, or even the Olympics,in the future.

The next sports talk with take place on March 4th when Alison Ogles will give a talk on the prevention and management ofsports injuries.