SOME OF OUR SPEAKERS
MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED IN APRIL & MAY
Dan Sarginson
Former Rugby League International
ON WELLBEING, SELF-UNDERSTANDING AND CONNECTION AS THE BEDROCK OF SUCCESS
Dan is a former professional rugby league player who spent over a decade at the top of the sport, playing for arguably the biggest side in the English game, Wigan Warriors, for over 150 games in two separate spells. His first stint with the Cherry and Whites caught the eye of the Gold Coast Titans in the Australian NRL, the premier competition in world rugby. Returning to Wigan a season later having suffered a serious shoulder injury in Queensland, Dan won the Super League Grand Final in 2018.
His on field highlights are only part of a life punctuated by challenges and tragedy. Behind his achievements were personal battles that he fervently believes limited his performance, inhibited his personal growth and prevented him from fully enjoying his many successes. It's the underlying causes of these difficulties that form the framework of this powerful talk that strikes at the heart of of questions around athlete responsibility and the extent of the sports industry's duty of care,
Dan is a charismatic, insightful speaker, in part shaped by the professional mental health support he has engaged in over the years - it makes him an ideal contributor to our day in York.
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Dr Sofie Kent
Sports Psychologist. Leeds Beckett University
ON THE VOICE OF THE ROMANTIC PARTNER WITHIN PROFESSIONAL SPORT
Dr Sofie Kent is a Sport Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council and a Senior Lecturer in Sport Psychology at Leeds Beckett University. Since 2019, she has worked within high-performance sport, gaining applied experience across a range of international sporting environments. Her specialist area focuses on stress, coping, and career transitions in elite performers.
Dr Kent is the primary author of Two on a Tightrope, one of the first qualitative studies to centre the voice of the romantic partner within professional sport.
This talk will provide insight into the stressors experienced by male and female partners of high-profile elite Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the coping strategies they employ, and the implications these experiences have for relationship functioning, well-being, and performance. Drawing on both practitioner experience and qualitative findings, the session will outline practical, ethical, and cost-effective strategies that organisations and key stakeholders can implement to better support partners.
Dr Derek McKenzie
Psychotherapist and Writer
ON BLACK AND BROWN ATHLETES: RETHINKING CARE ACROSS PATHWAYS, TRANSITIONS, AND OUTCOMES
Dr Derek McKenzie is a psychotherapist, writer, and critical thinker whose work challenges how race, knowledge, and being are understood within psychotherapy and professional training. Drawing on Africana intellectual traditions, he developed the Africana Critical Race Framework (ACRF™) to expose the limits of reformist approaches to race and mental health.
Derek has worked as an associate counsellor/psychotherapist with Sporting Chance since its inception, and his clinical practice reflects a sustained interest in athlete wellbeing, identity, and performance under racialised pressure. He also established and ran an award-winning Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Award–recognised residential and community-based therapeutic recovery house in Stoke Newington in 2017,
Derek writes and speaks across academic, professional, and public spaces, with a particular focus on mental health across sporting pathways, bridging theory, practice, and lived reality. He is currently engaged in practice-informed exploratory research aimed at developing resources, knowledge, and training to better support the mental health needs of Black and Brown athletes, staff, coaches, and families across the wider sporting ecosystem.
Tony Adams MBE
Founder, Sporting Chance
ON 25 YEARS OF SPORTING CHANCE
Tony made his debut for Arsenal in November 1983 and played his last match in May 2002. He became universally recognised as the most successful captain in the history of the club as well as captaining his country on 15 occasions. In the year 2000 he had the honour of leading out England against Germany in the final match ever played at Wembley Stadium.
That very same year, Tony created Sporting Chance Clinic, initially as a day facility in London before moving to its current site at Liphook in Hampshire (back then the charity was focused specifically on supporting athletes with addictive disorders).
To say that the creation of Sporting Chance was a very personal project for Tony is something of an understatement. In 1996, Tony had sought professional help for his increasingly problematic relationship with alcohol, much of it detailed in his 1998 autobiography 'Addicted'. The proceeds from this book and his unwavering commitment to helping others were instrumental in Sporting Chance coming into existence over 25 years ago.
