Sarah Outen

Sarah Outen MBE is a record-breaking adventurer, author and motivational speaker known for her extraordinary feats of human-powered endurance across the world's oceans. She became the first woman and youngest person to row solo across the Indian Ocean in 2009, and later the first woman to row solo across both the Indian and Pacific Oceans during her epic London2London: Via the World expedition, a 25,000-mile loop of the Northern Hemisphere completed in 2015. Now working as a trainee psychotherapist alongside her speaking work, Sarah expertly translates her experiences of resilience, managing setbacks and performing under extreme pressure into powerful, tailored sessions that help audiences navigate change, strengthen mental health and pursue their own goals with renewed courage and perspective.

When Sarah Outen MBE set out from Tower Bridge in April 2011, she committed herself to a journey that would test every dimension of human endurance: rowing, cycling and kayaking 25,000 miles around the Northern Hemisphere over four and a half years. The London2London: Via the World expedition saw her battle a typhoon that forced a mid-ocean rescue in the North Pacific, endure a hurricane evacuation after 143 days at sea on the Atlantic, and cycle across North America during one of its harshest winters on record. She returned to Tower Bridge in November 2015, becoming the first woman to row solo across both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. That achievement built on her 2009 Indian Ocean crossing, when at just 24 years old she spent 124 days alone in her 19-foot boat Serendipity, rowing from Australia to Mauritius in memory of her father Derek. She became both the youngest person and first woman to complete that solo crossing, breaking multiple world records whilst consuming 500 chocolate bars and losing 20 kilograms in the process.

Sarah's credentials extend well beyond the ocean. A biology graduate from St Hugh's College, Oxford, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society following her Indian Ocean success and appointed MBE in 2011 for services to rowing, conservation and charity. The University of Leicester awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2016. She has authored two widely acclaimed books: A Dip in the Ocean, published in 2011, and Dare to Do, which chronicles her London2London expedition and was published in 2016. Her award-winning feature-length film documents the raw reality of her journeys. Now working as a trainee psychotherapist alongside her speaking career, Sarah combines her lived experience of extreme challenge with professional insight into human psychology, creating a unique perspective on resilience, mental health and performance under pressure.

Sarah's warmth and disarming authenticity put audiences immediately at ease, allowing her to guide them through the drama and tension of her expeditions whilst drawing out practical, tailored insights for their own contexts. She candidly addresses the physical and psychological toll her journeys exacted, transforming vulnerability into a powerful teaching tool about managing setbacks, navigating change and maintaining performance when conditions turn hostile. Whether speaking to boardrooms or classrooms, Sarah helps audiences recognise their own capacity to weather storms and pursue ambitious goals differently. Her sessions on teamwork, communication, goal setting and turning negatives into positives resonate because they emerge from genuine experience of failure, fear and ultimately triumph. Sarah's aim remains consistent: to leave every audience member considering what might become possible if they allow themselves to believe it, and equipped with the mindset and strategies to make that possibility real.