Anna Hemmings's biography
International Women's Day
- 6x World champion kayaker and 2x Olympian
- Founder of high performance consultancy Beyond the Barriers
- Leadership coach specialising in resilience and excellence
Anna Hemmings is a 2x Olympian and 6x World Champion marathon kayaker who now works with global organisations to build resilient leaders and high-performing teams. As Britain’s most successful female marathon kayaker, Anna won eleven World and European Championship medals, nine of them gold. After being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome at the peak of her career and told she might never race again, Anna returned to win three more world titles, shaping her understanding of what resilience, mindset, and sustained high performance truly mean. Since retiring from professional sport, Anna has founded Beyond the Barriers, a high-performance training consultancy helping organisations build resilience and sustain excellence under pressure. An accredited leadership and high-performance coach, she has worked with CEOs, Senior Directors, and FTSE 100 organisations across more than 40 countries, translating the rigour of world-class sport into business-ready tools that address stretch targets, resource constraints, and constant change. Audiences learn impactful frameworks for decision-making under pressure, specific techniques for building team trust and accountability, and strategies for maintaining performance during setbacks. Anna combines lived experience from elite sport with research-driven performance psychology, translating world-class principles into tools tailored to each client’s environment and pressures. Book Anna to help your organisation embed the behaviours, culture, and resilience needed to perform at its best when the pressure is on.
Anna's showreel and videos
Topics, sessions and talks
Getting The Competitive Edge
Anna Hemmings draws on her journey as a 6 x World Champion and Olympian to explore what truly separates good from exceptional. She examines the mindset, attitudes, and behaviours that underpin consistent success, alongside practical tools for performing under pressure. Blending elite sport insight with business relevance, Anna shows how to embed a performance cycle that drives continuous improvement and sharper results.
Resilience: Success In The Face Of Adversity
Anna Hemmings shares the realities of rebuilding her career after chronic illness to reveal how resilience is developed. Through practical strategies and honest reflection, she explores emotional control, perspective, recovery, and decision-making under pressure. Leaders and teams discover how to remain focused, respond rather than react, and sustain performance even when circumstances are challenging.
Building World Class Teams
Anna Hemmings translates lessons from elite sport into the dynamics of high-performing corporate teams. Drawing on her experience as both an individual and doubles world champion, she explores trust, accountability, alignment, and constructive challenge. Grounded in performance science and real world application, Anna demonstrates how cohesive cultures are built and how collective standards drive stronger, more consistent results.
The Resilient Leaders Toolkit
Anna Hemmings examines the behaviours that enable leaders to remain clear-headed and effective during uncertainty and change. Using insights from her Olympic career and coaching practice, she introduces practical strategies for handling pressure, building confidence, and creating clarity of direction. Her Resilient Leaders Elements model provides a structured approach to leading with presence, focus, and purpose when it matters most.
Why we recommend booking Anna
Anna Hemmings draws on her journey as a double Olympian and six-time world champion to deliver practical strategies for resilience and high performance, tailored to the unique challenges your team faces. Book Anna today to empower your organisation with proven tools for thriving under pressure and sustaining excellence.
Anna’s top tips for ‘Getting the Competitive Edge’, learned from a career in sport, are practical, relevant and directly applicable to any business. The Lego models are brightening up our office and are a great reminder of the personal and team learnings and commitments that we made to enable us to meet the challenges that 2020 holds.
Anna Achene
Revenue Planning Manger, British Airways
After seeing Anna present at another event I knew she would be perfect for our kick off meeting. Her story of triumph over adversity and the importance of resilience in pushing for success were extremely well received by the team. Anna is a fantastic presenter and engages with her audience in an unassuming way which keeps you listening to the very end. If you are looking for a sporting champion who understands how to align her message with your specific strategy and challenges then look no further than Anna.
Jason Worthy
UK Managing Director, Life Fitness
Anna was just wonderful! Absolutely delivered the right messages and inspired the passion we wanted! Hope she enjoyed being with us as well! It was lovely working with Anna.
Europe Perfect Store Marketing Manager, Unilever
Europe Perfect Store Marketing Manager, Unilever
