Lessons in High Performance with Chris Hoy & Christian Horner

This JLA Speakers event looked at how the best performers in the sporting world operate and what organisations and individuals can learn from them.  The teamwork, planning and psychology that go into elite level performance with one of Britain’s most successful Olympians, and a manager that has taken an F1 team to World Championship success.

The speakers:

Sir Chris Hoy MBE – six-time Olympic gold medallist and an eleven-time World Champion, Chris is one of most successful British sportspeople of all time. His combination of humility and determination has made him an influential figure inside and outside his sport. Alongside the huge amount of hard work required to be the best, he credits the pioneering psychological work done by the British cycling team with giving him the edge in a sport where winning and losing comes down to the smallest of margins. Since leaving the velodrome Chris has driven in GT and Le Mans series motorsport alongside work in broadcasting and business.

Christian Horner OBE  – Team Principal of the Red Bull Racing F1 team, Christian was appointed head of the team at their inception. Seen as the disruptive challenger to the established big players of F1, Red Bull took on the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes with far fewer resources and experience to call upon. Christian developed a culture of innovation and collaboration that drew the best talent on and off the track to the team. In a role he describes as ‘CEO during the week and team coach at weekends’, he looks at every aspects of this unique sport, from how to ship millions of pounds worth of cutting edge equipment around the world to the teamwork required to get a car across the finish line to how data is collected and analysed in new ways

The evening was hosted by Louise Minchin, BBC Breakfast presenter and recent member of the British triathlon team, an experience she’s documented in her book, Dare to Tri.