And, as well as the usual plethora of sponsorship, endorsements and kit contracts up for grabs, one way this can be achieved is through public speaking at a range of events spanning dinners, conferences and award ceremonies.

In recent years I have become very used to seeing athletes and administrators from all sorts of backgrounds speaking at all sorts of events. This can range from a ceremony to mark the opening of local building to a major international conference, such as last month's SportAccord Convention in the Turkish resort of Belek.

At a level somewhere between these two, sportspeople can also speak at student debating societies. Indeed, figures ranging from 25-time Tour de France cycling stage winner Mark Cavendish to FIFA President Sepp Blatter have been among those to speak at British universities in recent months.   

But the most lucrative market for sporting speakers comes in the corporate world, where they are employed by businesses to address both clients and employees.

Former basketball player John Amaechi was among the athlete speakers at the SportAccord Convention in Turkey last month ©Bongarts/Getty Images











So just how lucrative is public speaking for sportspeople?

"How much you earn depends on the sport and the profile of an athlete," JJ Jackson, managing director of Performing Artistes, one of many agencies in Britain today which supplies public speakers for clients, tells insidethegames. 

"But straight after a Games and with a gold medal, you are looking at a maximum of £10-15,000 ($17-25,000/€12-18,000) per appearance. 

"After a few weeks, when the attention goes down, this value will fall to £5-10,000 ($8,500-17,000/€6-12,000) and whether is stays there, or goes down further, depends on the personality and image of the athlete, as well as the exposure they have had."

Performing Artistes provides speakers from political, business, journalistic and comedian backgrounds but their core audience remains sport. Indeed, sport was how the company made its name in the 1990s, running dinners in different London venues and attracting speakers esteemed in British sporting folklore ranging from heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper, who once knocked down a young Muhammad Ali, to Northern Ireland and Manchester United football legend George Best.

Despite his image Best, Jackson explains, turned up on time to every event and before long the agency had a reputation in the industry as the only people who could successfully deliver him on time.

Legendary former Manchester United footballer George Best was one of the first speakers for Performing Artistes until his death in 2005 ©Getty Images





Such is the demand after an event like the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics, it is enough for an athlete to "just turn up and flash their gold medals around". But if they want to pursue public speaking as a career, they have to develop a well-constructed speech.

This was a point reiterated by another prominent industry figure, Tom Kenyon-Slaney, the chief executive of London Speaker Bureau, a global speaking agency which supply clients across Europe and Asia from many fields, including sport. 

"Sports people have an earning structure which is quite haphazard, and public speaking can fill that void to a certain extent," he tells insidethegames.

"The market has become tougher, and you really have to be a gold medal winner now to stand out from the crowd. 

"You won't have a very long shelf life unless you are really good, because it is a gift to be a good public speaker.

"But people like these stories and if they're told well, they are extremely powerful."

But Jackson stressed that sportspeople could, and often are, successful at public speaking because they are able to use the attributes that have enabled them to be successful athletes to a new line of work. This includes being "conscientious, focused and dedicated to competing at the highest level".

Among those who have duly illustrated this through longstanding speaking careers are four ex-athletes in former 1500m world record holder Steve Cram, Los Angeles 1984 javelin champion Tessa Sanderson and two members of Britain's victorious 4x400m relay quartet at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, Kris Akabusi and Roger Black.

Steve Cram has made the transition from athlete to an established public speaker and pundit ©Getty Images



So why are people keen to hear athletes speak?

There are two main reasons: to be motivated and to be entertained.

It is a treat for employees to hear from a famous athlete and, at after dinner events in particular, they can be employed to tell funny and interesting stories from their careers more than anything else.

But there is also a lot to learn from athletes. So when they talk about training they will speak about what they did right but also things they did not do as well, such as maintaining a diet or visiting a psychologist for example, and this will relate to the personal strengths and weaknesses of the audience. Performing under pressure and dealing with setbacks, such as injuries and problems with funding, are other common themes.

So a company which has the aim of moving from an established to a world-leading level will employ someone with the experience and success of a Cram or Sanderson in order to inspire workers to progress up to the next level.

Another example is the importance of repetition and of maintaining motivation despite failure and this can be compared to an industry, like cold-calling, where more than 90 per cent of calls are unsuccessful.

When it comes to these sort of motivational speeches relevant to the business world, Kenyon-Slaney argues that, while athletes can be good, coaches can often give a "better constructed and more relevant speech".

The godfather of this, he explains, was the former director of coaching at the British Athletics Federation from 1979 until 1994 Frank Dick, who has been public speaking extensively for the last two decades. 

Sir Clive Woodward, best known as the coach of the England team when they won the Rugby World Cup in 2003, is also cited as particularly good at relating his insights to management style, while another recent example is the cycling turned football guru Dr Steve Peters.

After revolutionising sports psychology during his time at British Cycling Peters has since worked with Liverpool Football Club and will assist the England team at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil this summer. At the moment he is so sought after that, Jackson admits, he can "hardly be booked because he is so busy".

Another group for which demand is growing is for Paralympians.

Interest, not to mention fees, for Paralympians involved in public speaking was always far lower than for their Olympic counterparts, and when they did speak people were invariably more interested in how they overcame their disabilities than their athletic ability.

Four-time London 2012 champion David Weir is among those to take advantage of the growing interest in Paralympians ©Performing Artistes



But since London 2012 this has changed and Paralympians are now sometimes requested over Olympians, with swimmer Ellie Simmonds and wheelchair racer David Weir among those to have taken advantage.

So to return to the Commonwealth Games, interest certainly fluctuates depending on the timing and location, from the high of Manchester 2002 to a low of Delhi 2010.

But, due to the timing in between the World Cup and the start of the football season, and the fact it is being held in Britain, interest is expected to be high again. This is confirmed by Jackson, who tells insidethegames that "inquires and preparations are currently being made, and we are expecting a lot of interest".

What is certain is that the industry is a growing one and, in the celebrity culture that now embraces sport as it does other fields, there will be a lot of opportunities for those who bring home medals at Glasgow 2014.  

Nick Butler is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.