SHE is the ultimate Olympian. With nine Olympic Games under her belt, swimmer Sharron Davies has unparalleled experience over the past 35 years as a both a competitor and broadcaster.

Her insights into the greatest show on earth and the travails of reaching the top of her sport will be shared with the cream of the region’s business world as they gather to celebrate the winners of the South Coast Business Awards (SCBA) 2012.

Guest speaker The 49-year-old mum-of-three has been announced as the guest speaker at the prestigious awards ceremony at the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton.

The awards, now in their second year, are being organised by the Daily Echo in association with Trethowans Solicitors and in partnership with Business Solent and Destination Southampton.

Sharron said: “I’m delighted to be co-hosting this year’s South Coast Business Awards. In a year when we will be celebrating the sporting achievements of the best athletes from around the world, including home-grown talent from the south coast, it will be fantastic to recognise the excellence we also have among the business community in the Solent region.”

Sharron will co-host the glitzy black-tie event with Southern Daily Echo editor-in-chief Ian Murray. “I’m delighted that someone of Sharron’s calibre will be joining me on stage in this Olympic year. Her professional approach to her sporting, and more recently her broadcasting and business career, is an example to us all,” he said.

Sharron will be bringing a touch of sporting glamour to the proceedings just a week before the Olympic flame arrives in Southampton as part of the torch relay. Sharron, who attended three Olympic Games as an athlete and has covered six as a broadcaster, herself joined an early leg of the relay through Leominster, in Herefordshire.

At 13, she was the youngest member of the 1976 Olympic team in Montreal and the oldest member of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic team.

She was double Commonwealth gold medallist at just 15 and an Olympic silver medallist, only beaten by an East German who was later found to be drug assisted.

Motivational Today Sharron works in the media and fashion world and provides motivational talks for major companies. She is a British Olympic Association ambassador and will be poolside with her microphone at the London Games this summer.

The winners of each of the eight hotly contested SCBA categories, and an overall Business of the Year, will be revealed at the awards ceremony on July 6.

Meet the South Coast Business Awards finalists