Ronald Rauhe is one of the most successful and renowned canoeists in the world, whose impressive career is marked by outstanding athletic achievements, extraordinary discipline, and determination.
With a total of five Olympic medals, including one gold, as well as numerous World Championship and European Championship titles, he is among the most prominent figures in canoeing. Known affectionately as “Ronny” by his fans, Rauhe embodies not only athletic success but also teamwork, perseverance, and the ability to perform at the highest level under extreme pressure.
In addition to his athletic career, Ronald Rauhe is a speaker and motivator, using his experiences in elite sports to inspire people in areas such as goal-setting, resilience, and leadership. His talks are characterized by authenticity, passion, and profound insights into the principles of success that have made him one of the best athletes in his field.
Ronald Rauhe in an interview:
1. What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
1. Create visions
A vision is the lighthouse that points the way – it provides orientation, creates motivation and sets clear goals. Visions arise when you see the future not just as a possibility, but as a concrete shape in front of you. They must be big enough to inspire and clear enough to serve as a compass. If you have a strong vision, you can stay focussed and inspire others even in challenging times.
2. Team performance
Success is rarely the work of an individual. Teams achieve great things when each member contributes their strengths and the group is stronger than the sum of its parts. Trust, communication and a common goal are crucial. Top performance is achieved when everyone in the team works not just for themselves, but for the greater good – especially under pressure.
3. Resilience
Resilience is the ability to see setbacks not as an end point, but as a turning point. It is the inner strength that helps us to get up and carry on even in difficult times. Resilience means learning from challenges, growing from them and recognising them as an opportunity for personal development.
4. Kaizen – The way to get a little better every day
Kaizen is an attitude of continuous improvement. It is not about changing everything at once, but about getting better step by step – a little bit every day. This continuous process leads to outstanding results in the long term and prevents you from standing still. It is the key to approaching the big goal in small steps.
5. Adaptability
In a world that is constantly changing, adaptability is a decisive strength. It enables us to react flexibly to new challenges and recognise opportunities that others overlook. Adaptability means not being overwhelmed by change, but actively shaping it and capitalising on it.
6. Recognise strengths
The first step to sustainable success is to recognise your own strengths and consciously use them. We often underestimate what makes us unique. If you recognise your talents and skills, you can work on them in a targeted manner and turn them into a competitive advantage – both for yourself and in your team.
7. Develop the courage to leave the comfort zone
Growth begins where the comfort zone ends. It takes courage to face challenges that involve uncertainty. But this is precisely where the greatest opportunities lie – for personal development, new successes and the realisation of potential that remains hidden in the safety of the comfort zone.
8. Success is not achieved alone
Every great success is the result of collaboration. Mentors, colleagues, friends and supporters play a crucial role on the way to the top. Success means being grateful for the people who support you and encouraging others along the way.
9. Self-reflection – the key to success
If you want to be successful, you have to be honest with yourself. Self-reflection means regularly pausing to analyse successes and failures and learning from them. It is the process that allows us to improve ourselves, remain true to ourselves and still grow steadily.
10. Motivation
Motivation is the engine of success. It arises from clarity about the ‘why’ behind our actions. To stay motivated in the long term, we not only need goals, but also enthusiasm for the process – for the small steps forward and the challenges that drive us forward.
2. Which audiance or which branch do you reach with your speech?
My keynote is aimed at anyone who strives for sustainable success in their life or career – whether in management, in teams, in sport or in personal development. I address leaders who want to inspire and develop their teams, as well as organisations facing the challenges of change and adaptation.
I also reach out to people who are interested in realising their potential, turning setbacks into opportunities and achieving long-term success. My messages are universal: whether someone is active in business, sport or everyday life – the principles I share from my 25 years of experience at the top of the world are transferable and can be applied in any life situation.
Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
My relevance as a premium speaker is based on an extraordinary journey of 25 years at the top of the world in competitive sport, including six appearances at the Olympic Games. This experience has shown me not only how to achieve peak performance, but more importantly, how to maintain it consistently over decades.
I bring a wealth of personal knowledge with me: How to use setbacks as opportunities for growth, how adaptability becomes a key skill and how to create sustainable success, even in the most demanding situations. These principles have not only shaped me, but are universally applicable – whether in sport, at work or in life.
I have been particularly influenced by the experience of working with a wide variety of people and characters in teams – often under extreme pressure and with the challenge of delivering top performance when it really counts. This has taught me how important vision, trust, resilience and mutual motivation are in order to achieve great things together.
My goal as a speaker is to share all of these valuable lessons and strategies with my audience in a way that is not only inspiring, but immediately applicable. I want to help people recognise their own potential, leave their comfort zone and become a little better every day in order to create their own sustainable success.
4. What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
The future brings one thing above all: change. In competitive sport, as in life, nothing is static – and that is precisely the challenge. Time plays a decisive role in my profession, because it not only determines the competition itself, but also the preparation, development and handling of moments of success or defeat.
At the same time, it is consistency that makes sustainable success possible. It is not enough to achieve peak performance in a single moment; it is about repeating it again and again, continuously adapting and not losing sight of the goal.
My 25 years at the top of the world have shown me that the key lies in balance: between the ability to adapt to what the future brings and consistency in the principles that make us successful. Those who master this balance can achieve great things not just in the short term, but in the long term – and make time their ally in the process.
5. Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
“A loser sees a problem in every opportunity,
a winner sees an opportunity in every problem.”
Sustainable success is no coincidence – it comes from clear visions, continuous development and the courage to leave your comfort zone. Setbacks are opportunities, and real strength is shown in adaptability, teamwork and self-reflection.
Success starts with yourself – getting a little better every day is the key.