A six-time World Champion and two-time Olympian, Anna Hemmings remains Britain’s most successful female marathon kayaker.
By the age of 24, Hemmings had already competed at the Sydney Olympics and claimed three world titles. But just as her career was peaking, she was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a condition that left her unable to train, let alone compete.
Told she might never race again, Anna Hemmings spent two years rebuilding her strength, both physically and mentally. Her eventual return resulted in three more world titles and a second Olympic appearance in Beijing 2008. That lived experience of recovery, resilience and sustainable performance now sits at the heart of her work.
Anna Hemmings is an accredited high-performance and leadership coach and the founder of Beyond the Barriers, a consultancy that works with global businesses to develop resilient leaders and high-functioning teams. Over the past 16 years, she has partnered with companies such as IBM, Unilever, Novartis, Deloitte, Danone, and Rolls-Royce to deliver bespoke leadership programmes, performance coaching and keynote speeches.
Her sessions are rooted in evidence-based psychology and leadership principles, but what makes her stand out is how she fuses them with hard-won insights from elite competition. Hemmings speaks the language of performance in a way that resonates across sectors, whether she’s working with senior executives, emerging leaders or multicultural teams spread across continents.
Her most requested sessions include:
- – Getting the Competitive Edge with a Winning Mindset
- – Resilience: Success in the Face of Adversity
- – Building World-Class Teams
Anna Hemmings holds a BSc in Economics and Management from Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2010, she was awarded an MBE by The Queen for her services to sport.
