In a press release on Saturday Toastmasters International announced that Ryan Avery had won. He is 25 and from Portland, Oregon. Ryan is the youngest person to win the contest. (Last year I blogged about how in 1970 Stephen D. Boyd had won at age 26). You can watch Ryan's winning speech here on YouTube. As is shown above, the contest process is a very large pyramid.
Is this a real world championship, or is it as limited as the World Series of Major League Baseball, which has 29 teams from the United States and just one team from Canada?
It’s a lot closer to a real world championship! Of the 86 semifinalists, 57 came from the United States, but there also were 4 from Australia, 7 from Canada, and one each from:
Bahamas
Barbados
China
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Japan
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Philippines
Portugal
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Taiwan
United Arab Emirates
Previous winners of the Toastmasters World Championship are a less diverse bunch. There have only been ten from outside the United States: 3 from Australia, 4 from Canada, one from Ireland, and one from New Zealand.
2 comments:
Congratulations to Ryan. I have rarely been able to figure out who the judges will pick in Toastmaster speech competitions - usually I select a different winner. I plan to win the International Speech contest next year.
Ryan Avery is a member of the Toastmasters chapter I go to. He is an authentic, helping, and caring individual who has big dreams! As a world champion of public speaking, here shared some insights here. http://paulsohn.org/how-to-speak-like-a-world-champion-of-public-speaking/
Post a Comment