Catriona Le May Doan
Catriona Le May Doan was the fastest woman on ice, and the first Canadian to defend a gold medal at any Olympic games. Having held the world record in the 500 metre speed skating event for ten years, Catriona is a world champion athlete and an inspiration to every crowd she addresses. At ease speaking in both official languages, Catriona motivates audiences to dream bigger and reach farther than they ever thought possible.
Catriona’s accomplishments have earned her the Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s Athlete of the Year (2002) and she is a three-time recipient of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award for Canadian Female Athlete of the Year. She has received three Honorary Degrees from the University of Calgary, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina; was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Sports Hall of Fame; and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Speaking topics
- Personal Excellence: Achieving Your Full Potential
Catriona will share her insights on achieving goals and her career highs and lows. You can achieve your full potential through passion, a winning attitude, commitment, and teamwork. Her years as a speed skater have taught Catriona how to deal not only with obstacles, but also with success.
What does it take to be the best? What does it take to stay there?
The journey of Catriona LeMay Doan will take you there and inspire you to reach farther than you thought possible.
- Leadership with a Purpose
Catriona’s career has taken her from standing on top of the Olympic podium, to promoting community sport, being a broadcaster and an athlete mentor for the 2018 Olympic Games. In each of these leadership roles the purpose and definition of success is different. Being a great leader is helping others to achieve their full potential. Sometimes we lead from the front and pave the way for others to come after us. Sometimes we guide from the back – as mentors and support. Either way, being a leader is committing that we will try to go farther than we thought possible and along the way, showing others that success is a discovery that has many adventures! Catriona will bring her stories of success and the leadership lessons she has learned along the way in achieving excellence.
- Managing Expectations
Changing situations means changing expectations – and mounting pressures to meet those expectations, both from within and from the outside world. Dealing with pressure and the fear of failure (and fear of success) is a reality for so many. Catriona will share with you, and help you learn from her own experience, as someone who dealt with changing expectations in the public eye.
- Breaking New Ground
What does it mean to be the first person to accomplish something? When no one has ever been in the same situation as you before? Quite simply, a lot of responsibility. As the only Canadian to defend a gold medal at any Olympic games, Catriona will tell you about the stresses, tell you how you can help pave the way for others to follow like a true leader.
- Women and Careers
Catriona Le May Doan can tell you about being an Olympic Champion Speed Skater and an Olympic broadcaster, about being tirelessly involved with her beloved community and those in it, about being a spokesperson for the SpinaBifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Canada, Right to Play and Ontario’s Lakefield Oval Project, and, most importantly, about being a woman and mother. Women are constantly pulled in many different directions. Find out how balance of work, life, and motherhood is possible while working towards your own goals.
- Corporate Hosting
For all your corporate banquets and award evenings, Catriona can engage with and entertain individuals, in both English and French.