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Tessa Sanderson CBE

Voted Sports Personality of the Year and Athlete of the Year (3 times), Olympic Gold Medalist Tessa Sanderson CBE is one of Britain’s most accomplished athletes. Her experiences make her a much sort after sports speaker, and she has an innate ability to relate and connect with a wider audience. Tessa us also an impressive after dinner speaker and inspirational orator.

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About Tessa Sanderson CBE

Tessa Sanderson is undoubtedly one of the most prolific sportswomen of the past decade.  Winning the Gold in the Women’s Javelin, Tessa remains today the only British Woman to ever win a throwing Gold Medal.  Her media career is spread across a variety of different shows and programmes such as “Strictly African Dancing”, “Wife Swap”, as well as presenting for ITV, GMTV and BBC.

Biography

On the 6th August 1984 at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Tessa Sanderson CBE won the Gold in the Womens Javelin and remains today the only British Woman to ever win a throwing Gold Medal.  Tessa competed in six Olympic Games from 1976 to 1996, and in addition to the Olympic Gold, won three Commonwealth Golds and a World Cup Gold in Cuba in 1990. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and competing in her 5th Olympics she finished an incredible 4th place in the final.

Tessa Sanderson’s Sporting Recognition Awards

In March 2004 New Years Honours list Tessa Sanderson was awarded the CBE by Her Majesty the Queen, in recognition of her services to sport and Vic Chairman of Sport England the leading strategic organisation for sport in England. Prior to the CBE she was the recipient of an OBE in December 1997 for her work with various charities and in 1985 was awarded the MBE for winning her Olympic Gold Medal for Great Britain in Los Angeles. In October 2004 Tessa was awarded the Sunday Times Life Times Achievement Award for her dedication to sport.

Tessa holds two Honorary Fellowship Degree one from South Bank University in London in 2004, and prior to this Wolverhampton Polytechnic. She also has an honorary Masters Degree from Birmingham University.

During her 26 years competing for Great Britain Tessa was voted Sports Personality of the Year and Athlete of the Year (3 times) by the Athletics Writers Association. In 1988 Tessa presented the Sports News for 2 ½ years for Sky Television. Her media career involved television presenting for BBC, ITV, Bloomberg, GMTV, where she covered the 1996 Olympics from Atlanta. Other media activities involve working with Talk Sport Radio and other network radio stations in the UK. Tessa was involved with Talksport again during the 2008 Olympic Games and hosted Talk Jamaica during the 2012 Games.

Tessa Sanderson CBE  has taken part in the BBC Show “Strictly African Dancing” and “Dancing on Ice: Goes Gold”, “Cash in the Attic”, “Pointless” and has guest appeared on The Wright Stuff and Alan Titchmarsh Show.  In 2009 Tessa took part in “WIFE SWAP” with Ron Atkinson former football manager. That particular show on that evening recorded the highest viewing of the whole series with over 2.9 million viewers and was repeated 9 nine times during the year.

Having retired from competitive athletics in 1997, Tessa still remains the only female athlete to win an Olympic throwing medal for Great Britain. Tessa continues to work with various Charities such as the Variety Club of Great Britain the largest children’s charity in the world, also for Leukaemia and was patron to Jamaica Basic Schools a Charity for Underprivileged children in Jamaica.

In 2004, Tessa was awarded the CBE by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition for her services to sport. Prior to the CBE, Tessa was the recipient of an OBE for her work in various charities and an MBE for winning her Olympic Gold Medal. Tessa is more than just an athlete; with a wide variety of knowledge and experience in media, sport, charities, and leadership, Tessa makes an outstanding speaker.

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Testimonials

"Everything went very well. Tessa was great, very up-beat and really got the message out. She was excellent…."

Glaucoma Awareness

"Everything went wonderfully this afternoon – Tessa was a great panellist and was very thought provoking and informative"

Goldman Sachs

"Staff and students have been very complimentary stating that Tessa was a "real" person with no aires and graces and was willing to spend time with the showing a genuine interest in their sons / daughters and in the Academy generally. It was definitely a good move"

Leigh Technology Academy

"All went well thanks. Tessa did a great job and the audience really enjoyed her"

Foundation Housing

"I just wanted to say that Tessa was truly inspirational and everyone was truly overwhelmed by her talk. She lived up to our expectations and more, so if you could please pass on our personal thanks I would be very grateful."

Chwarae Teg International Womens Day

"Tessa was brilliant. She arrived early. She took time to talk to people and posed for pictures with children. I would definitely use her again if I had the opportunity and would recommend her to people."

Health Communities Team

"Everything went very well with Tessa Sanderson. She gave a very good speech that everyone enjoyed and there was a good question and answer session afterwards with some serious and some funny questions. Tessa also stayed to meet people afterwards and have a chat with them which was very much appreciated. We were very glad she could come along."

Greenwich College

"A huge thank you for putting us in touch with Tessa Sanderson, her speech was really inspirational, what a lovely lady, we had a great time and it was a very successful evening"

George Green School

"Tessa was great last night – such a good speaker and it’s so lovely how her bubbly personality came through throughout. Tessa's passion, energy and personality really shone through. Her story of courage and 'having no fear' contained many messages that we could all relate to."

BP

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