Kerri Pottharst OAM, OLY
Beach Volleyball Olympic Gold Medalist, Keynote Speaker and MC
An Olympic champion who has dedicated her life to personal growth and decoding human high performance.
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As a tall and lanky teenager, Kerri felt somewhat out of place in some ways. In discovering Volleyball she found a place she could call home, and it was from there she began to rise as one of Australia’s most promising young athletes. The turning point came for Kerri when in 1992 a brutal knee injury should have ended her career. What could have been the end, birthed a new beginning. With a winning mindset, she turned pain into purpose and pivoted seamlessly into the world of Beach Volleyball. The rest as they say is history.
Most Australians will recognise Kerri who alongside Nat Cook became famously known as the Dreamachine after they won gold in Beach Volleyball at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
For Kerri, this was the culmination of a lifetime of hard work and training working with performance coaches in the highest echelons of the sport. In that time, she competed in 3 Olympic Games, winning two Olympic medals – Bronze at Atlanta and Gold on the iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Upon retiring from international level competition, like many world-class athletes, becoming a speaker was an obvious next step. That said, the world of speaking, just like sport, is a game where only the best survive. However, Kerri had a gold winning tool kit from her sporting experiences that would serve her well. As a result, she has spoken to audiences from top-tier corporate organisations in Australia and around the world for over 15years.
As a speaker, Kerri is charismatic yet credible. She is warm, yet at the same time, her content is designed to challenge audiences to step into a new potential. She is a natural storyteller sharing personal anecdotes that are both emotional and meaningful. Kerri is renowned for being the consummate professional, and thus she embraces a solutions-based mindset and prides herself on ensuring her content is precise yet at the same time infused with aspiration for what’s possible tomorrow.
Alongside her speaking business, Kerri is the author of ‘The Business of Being an Athlete’. After years of mentoring and coaching sporting professionals, she has transitioned her experience and expertise out of the sporting arena, to work as an executive coach for both corporate and non-corporate clients in the Art of Human High Performance.
A regular commentator at the Olympic Games and other beach volleyball events, Kerri continues to rise as a respected business thought leader in high performance. Her expertise sits beautifully in the intersection of what it takes to be a world-class athlete alongside how that skill set is applied in leadership, in building teams, cultures, and high performing organisations. Her core approach is to view human high performance as a holistic system that integrates all aspects of the mind, body and soul.
Her Gold Medal Excellence strategies are shared with unforgettable tales that combine motivational messages with fun. She brings her hard earned skills of leadership, teamwork, communication and more to her presentations.
Using entertaining anecdotes from her experiences as a competitor, and as a regular commentator at the Olympic Games and other sporting events, Kerri will motivate and inspire your audience to overcome their fears and self-doubts, to set goals and to push through any barrier to achieve them.
An expert at reinventing herself time and time again, Kerri can relate to the constant need to deal with a changing world to stay successful and reach even greater goals.
Topics
Gold Medal Excellence – The Mindset of a Champion
Kerri’s premier keynote in which she decodes Human High Performance. Kerri shares her incredible journey and the exact strategies and secrets used for success. She aligns these tools perfectly to her audience… to their personal and professional lives.
Don’t Just Think It, Ink It!
A practical workshop for goal setting (whether personal or business) designed to meet your current needs. The workshop is also filled with Kerri’s personal stories and success strategies.
Fit for Business – Corporate Athlete Training
A practical and eye opening workshop designed to take your staff’s health and wellness to the next level. Kerri covers Nutrition, Hydration, Movement, Recovery and Mindset in an easy to digest and fun atmosphere.
