DAME KELLY HOLMES – MILITARY CAREER

Prior to being the athlete we know and love today, Dame Kelly Holmes was in the British Army as a fully qualified HGV driver and physical training instructor. She spent a decade in service, before being awarded an MBE in 1998 for her services to the force. She was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps in 2018, making her official title Colonel Dame Kelly Holmes. In 1997, after much thought, she took the massive step and left the army to focus on her athletic career.

DAME KELLY HOLMES – ATHLETICS CAREER

Kelly first noticed her running talent whilst at school, and with the support of her PE teacher, she attended race meetings across the UK in the hopes she would make it to an Olympic game. Her first medal came in the 2000 games in Sydney, where she won a bronze in the 800m. Determined to better that, she put all her focus and attention on the 2004 Athens games. However, this aim was overshadows by repeated physical injuries and periods of depression and self-harm, consumed by the pressure to recover and compete at top levels. Nevertheless, it was at these games that she won gold in the 800m and 1,500m races, becoming the first woman and the first Briton in over 80 years to do so.

During her athletics career, she also won two Commonwealth gold medals and one silver, two World Championship silver medals and one bronze, one World Indoor Championship silver medal, two European Championship silver medals and one bronze, two European Cup gold medals and one silver, one IAAF World Cup bronze medal, and one IAAF World Athletics gold and silver medals.

DAME KELLY HOLMES – AWARDS

Thanks to her impressive career, she’s been awarded many accolades including European Female Athlete of the Year, Female Performance of the Year, Sports Writers Association Woman of the Year, British Athletics Writing Association Female Athlete of the Year, BBC Radio London SPOTY, BBC Radio London Athlete of the Year, BBC South East Courier Awards, Celebrity Sports Star of the Year, Sunday Times Sports Woman of the Year, Best Sport Moment of the Year, Glamour Magazine Sports Woman of the Year, Woman of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award. Since retiring, Kelly has received over a dozen honorary doctorates from a variety of education establishments, and in 2010 was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.

DAME KELLY HOLMES – AUTHOR

Kelly has published a number of books, including Kelly Holmes in Her Own Words (2013), Get Your Kids Fit: The Parent’s Guide to Healthy, Happy Active Kids (2007), Just Go For It: 6 Simple Steps to Achieve Success (2011), Kelly Homes: Black, White & Gold: My Autobiography (2008), and Running Life: Mindset, Fitness & Nutrition for Positive Wellbeing (2018). It was this latter book that won her the Sports Health & Fitness Book of the Year Award at the Telegraph Sports Awards in 2019.

In November 2023, Kelly’s latest book, Kelly Holmes: Unique – A Memoir was published. Billed as her most personal book yet, Kelly explores her extraordinary life, from army to athletics to much-loved television personality. She talks about her own challenges, how hiding her sexuality impacted upon her physical and mental wellbeing, and the freedom that comes with no longer living in fear.

DAME KELLY HOLMES – CHARITY & MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGNER

After a successful athletics career, Kelly turned to more charitable ventures, with the aim of helping young people with their sport and their mental wellbeing, and particularly to empower young women. She created an app titled ‘Elf at Work’ to help empower employees and support businesses to thrive.

In 2019, Kelly launched her own podcast, What Do I Do? Mental Health and Me, which offers listeners an honest and relatable insight into how some of the UKs best-loved celebrities cope with their mental health.

Kelly has been a long-term supporter of BRIT and the BRIT Challenge; the charity aims to improve the physical fitness and mental wellbeing of young adults and students across the UK. She has also been very vocal on the link between the perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause, and the deterioration of mental wellbeing.

In 2006, Kelly became the National School Sport Champion and pioneered the creation of National School Sport Week. She also led the creation of Girls Active with the Youth Sports Trust. She was the president of the Commonwealth Games England between 2009 and 2015. She is also the patron of the Jaguar Academy of Sport, and ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, Variety Club of Great Britain, Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards Scheme, Sports Relief, Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, Hospice in the Weald, Kent Sports and ForceSelect Foundation.

In 2008, Kelly launched The Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, a charity set up to support retired athletes as they transition from sport, and uses their experience to also help transform the lives of disadvantaged young people. Within seven years, she had already helped over a quarter of a million young people. In 2012, the charity won the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Volunteering Award, and Sport England appointed it as a delivery partner in the new Youth and Community Strategy.

In October 2023, Kelly teamed up with long-distance swimmer Ross Edgley and Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy to participate in a triathlon off the shores of Edinburgh. In a never-attempted before challenging, the three of them raced consecutively along the coastline towards Cramond Island, covering 28.5 km in just 100 minutes. The trio aimed to raise awareness for the importance of our wild seas.

DAME KELLY HOLMES – LGBTQ+

In June 2022, Kelly came out as gay and has since been on a number of programmes discussing her reasoning behind the announcement, including Loose Women (2022), and This Morning (2022).

An ITV documentary titled Kelly Holmes: Being Me (2022) was released, documenting how she prepared to break the news and explores the reasons which stopped her going public for over 30 years.

“I’m a gay woman, but I’ve been unable to live my life authentically.”

The documentary explains that her fear of being ‘outed’ stems from her time in the army. When she served during the 1980s and 1990s, being gay in the military was illegal (it was finally made legal in 2000). It was whilst in the forces that she developed “this absolute fear” of being found out which has never left her. She explained that the Royal Military Police would routinely search through soldiers’ rooms to find “evidence” of sexuality; thankfully, she was regularly tipped off so she could ensure there was no clear evidence of her sexuality. However, she goes on to explain that other people were not so lucky – but this fear has stayed with her even after retiring from the forces.

Keeping her sexuality a secret for so long meant her “mental health suffered greatly”. When she was ill with COVID-19, she thought about her funeral and how few people would know the true her: “I need people to see that it hurts”.

Now, as well as being an inspirational athlete, proud military veteran and advocate for mental health provisions, she has also become a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and intends to help others in her position.

In October 2023, Kelly appeared at the inaugural LGBTQ+ Defence Awards, which focus on ‘bolstering the visibility of exceptional individuals who are part of the military and LGBTQ+ community’.

Kelly has recently been named an honorary patron of ‘The Belfast Front Runners’, an LGBTQ+ running club in Belfast, which provides a safe space for the community to support one another.

DAME KELLY HOLMES – SPEAKING TOPICS

Kelly’s experience with athletics, mental health, the military, and her charity work means she is a fantastic choice to speak at your event. She is eloquent, funny, encouraging, and empowering. She provides practical and inspirational advice so you can achieve your ambitions. Her keynote topics include:

– Athletics, Sports, The Olympics

– Mental Health in the Workplace

– Overcoming Adversity

– Life in the Military

– Achieving Peak Performance

– Motivation

– Resilience

– Inspiration and Leadership

– Goal Setting

– LGBTQ+ ‘Coming Out’

– Women’s Empowerment and Networking

DAME KELLY HOLMES – CORPORATE & BRAND WORK

She has worked alongside many high-profile brands such as Actis, BP, BT, Cabot Financial, GSK, LinkedIn, Team GB and Unilever.

Dame Kelly Holmes is the perfect addition to any motivational keynote talk, conference or event, with her key takeaways always leaving audiences wanting more.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book Olympian, diversity, and mental health speaker Dame Kelly Holmes for your corporate event.

Contact us.