Giles Long MBE

Giles Long MBE

TV Presenter & Paralympic Swimmer

Official Agent: Craig Latto

Giles Long MBE is one of the most successful and well-respected Paralympic swimmers of our time. His journey to elite success is very different from the typical athlete. At the age of thirteen Giles was diagnosed with cancer. The bone tumour in his arm meant that his dreams of going to the Olympics, held as a seven year old boy, were shattered.

Despite the apparent end of his potential competitive able-bodied swimming career, Giles carried on swimming.

He hit the international swimming circuit in 1993 and the success gained in France, Sweden and Malta unlocked his first sponsorship, which enabled him to stay in the sport whilst at university in Leeds.

Giles broke his first World Record at the age of 17 and in 1996 qualified for the 100m Butterfly at the Atlanta Paralympics. World ranked number one.

At the Sydney 2000 Paralympics, Giles again took Gold, setting a new World Record in the process. With one dream realised another had to be created and with that Giles decided to go for 3 Gold medals, from 3 Paralympics, in one event.

He swam quicker than the world record at the Athens 2004 games… unfortunately so did two other people and he returned home having won bronze; eventually retiring from top-flight sport in 2007.

From there he has written for the Daily Telegraph, with his first book, Changing To Win, published in October 2008 and reprinted in April 2010.

Giles has since joined Channel 4, presenting the IPC World Swimming Championships from Eindhoven in August 2010, a key event in the lead up to the station's coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics. He fronts all of the channel's coverage of the IPC World Swimming Championships and IPC European Championships and also hosted the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio and the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

He has also presented Channel 4's That Paralympic Show and The BT Paralympic World Cup live from Manchester (2011), as well as the European Wheelchair Fencing Championships in Sheffield (2011).

In November 2012 Giles was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East London for his significant role in Channel 4's coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The honour is also in recognition of Giles' creation, the ’Lexi Decoder‘ (LEXI) – a Paralympic sport classification aid. Giles hosted the World Paralympic Swimming Championships 2019 on Channel 4 and the European Para Swimming in 2021 for Channel 4.

Giles now also writes for the Channel 4 News website, is a reporter on BBC1's flagship consumer affairs show Watchdog and has forthcoming work in The Independent. In his spare time he also snowboards and is a qualified scuba-diver.

 
Giles Long MBE
play showreel

TV Credits

  • Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games (2021) - Channel 4
  • European Para Swimming 2021 - Channel 4
  • World Paralympic Swimming Championships 2019 - Channel 4
  • Rio 2016 Paralympic Games - Channel 4
  • Superhumans Show - Channel 4
  • IPC Swimming European Championships - Channel 4
  • National Paralympic Day - Channel 4
  • Watchdog - BBC1
  • Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics - Channel 4
  • IPC Swimming World Championships - Channel 4
  • London Anniversary Games - Channel 4
  • Newspaper Review - BBC News
  • London 2012 Paralympic Games - Channel 4
  • Jon Snow Paralympic Show - Channel 4
  • Paralympics Extra - Channel 4
  • Come Dine With Me: Paralympics Special - Channel 4
  • That Paralympic Show - Channel 4
  • European Fencing Championships - Channel 4
  • Paralympic World Cup - Channel 4
  • Sky News - Sky
  • London Paralympics promo trailer - Channel 4

Books

  • Changing To Win (2008)
Giles Long MBE Showreel(click X to close video)