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

Designed to enable 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 be fundamental 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.

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.

Next month Gunnell will be reunited with the John Lewis Southampton team when she takes part in a charity cycle challenge on the Isle of Wight.

"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," said Simon Wardell, Development Manager, Partners in Sport, John Lewis Partnership.

"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."


Gunnell is arguably Britain's finest-ever female athlete.

She won the Olympic 400 metres hurdles gold medal at Barcelona in 1992 and a year later added the world title when she won in Stuttgart in a world record 52.74sec.

Gunnell remains the only woman to have held the European, World, Commonwealth and Olympic 400m hurdles titles at the same time

"I have always been a firm believer that the secret to a happy and committed workforce is an active one and it is fantastic to see a company like John Lewis Partnership investing in the wellbeing of its employees," said Gunnell.

"Having already spent time at a number of shops, it is clear to see that partners are excited about the initiative and are embracing the opportunity to learn new skills.

"The Olympic and Paralympic Games is one of the world's biggest sporting events and it is really encouraging to see British businesses getting behind it and offering employees the chance to soak up the London 2012 spirit as well as personally benefit."

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