11 Inspiring TED Talks For Athletes

In the 1970s, Diana Nyad set long-distance swim records that are still unbroken. Thirty years later, at 60, she attempted her longest swim yet, from Cuba to Florida. In this funny, powerful talk at TEDMED, she talks about how to prepare mentally to achieve an extreme dream, and asks: What will YOU do with your wild, precious life?

Cross-country skier Janine Shepherd hoped for an Olympic medal -- until she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride. She shares a powerful story about the human potential for recovery. Her message: you are not your body, and giving up old dreams can allow new ones to soar.

Basketball is a fast-moving game of improvisation, contact and, ahem, spatio-temporal pattern recognition. Rajiv Maheswaran and his colleagues are analyzing the movements behind the key plays of the game, to help coaches and players combine intuition with new data. Bonus: What they're learning could help us understand how humans move everywhere.

Martin Hagger is Professor of Psychology at Curtin University. His areas of expertise are social, health, sport and exercise psychology. He is involved in nu...Martin Hagger is Professor of Psychology at Curtin University. His areas of expertise are social, health, sport and exercise psychology. He is involved in numerous research projects nationally and internationally with a focus on motivation and behaviour change. He is currently leading projects in drugs in sport, promoting physical activity and healthy diet, understanding the mechanisms of willpower and self-control, and reducing binge drinking and the prevalence of smoking.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Who gives a F**K about women in Sport?
Denise Watson has worked as a Sports Journalist and broadcaster for 20 years. During that time the former Basketball player was recognised as CIPR Sports Journalist of the year and has worked for BBC Sport both in NI and in London.

Chris Kluwe wants to look into the future of sports and think about how technology will help not just players and coaches, but fans. Here the former NFL punter envisions a future in which augmented reality will help people experience sports as if they are directly on the field — and maybe even help them see others in a new light, too.

Dr Brendan Egan is a University College Dublin (UCD) lecturer in sport and exercise science in the UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, whose TEDxUCD 2014 talk is entitled 'Muscle Matters'.

With profound simplicity, Coach John Wooden redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA, quotes poetry and remembers his father's wisdom.

In his talk, Sean discusses four primary ways men have historically been raised in American culture — home, church, military, and sports. Sean’s talk focuses on his claim that sports are becoming the primary way American men learn critical lessons about work, determination, failure, and accountability, leading him to challenge listeners to rethink the true value they assign to sports.

O'Sullivan remembers when youth sports was about children competing with other children instead of adults competing with each other through their kids. Following nearly three decades as a soccer player and coach, O'Sullivan began working to reshape youth sports and inspire a major shift in culture. After serving as a youth coach for the Portland Timbers in Bend, he founded the Changing the Game Project and is now an international speaker and national best-selling author of Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports back to Our Kids. His writing has also been featured in the Huffington Post, Soccer America Magazine and The Soccer Wire.