Sally Gunnell Becomes Ambassador for John Lewis

Sally Gunnell the former Olympic and World champion has been named by John Lewis as the ambassador of its Partners in Sport programme leading up to the Olympic Games.

John Lewis is the Official Department Store Provider to London 2012.

The programme itself allows its employees to engage in sport in the build-up to London 2012, Partners in Sport is an employee and community engagement initiative from John Lewis Partnership.

Gunnell, 45, will have the job in promoting the importance of a healthy lifestyle, in and out of the workplace, as well as using her own sporting experience to inspire and guide Partners in overcoming individual and team challenges over the next twelve months, the company revealed.

Gunnell is known for her brilliant Olympic gold medal at Barcelona 1992 and following that good form with a gold at the 1993 World Championships.

John Lewis Partners in Sport programme is also providing support and advice to partners and their close family members who are competing at a national level or above in their chosen sport, including target shooter and Commonwealth Games medallist Nick Baxter and Britain’s Paralympic judo star Lesley Reid.

Gunnell has already played an active role within the Partners in Sport programme and earlier this year gave a motivational speech to the management team in John Lewis Southampton. 

Over the next year Gunnell will also be visiting John Lewis Oxford Street, Milton Keynes, Stratford and Trafford to give similar team talks with partners in addition to working on a series of meet and greets at Waitrose shops, which are part of the John Lewis group. 

Simon Wardell, Development Manager, Partners in Sport, John Lewis Partnership, said: “We are delighted to announce Sally as the ambassador of our Partners in Sport programme and believe that her achievements in the sporting world will be inspirational to all our partners.”

“Not only will Sally be promoting the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle across the business, she’ll also be spending time with Partners to explain how they can transfer the skills they have learnt during the coaching qualification, back into their day-to-day roles.”