Anthony Ogogo on overcoming adversity, building winning teams & Inspiring the next generation

Today, Anthony is in high demand among Olympian speakers, recognised not only for his medal-winning achievements but also for the personal battles he’s faced outside the ring. His story of perseverance resonates far beyond sport, making him a compelling voice on mindset, goal-setting and leadership.

In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Anthony shares the lessons he’s learned from adversity, the culture behind winning teams, and why he believes high performance speakers must lead with authenticity.

Q: Resilience is a key personal trait in both business and sport; how do you bounce back in the face of adversity?

Anthony Ogogo: “Wow. I mean, I think it's something from deep inside and an intestinal fortitude. I think it's something you can develop and I think it goes back to your why—like, whatever your why is. Now for me, my why was always to win a medal at the Olympic Games, which I'm very lucky and proud to have done.

“Not lucky—I’ll take it back. I'm very proud to have done. I had to overcome a lot of adversity on the way—illness to myself, to my loved ones, my mum, injury. I think it’s that why. I think the stronger the why is, the more you have.

“So when you do get knocked down in life, you can hold on to that why—that's your anchor—to keep getting up and keep pushing and keep persevering for the thing that you want most, be it an Olympic medal or successful business.”

Q: What did your sporting career teach you about setting and achieving goals?

Anthony Ogogo: “My sporting career taught me the bigger goals you have, the more life is going to happen to you. And now when I say that—when I say life—I mean the ups, the downs, the twists, the turns, the good bits, the bad bits. The bigger goals you have, the more all this stuff is going to happen. I mean, how do you measure life? You can measure life by duration—living 70, 80, 90 years—or you can measure life in those moments.

“Those moments of being scared and doing it anyway. Olympic Games, sitting there, butterflies in my tummy, my mum was in a hospital trying to survive a brain aneurysm, my life was a mess—and that was a pivotal moment. Either don’t box in the Olympic Games or I box in the Olympic Games. Either go back home with my family or I focus on this one thing—for me and my family.

“It’s those moments. It’s the scary moments. It’s the moments of being afraid and doing it anyway. And I'm very lucky—in a relatively short life I've managed to amass so many of those moments. And that’s what life is. That’s what boxing—that’s what my sport—taught me.

“The bigger goals you have, the more life will happen, and it's about enjoying it when it is tough and it is hard, finding a beauty in the struggle. And hopefully, when you succeed, the destination is so much better because of all the things you went through.”

Q: How can businesses create a working culture that facilitates high performance?

Anthony Ogogo: “I'm very lucky to have been involved in a number of winning teams. When I joined the Great Britain boxing team, when I was a kid, England and Great Britain—we weren’t one of the big players in the world of amateur boxing. We weren’t. We were maybe a middle kind of country. We weren’t Cuba. We weren’t America, Ukraine, or Russia.

“Over the course of my tenure on the GB squad, we changed to become the number one team in the world—which we are now. When you go to Olympic Games and the World Championships, you do not want to draw a British boxer because we are literally the best.

“I was part of that change and the culture. It's developing a winning mindset. We used to go there, we used to be afraid of boxing the Russians—now the Russians are afraid of boxing us. And that happened because we worked hard and we changed our culture.

“We got one or two people in that had been there, that had done it, that operated on the highest levels and had been successful. That winning mentality kind of filters down to the rest of us. Then you win something. Then you win something else.

“Then, rather than going there and hoping for a good draw—when the draw is done—you go there, you don’t care what the draw is, because you know, you're so confident in your own ability, you're going to come away with a medal.

“So I think it's bringing in the top people and creating that culture. Creating the culture all starts within. Then, as I mentioned, a couple of top people—and top hasn’t got to be, you know, the CEO. Top could be somebody coming in who's very influential.

“And that winning mentality kind of spreads around the team. That’s how you win. That is how you win. You win together. You win collectively.”

Q: What do you hope audiences take away from your public speeches?

Anthony Ogogo: “I hope audiences take away that they can win. They can be successful—whatever winning is. Winning hasn’t got to be an Olympic medal, hasn’t got to be a £500,000-a-year contract.

I was not supposed to be where I am. Like, I’m not supposed to be here talking to you now. I’m not supposed to be on your stage giving my talk.

“I'm a kid—I’ve got four sisters, single-parent household. My dad was never in my life. When he was, he was very violent, he was very abusive.

“I became a boxer. Now, most boxers are boxers because their dad boxed, their granddad boxed, their uncle boxed. I had no men in my life, no male influence.

“So me walking down this path—it’s an anomaly, really. I come from a small town—it’s not a boxing town. It's not London or Liverpool or Birmingham. It's a small town in the east of England, far away from anything really.

“And yet I did it. I overcame setback, prejudice, everything. Injury, as I mentioned. My mum was very ill—had a brain aneurysm just before the Olympic Games. I overcame so much to win—to win a medal for myself, and my country, and my family, and my community, and that small town that I came from.

“So, you can do it too. You can do it. If you work hard enough and if you believe in yourself, you can be anything you want to be. That’s the main message that I think people can take away and learn from my story.”

This exclusive interview with Anthony Ogogo was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.