Mark Colbourne MBE

Mark Colbourne is a British Paralympic cyclist who claimed gold in the C1 3K pursuit in a world record time of 3 mins 53.970secs and two silver medals in the C1-2-3 time trial and the C1-3 kilo at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

A keen athlete from a young age, Mark represented Wales in Volleyball at an international level between 1990 and 1993, competing in three British Championships. He also has a background in the Triathlon. In May 2009, Mark had to do an emergency landing when his paragliding wing collapsed, breaking his back in the fall.

With his passion for sport, Mark continued training and competed in the Welsh indoor Adaptive Rowing Championships, while still working part time as a consultant in sales and management. In May 2010, Mark set himself a target of competing in his first Para-Cycling event and went on to win two gold medals at the Wales GP in Newport. After becoming a guest rider for the GB Para-Cycling Team he went on to join the squad in June 2011. He describes his greatest achievement as winning gold in the pursuit at the 2012 UCI Para-cycling World Track Championships in Los Angeles.

After retiring in 2013, Mark is now a motivational speaker, attending a number of corporate events around the country speaking for the likes of United Welsh, Scape Build and Leicester Tigers.

Alongside Laura Trott, Mark has been announced as an ambassador for the Lee Valley Olympic VeloPark, opening the facilities to the public in March 2014.

One of Mark’s sporting ambitions is to pass on his knowledge to younger cyclists, so that they can learn from his experience and enjoy the sport further. In his spare time Mark undertakes voluntary work for Cycle Challenge Wales.

Excellent style and delivery.  I have engaged the services of many speakers in my career and Mark is by far the best.  He is friendly, relaxed and a good raconteur.  He completely engaged the audience.  On the night we had a gentleman who collapsed during Mark’s presentation and he dealt with this extremely professionally and when he started his talk after the situation had been dealt with he didn’t miss a beat – just got straight back into it.  We had people in the audience give him a standing ovation at the end – I’ve never seen that before.
Outstanding – one of the best presentations and speaker I’ve seen (and I’ve seen quite a few over the years)