DANIEL TOPOLSKI

Four hundred million people watch the Varsity Boat Race every year between Oxford and Cambridge and so many of them could not fail to be aware of Daniel Topolski, forthright Oxford coach and advocate of motivational team training. 

Twenty three years ago Daniel Topolski took charge of a demoralised Oxford rowing squad which had suffered six defeats in a row and had little faith in its ability to win again. In the next fourteen years between l974 and l987, Oxford won twelve Boat Races including a record sequence of ten victories in a row and equalling their tally of the previous sixty years.

A double Oxford Rowing Blue himself, Daniel's experience of turning the tide in the face of adversity has given him the invaluable insight to motivate and inspire disparate personalities, some with egos larger than their abilities, to pull together as a team. 

Indeed, it is just such expertise which makes his talks so relevant to business people in their fields of endeavour.

Daniel brought his telling insight together in a book aptly titled True Blue which won him the l990 Sport Book of the Year. 

It was made into a feature film which became the Royal Command Performance Film of l996. Both book and film chronicle what happened during the notorious l987 Boat Race mutiny. A dramatic series of events led to the walk out of five American internationals just six weeks before the prestigious annual race. 

The story has gone down in the history of British sport as one of the greatest underdog victories of all time, when Oxford - despite this major setback - went on to beat Cambridge by four lengths.

Over the last twenty five years, Daniel has also pursued a successful career in the media. An experienced traveller, his BBC radio series Topolski's Travels, won the l993 Travelex Radio award. 

He is the author of five books and has written articles on travel and sport for newspapers and magazines both nationally and worldwide.

Daniel is currently back working with the Dark Blue Boat Race squad as consultant coach. The encouragement, help and support he gives this team is the same motivation which inspires his business audiences to put clear water between themselves and the competition.

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