Maria Wahlroos

As a coach, Maria is highly regarded. She builds success from trust, community, and open interaction — values that also show strongly in her talks. In elite sport Maria has left a strong mark on the history of Finnish cheerleading. Her long-term work has been recognised, for example, with the City of Helsinki Coach of the Year award and the Finnish Olympic Committee’s medal of merit. She has also been nominated for Coach of the Year at the Finnish Sports Gala.

A book has also been written about the success of the women’s cheerleading national team: Maria and Ulla Appelsin’s Näin tehdään ihme opens up how success is built, the power of the team, and the potential of thinking skills in a way that resonates with audiences in both sport and working life.

For many listeners Maria is also a delightfully unexpected choice of speaker from the world of sport. Her elite-sport background does not lean on the speech patterns of traditional sports, but on a many-voiced, communal leadership philosophy formed through cheerleading. That makes her perspective a fresh alternative for audiences who have been looking for new stories and different insights from sport.