Nadine Neumann
Swimming against the tide.
Profile
By the age of 20, Nadine Neumann had already lived a lifetime of success and setbacks. She overcame Chronic Fatigue Syndrome at the age of 15, only to have her dream of an Olympic birth in Barcelona shattered by a broken neck. But this tenacious young woman fought back to swim at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in the 200m Breaststroke. She went on to Captain the Australian Swimming Team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 1999 Pan Pacific Championships.
Previous experience
On retiring from competitive swimming, Nadine had to completely re-define her life. She struggled with depression for five years while studying for dual teaching qualifications (Primary Teaching & English 7-12) and working in PR & Marketing where she co-ordinated an approach to marketing University undergraduate degree programs that came to be considered an industry leader.
Nadine Neumann taught English for a number of years at a top comprehensive girls’ high school and after her move to Newcastle, NSW, she taught English to students studying for their trade certificate and HSC concurrently at the Australian Technical College – Hunter.
Author:
Her memoir, Wobbles – An Olympic Story, won the 2009 IP Picks Award for Best Creative Non-Fiction and is due to be released at the end of 2009. She is currently working on a number of other writing projects while looking after her one year old son.
As a speaker, Nadine Neumann is inspirational. Her courage, determination and wisdom belie her years. Her style is relaxed, professional, engaging and vibrant. A captivating, entertaining presenter, Nadine tailors and pitches her presentations to resonate with your organisation’s ideals, your event and audience.
Feedback
Nadine's style - relaxed and confident, message - strong and personal, humour - sharp and relevant. She managed to move an old bugger like me who's been on the circuit for a while.
She steps into the spotlight and woos the crowd with a 10-minute rendition of her trials and tribulations in reaching Atlanta. It's as inspiring as it is dramatic.
She was terrific - thought provoking, so sincere and clearly spoken… The outcomes from Nadine’s heartfelt story and her assessment of how people can learn from experience have already had positive results. I had so many people afterwards say how much they enjoyed her talk and then her friendly interaction in the Q&A time.
Nadine Neumann was able to engage her audience from the outset and they remained with her throughout the presentation… (Her) ability to reveal intimate details of her life’s struggle with the audience was impressive.
You may not have lived as long as Murray (Rose) or John (Konrads), but you showed the same ability to reflect on your sporting and other experiences, and draw out the lessons so that others might learn from them, and be inspired by them. And you did this with polish, with wit, with poise and with a great sense of fun.
