2016 Summer Olympics silver medallist Shaun Keeling speaks at Gold Fields

Sport has a way of exciting, uniting and driving an immense amount of passion in us all. It brings people together and teaches valuable lessons which can be applied in all aspects of everyday work and life. A lot of our work and lifestyle habits in the CN&CO team are demonstrated through sport as many of us are involved in a variety of sports from charitable participation in marathons to leisurely golf and soccer. Sports encompasses our belief in the balance between lifestyle and business.

This attitude carries over to our partners as well, one of which is RMB. Since July 2017 RMB announced the official sponsorship of the National Squad, now known as the RMB National Squad. The sponsorship will see the squad through to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

Shaun Keeling holds a silver medal in the coxless pair which he won at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Shaun who is  also in the marketing and branding division of Purple Group (another one of our partners), recently gave a talk at Gold Fields to share his experience of how teamwork, tenacity and a singular focus on a common goal helped his team achieve Olympic success.  Here’s Shaun’s wrap-up of the Gold Fields event: 

It has been a while since I have had the privilege of doing a talk so thank you to Gold Fields and RMB (the sponsor of our National Squad) for the opportunity, also to Purple Group for letting me sneak away in the middle of the day and keep my job.

It is always an honour to speak about rowing and my journey towards winning an Olympic silver medal. It is always great to showcase the sport of rowing, to create more exposure and interest in the amazing sport. The teamwork, dedication, technique and grit the sport requires is second to none.  

Doing a talk always reminds me of the amazing times and friends I have made in my life and how extraordinarily lucky I was to be given a chance to represent South Africa on such a large scale.

There were many tough times in my career but like I say always say, “I am not telling you this story to tell you about the difficulties I had and how hard my rowing career was but to show people that if you believe in yourself you can achieve anything”. I believe in this mantra; if you want something in life no matter what it is you can achieve it! I would have given anything to get this medal and am extremely proud of it.

People also seem to really enjoy the story so it can’t be all that bad! Hopefully next time Lawrence and I can do another talk together as it is always better with both of us talking.

CN&CO would like to extend gratitude to our partner RMB CIB for the incredible support and commitment. Rowing in South Africa would have a much harder time hitting the water without the sponsorship. Thanks for Thinking.Pulling.Together. with our National Squad!