The Sweeney Agency

About Clara Hughes – Olympic Champion and Inspirational Sports Speaker:

Clara Hughes' story of winning medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics will inspire any audience. Clara recently capped off her tremendous Olympic career at the Vancouver 2010 games with a bronze medal in the ladies’ 5,000-metre long track speed skating event. Clara used the cash bonus she received for winning the medal to help the Take a Hike Foundation, an alternative education program that engages at-risk youth through adventure-based learning. She has also helped raise over $400,000 and contributed $10,000 of her own money for the Right to Play organization, which promotes sport and play for children in developing countries. Clara is also a proud spokesperson for Bell Canada's Let's Talk campaign that raises awareness for the complex issues involved with mental illness.

As a speaker, Clara discusses how her dream began in 1988 when she caught her first glimpse of the Winter Games on television. Watching speed skaters glide around the oval inspired her to believe that one day she, too, could represent Canada in that same sport. Little did she imagine that in pursuing her speed skating dream, she would first compete in two Summer Olympic Games, in the sport of cycling.

With over one hundred victories under her belt, including two bronze medals in the 1996 Olympic Summer Games, medals in both the Pan American and Commonwealth Games, plus numerous World Cycling and National Championship titles, Clara had established herself as one of the best cyclists in the world. It was now time to refocus and pursue her Speed Skating Dream.

The 2000/01 season on ice, her first in ten years, was full of unprecedented achievements: Clara earned a spot on the National Team after only seven weeks of specific training, and then shocked the sporting world during the 2002 Olympic Games when, only sixteen months after competing in her second Summer Olympics as a cyclist, she won a bronze medal in the grueling 5000m speed skating event. This, along with her two medals from the 1996 Summer Olympics in cycling, made Clara the only Canadian and fourth ever athlete in history to win medals in both Winter and Summer Games.

Clara became one of the top long-distance skaters in the world leading into the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy in 2006. With World Cup victories, a World Championships title and a World Record in the epic 10,000m event, Clara was a definite favorite for the 5000m race.

She did not disappoint, winning gold in a gripping race that saw her take the lead with only 200m to go. Along with her silver medal in the Team Pursuit in those same Games, Clara became the only athlete in history to win multiple medals in Winter and Summer Olympics.

Clara is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Manitoba, has received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Manitoba, received The International Olympic Committee’s ‘Sport and Community’ award and is a two-time recipient of the ‘Spirit of Sport’ award from the Canadian Sports Awards.

She considers her work outside of the realm of sport to shine far brighter than any and all of her athletic achievements.