BCC International Women's Day event 2025;
Credit: Ali Sahib, Chronicle.lu
On Monday 10 March 2025, the British Chamber of Commerce for Luxembourg (BCC) celebrated International Women's Day with an event featuring Luxembourgish cyclist Christine Majerus, at the ATOZ Tax Advisers offices in Senningerberg.
Claudia Neumeister, BCC Vice Chair, welcomed the 80-strong audience to the event, telling them that the BCC shines a spotlight each year on remarkable women in Luxembourg, before introducing the evening’s guest, Christine Majerus.
Christine Majerus’ professional sports career lasted over seventeen years. She represented Luxembourg in four Olympic Games and won multiple national and international titles for the country. The BCC described Christine as paving the way for women in professional cycling, "showing resilience, dedication and leadership both on and off the bike".
Christine Majerus’ talk centred around the five challenges she faced during her cycling career. She drew many comparisons between the sporting and corporate worlds, stating that each faced similar issues and required similar strategies to solve them.
She spoke of how we cannot guarantee wins in life but can guarantee many challenges. This is true both in the sporting and corporate world. She asked the audience to think about what it is that defines a person - the number of victories they achieve or the number of challenges they overcome and to consider which is the more important.
The first challenge she described was the challenge of “starting”. She explained that “we do what we see”. As a child she did not see female cyclists and therefore did not know that cycling was something she could do. She spoke of making the decision to “follow her heart”, stating that people give more to all aspects of life if they decide themselves to follow a particular path, rather than being urged and persuaded by others to do so.
The second challenge she spoke about was that of growing and working as a team. Cycling, like a business or company, is a team sport. One person might be winning/getting all the glory but there is a team helping them achieve this. All team members work together to achieve this common goal, but must feel that they are necessary and needed. Performance within a team consists of raising one’s own level of training, as well as the collective level i.e. working together with co-workers. She emphasised the importance of trusting the work and decision making of colleagues, thereby nurturing confidence in co-workers. Respect between team members, sporting or otherwise, is also an integral part of the success of that team. This involves respecting and acknowledging that team members are doing their best. People work in different ways. She also noted that communication is vital for team success. Team members should be made aware that their voices count and are respected. Internal value should also be encouraged - sometimes saying “well done” can make all the difference to a colleague. She emphasised the importance of good leadership to properly nurture good team collaboration.
The third challenge she faced in her career was that of external valuation and recognition. At the beginning of her career, women’s sports and especially cycling was barely recognised by the media. Initially frustrated about this, she decided to change her vision to take on the responsibility of making herself and her sport visible to the media. This took time but she eventually achieved her goal, resulting in women’s cycling now being covered to a far greater extent (in the media). She spoke of her hope that the work she did to make her profession more visible will continue and would be of value to the next generation of girls.
She continued by speaking of the challenge and risk of training on open roads, sacrifices made on a personal level and coping with failure. A resilient mindset, finding meaning and redefining success gives the motivation to overcome these challenges, both in a sporting and corporate environment.
The final challenge she spoke of was that of giving something back. Her goal is to increase the visibility of cycling for the next generation and to continue to raise awareness of the sport, repeating her earlier phrase “we do what we see”.
Success is a combination of decision-making, teamwork, patience, a resilient mindset and good leadership, she reminded the event. Ms Majerus stressed that these qualities were not exclusive to sporting achievements but were qualities required in all areas of life.
The evening concluded with a question and answer session, followed by a networking reception with finger food and drinks.
HOM