Fran Kitching
Former Professional Footballer
ATHLETE PANEL
Fran is a former professional footballer and current Player Services Executive at the Professional Footballers’ Association. After retiring from professional football ahead of the 2024/25 season, she transitioned into a dual role supporting both the women’s football and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) divisions at the PFA.
Over a playing career spanning more than a decade, Fran established herself as one of the leading goalkeepers in the women’s game, representing Sheffield United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Watford and Crystal Palace across the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship. During her debut season at Crystal Palace, she was named the club’s 2022/23 Women’s Player of the Year and earned Player of the Month honours on four occasions.
She has been open about the lows as well as the highs during her time in the game, including her recovery from a serious head injury sustained in a training ground accident while at Liverpool in 2020. Since then, she has become a respected advocate for mental health in football, speaking candidly about her own experiences and helping to break down stigma within the game.
Drawing on her experiences as both a player and a PFA representative, Fran is passionate about supporting current and future generations of footballers, championing player welfare, inclusion and wellbeing across the sport.
Adam Gemili
Great British Sprinter
ATHLETE PANEL
Adam is one of Britain’s most accomplished sprinters, a medallist at Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth level who has represented Great Britain with distinction for more than a decade across the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
Born and raised in South East London, Adam initially pursued a career in football, spending time in the Chelsea FC academy before making the decision to focus exclusively on athletics. The move quickly paid off, culminating in gold at the 2012 World Junior Championships and a place on Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games while still a teenager.
Throughout his career, Adam has consistently competed at the highest level, helping Great Britain achieve relay success on the world stage and becoming one of the country’s most recognisable athletics figures. His achievements include making history as the first British male sprinter to officially run under 10 seconds for the 100m and under 20 seconds for the 200m.
He has now come full circle and is one again back at Chelsea as a sprint coach.
Alongside his sporting success, Adam has demonstrated remarkable perseverance in overcoming injury setbacks and the pressures of elite competition. Passionate about athlete welfare and personal development, he has used his platform to advocate for athletes and share insights into the realities of high-performance sport.
Drawing on his experiences at the pinnacle of international athletics, Adam brings a unique perspective on performance, resilience, mental wellbeing and life beyond sport, making him a valuable voice on the Sporting Chance Summit Athlete Panel
Dr Daniel Ogden
Post-Doctoral Researcher, Loughborough University
Supporting and Optimising Mental Health within Elite Sport: An Organisational, Multi-Level Approach
Dan is a post-doctoral researcher specialising in mental health within high-performance environments. He recently completed his PhD at Loughborough University, where he also holds two MSc degrees in Sport and Exercise Psychology and Social Science Research. For the past two years, he has also worked as an Education Facilitator for Sporting Chance.
His research centres on mental health and wellbeing in elite sport, with particular expertise in the development, co-creation, and evaluation of mental health interventions using participatory and collaborative methodologies. He has published several peer-reviewed articles and presented his work at conferences across the UK and internationally. His contributions span a range of topics including mental health in elite men's and women's sport, gambling behaviours, concussion, and the professionalisation of women's sport.
This talk will draw on Dan's PhD research, in which he embedded himself within an elite sporting organisation for two years to co-develop, implement, and evaluate a multi-level mental health intervention. He will share key findings from the evaluation alongside evidence-based suggestions covering targeted areas, approach, format, delivery methods, and practical considerations all aimed at helping organisations deliver programmes that can stabilise mental health outcomes over the course of a season, drive positive cultural change, and strengthen day-to-day mental health management across a sporting organisation.
Michael Caulfield
Welfare Psychologist at
Brentford FC
Working with Athletes: 'They Just Want Someone to Talk To'.
Michael is the Welfare Psychologist at Brentford FC, and joined them in 2016, where he has seen the club evolve and grow. More through good fortune than design, across all sports, his style is based around conversation, time, trust, listening and through the evolution of the digital era, human connection is more important than ever, digital free if possible.
He is now simply known as “the man with a dog and a bench”, as he has purchased more park benches than anyone in the country, and is often accompanied by his dog, Paisley, who is the best listener of all