BCC Women's Day Event Puts Spotlight on Local Athlete's Achievements

In recognition of International Women’s Day, on Tuesday 8 March 2022, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) People and Leadership Group held an in-person evening event at the Ginkgo Centre in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg.

This event was an opportunity to hear the story of one of Luxembourg’s most inspirational women: Paule Kremer.

Luxembourg athlete Paule Kremer kept the audience, which included the British Ambassador Fleur Thomas, spellbound with her recollections of how she successfully swam across the English Channel. She is still the first and only recorded Luxembourger who has managed the feat and she did so in 2017 at the age of 29. 

In a wide-ranging interview with Claudia Neumeister (BCC People and Leadership Group member), Paule Kremer talked about the importance of developing mental strength and self-belief.  She fascinated everyone with her remarks on how she overcame mental and physical challenges and into to get into a state of flow and a positive, "I can do it" mindset. 

In conversation with Claudia Neumeister, Ms Kremer announced that she is not done yet with her swimming challenges. Her next goal is to complete Oceans Seven - a gruelling, marathon, swimming event consisting of achieving seven open water channel swims at various locations around the world. She was ready to do the second leg, swimming the Catalina Channel, in 2020 but COVID-19 restrictions put a temporary break to her plans. She was confident that, with sufficient sponsorship, this year will see it happen.

Paule Kremer recognised the importance of not looking back with regrets and led those present through a valuable process on how to set big goals. Her view was that many women, in particular, seemed afraid to set themselves goals and lived in fear of being exposed somehow as imposters with whatever they want to do. Men and women needed to support female aspirations and, quite literally, get out of their swim lane when they are aiming for something challenging.

She recognised that everyone can have limiting beliefs and doubts about what they can actually achieve and there were certainly sacrifices to be made along the way to success. However, Ms Kremer talked passionately about the value of self-belief and the significance of setting personal plans and priorities. She also recognised that support for her athletic pursuits, including emotionally and financially, were essential. As a full time English teacher in Luxembourg as well as an ultra-endurance athlete who has also competed in Triathlon and Duathlon events, she perfectly knew the difficulties of managing priorities.

In answering many lively questions from an appreciative audience, it was clear that the overall message was that if you set your heart and mind to something, then you can certainly achieve it. So much rests on mental attitude when individuals face challenges, planned or unplanned, she noted. 

As Dr Keith Amoss (BCC People and Leadership Group member) noted: "This is one woman who relishes the chance to show Luxembourg and the world that there is no stopping her now. Truly a role model".

In closing, Andrew Notter from the Board of the British Chamber of Commerce for Luxembourg thanked Concept Factory and MyOwnTaxPractice for sponsoring the event and to Ginkgo for hosting the evening.