Olympic legends Roger Black MBE and Steve Backley OBE gave a motivational talk and offered insights into what inspired their sporting success at a presentation sponsored by Isle of Man Sport and supported by Scottish Widows and Isle of Man Sport at the Gaiety Theatre on Monday May 16, attended by more than 250 people. The two former world champion athletes were welcomed by Dean Waddingham, managing director of Scottish Widows, now part of the Lloyds Banking Group, one of the first businesses to pledge support for the 2012 London Olympic Games for which Scottish Widows is the official pensions and investment provider. Community, Culture and Leisure minister David Cretney MHK added his welcome and thanked Scottish Widows for their continued support of sport for young people in the Island. In their presentation the two former athletic greats, who now jointly run the corporate coaching business BackleyBlack, illustrated through anecdotes drawn from their sporting careers how their strategies for working towards Olympic goals can be applied in the workplace and to everyday life and how there was, said Steve Backley, ‘a fine line between success and failure,’ who added that success was about ‘ordinary people doing extraordinary things.’ According to his co-presenter talent alone is never enough to succeed. ‘You need passion to realise your full potential, to be clear about your goals and develop a need to achieve,’ said Roger Black. The pair also made it clear: ‘Winners are made, not born.’ Later the two Olympians were guest speakers at a fundraising dinner in aid of the Isle of Man Island Games athletics team held at the Sefton Hotel and hosted by Lloyds TSB International in association with IFG International and the Sefton Group which raised in the region of ?1300. The Isle of Man will be sending a team of 33 athletes and officials to the 2011 Island Games taking place in the Isle of Wight from June 25 to July 1, for which the cost per athlete is ?700, with each athlete required to contribute ?320. The 2013 Island Games will be held in Bermuda, where the estimated cost per athlete will be between ?2000 and ?2,500. ENDS