From Gold Medals to the House of Lords: Chris Holmes Shares His Journey
This exclusive interview with Lord Chris Holmes was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
Lord Chris Holmes is one of Britain’s most successful Paralympians, a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, and a crossbench peer in the House of Lords where he champions accessible technology and inclusive innovation.
Born in Peterborough and blind from the age of 14, Chris won an incredible nine gold medals in the pool, becoming a national icon and a powerful voice for disability rights. Now recognized as one of the UK’s foremost Paralympian speakers, he uses his platform to inspire others on topics ranging from high performance and inclusive leadership to digital transformation and the future of work.
In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Lord Holmes reflects on his sporting career, his transition into public life, and why he believes inclusion and technology are the “golden threads” for shaping a better, fairer society.
Q: Succeeding at the elite level in sport takes more than talent. From your own journey, what key personal qualities do you believe are essential to becoming a Paralympic champion?
Lord Chris Holmes: “I think to succeed as a Paralympic swimmer, you need certainly to be able to take a lot of hard work—five hours training every day for 17 years. Resilience, for sure. Determination. And crucially, being able to put yourself out there.
“There’s no guarantee of success. When I started the mission, there was no sense I’d even qualify for the Games, never mind make a podium position. So really being prepared to put yourself out there, set a course and stick to it.
“And crucially, it’s not about really what you do at the Games in those few seconds of the race—it’s what you do in the weeks, months and years in the build-up to that one moment in time.”
Q: Your career in Paralympic swimming exemplifies sustained high performance under pressure. What lessons from that experience can today’s business leaders and teams apply in their own environments?
Lord Chris Holmes: “I think there are so many lessons for business from Paralympic high-performance sport—in terms of organisation, in terms of prioritisation, in terms of really drilling down to what matters. When I was training and competing, I had a very simple maxim, which I applied to everything: “Will it make me swim faster?” If it will, I would do it.
“If it wouldn’t, why would I? And that was for everything in life, not just what I was doing in the pool. Every single thing—will it make me swim faster? And having those acid tests I think is really important because we’re all bombarded with so much data, so much content, so much stuff these days.
“Just as it was when I was training, the key is to find that golden path through it and have that absolute mission statement, that acid test, and stick to it right the way through.”
Q: You’ve been a longstanding advocate for diversity and inclusion. What practical advice would you offer to business leaders aiming to build genuinely inclusive workplace cultures?
Lord Chris Holmes: “When it comes to diversity and inclusion, it’s a pretty simple message: just do it. Do it for legal reasons, for sure, but do it because it will make better organisations—broader organisations, richer organisations in every possible element. Crucially, lead on it. When it comes to it, what’s diversity and inclusion about?
“It’s leadership, and it’s culture, and it’s really thinking through how you can bring that to life and do it every day and ensure that your organisation is true to that, is inclusive by design. And every beat point, every element, every interaction within that organisation rings true to a truly inclusive, truly diverse culture—truly inclusive, truly diverse organisation.”
Q: One of your signature speaking themes is ‘being the leader of my own life’. Could you expand on what this means to you and how that concept emerged from your personal story?
Lord Chris Holmes: “‘Leader of my own life’ is a really popular speaking topic, and it came to me very early in life when I was just a regular working-class kid going to the local comprehensive school and then, completely unexpectedly, overnight I lost my sight.
“It wasn’t expected—I could never have imagined that. But in the midst of all of that trauma, all of that chaos, all of that confusion, it seemed pretty clear to me that I had to get so many people around me to help—family, friends, teachers, swim coaches—everybody I could get to help me.
“And it became clear—I couldn’t have expressed it in such clear terms at that time, but pretty soon afterwards—it was absolutely crystal to me that I had to be the leader of my own life. Crucially, the leader of my own life if I wanted to achieve the three goals that I had as a young kid then: to try and do A-levels, to try and get to university, and to try and represent Great Britain at sport.
“I could only potentially achieve one, two, maybe all three of them if I was the leader of my own life.”
Q: When you deliver keynote speeches, what are the most important messages or takeaways you hope to leave with your audience?
Lord Chris Holmes: “What I hope audiences take away from my presentations is a sense of practical, realistic and achievable pointers, suggestions, thoughts, ideas that they can take into their world.
“I write all of my presentations from scratch, so each presentation, each speech is unique because I want to make it as tailored, as connected to that organisation, that business, as I can possibly make it—to make it as relevant, as absolutely connected to their purpose, what they’re trying to achieve.
“And through that, really giving elements within it that they can take away and reflect upon and determine whether that can work within their organisation, whether it can be, you know, adapted and fitted in with their mission, their endeavours—but really wanting to make it as connective, as practical, as real, as authentic as I possibly can.”
This exclusive interview with Lord Chris Holmes was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
