Dwain Chambers is the highly controversial British sprinter who has received a lifetime Olympic ban from athletics for taking the banned steroid THG administered by the infamous BALCO laboratory.

His autobiography “Race Against Me” due for release in March 2009 is expected to "name names", with serious ramifications for the world of sport. In a synopsis (with "Race Against Me" as his epigraph), Dwain Chambers writes about being "victimised" and promises to give "my solution to rid athletics of drugs overnight.”

His primary event is the 100 metres but he also regularly runs in the 60 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres relay. Chambers has won medals on the international stage numerous times and is one of the fastest European sprinters in the history of recorded athletics. His personal best of 9.97 seconds in the 100 metres is the second fastest time by a British sprinter. He also holds the European 4x100 metres relay record with 37.73 seconds. In 1997, he set a world junior record for the 100 meters at 10.06 seconds.
 
Dwain’s' first appearance at the Olympics was at the Sydney 2000 Games where he turned in the best 100 metres performance by a European at the event. By 2001, he had become the top British sprinter, breaking the 10 second barrier twice at the Edmonton World Championships. However, in October 2003, he tested positive for the banned steroid THG in a drugs check, leading to the BALCO scandal. Chambers received a two-year athletics ban, and a lifetime Olympic ban. He had all of his racing accomplishments since 2002 annulled, wiping away his European record.
 
Dwain returned to the track and field circuit in June 2006, and won gold with his team mates in the 4x100 metres at the 2006 European Championships. Disillusioned with athletics, Dwain joined the Hamburg Sea Devils of the NFL Europe league in early 2007. After the league folded, Chambers returned to sprinting, winning a silver medal in the 60 metres at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships and running 10 seconds flat in the GB Olympic trials.

He briefly looked to rugby league as an alternative, but his trial with the Castleford Tigers was unsuccessful. He has since returned to Athletics and in July this year was unsuccessful in overturning his lifetime ban from the Great Britain Olympic Team. Dwain intends to run in the

World Championships next year and is adamant that he will be racing at the London Olympics in 2012.
 
He has recently been appointed a Patron of the Damilola Taylor Trust and has set up the Second Chance Academy which is a Sprinting Academy for inner city youths in London.

He will be representing Great Britain next season which culminates in the World Championships in Berlin.

Speaking

Dwain Chambers is ideally placed to discuss how not to approach something if you wish to succeed and how shortcuts whilst they may be attractive in the short term are not recommended.  Dwain’s lessons can apply to all aspects of business and peoples lives.

As our attached feedback shows from the Oxford Union, Dwain is repentant and very keen that he plays an important role in helping others to avoid making the career or life altering mistakes that he did.

Fascinating for those who follow Dwain Chambers is that he is determined to win back his status as one of the world’s leading sprinters and if all goes well compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games.  Dwain has been involved in one of the biggest scandals to rock the world of sport and he continues to pay the price for his mistakes. He is incredibly resilient and determined to show the world that he can redeem himself by helping others avoid drugs and run both fast and clean at world class level once more.

Speaking Topics
 
1. Drugs in Sport
 
2. Forgiveness
 
3. Overcoming adversity
 
4. Temptation

What They Say

Dwain Chambers, the Oxford Union – October 2008

“The debut appearance of Dwain Chambers at the Oxford Union, legendary amphitheatre of august debate (and student whimsy) was a fascinating prospect. Chambers had already cancelled one scheduled spot here at the height of his pre-Olympic notoriety. But on Wednesday night Britain's most compelling reformed drug cheat elite athlete finally granted a private audience to the nation's gilded egg-head youth………Say what you like, this man puts bums on seats…….He entered to wild applause, albeit looking a little nervous. When he spoke it was in a clear, rich voice. It's a good public speaking voice, perhaps even a little too professional and practised………The disgust. Dwain, you feel - and perhaps even to his credit - still has a way to go with this.”

Barney Ronay, The Guardian Newspaper October 23rd 2008


Fee Bracket: £4,000 - £7,001