Florence Schelling, Olympic and World Championship bronze medalist and the world’s best ice hockey goalkeeper.
Alongside her field hockey career, Florence has completed a Masters in Business Administration and Sports Management, trained as a Certified Professional Coach and worked in a variety of industries in the private sector. She not only offers a unique perspective, but also a wealth of knowledge that extends far beyond the ice rink.
Florence Schelling discovered her passion for field hockey at the tender age of 4 when she was included in her brothers’ goalie drills at home in the garage. This early experience shaped her intense desire to become an ice hockey goalkeeper and laid the foundation for her impressive career.
Florence Schelling Lecture Topics
- With Focus to the Goal – More Courageous, Motivated and Resilient; how willpower and clarity support you on your path to success.
- High-performing teams – composition for team dynamics, psychological safety and leadership
- Successful failure – resilience, perseverance and self-management
- Decision Making – Decision making to achieve common goals, positive error culture and self-reflection
- Sport & Business – The parallels between the principles of success, mindset and motivation
- The power of habits – adaptability of routines, ability to innovate, time management
At the age of 8, she set herself a big goal: to take part in the Olympic Games – at a time when, to her knowledge, women’s ice hockey was not yet an Olympic sport. At the young age of 13, she was nominated for the national team for the first time and was a regular goalkeeper for the Swiss national team from 2003 to 2018.
In her 15-year career as a national team goalkeeper, Florence Schelling has broken through the glass ceiling several times. At the 2006 Olympic Games, she was the youngest player in the Olympic tournament, and at the 2008 World Championship she led her team to the bronze medal match – the best finish in the history of the Swiss team to date. Just four years later, at the 2012 World Championships, she won her first bronze medal and was also named best goalkeeper. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, she won the bronze medal with the national team and received several awards for her performances – as most valuable player and best goalkeeper – as well as being selected for the tournament’s all-star team.
Florence Schelling played a total of 190 international games, she participated in four Winter Olympics and eleven World Championship tournaments. She spent 17 years in goal for the men’s team of the GCK / ZSC Lions and EHC Bülach, where she became Swiss champion three times and was the first woman ever to keep goal for a game of the GCK Lions’ National League B team.
After ending her active career in 2018, Florence Schelling regularly appeared on SRF as an ice hockey expert, became coach of the U18 national team and later became the first woman in the world to be the sports director of a professional men’s team, SC Bern.
Florence Schelling challenged herself again and again and strengthened various ice hockey clubs in Switzerland, the USA, Canada and Sweden with her skills and positive energy.
During her long career as a professional ice hockey goalkeeper, Florence learned that only through clear focus was she able to perform at her best on a daily basis. She developed specific focus strategies and techniques to help her manage high performance sport, her work and her personal life. She is now self-employed as a Focus Finder and serves on boards of directors. As a Focus Finder, she positively inspires others to find their optimal focus so that they can achieve their highly ambitious goals.
Florence Schelling is a captivating and inspiring keynote speaker who can inspire and motivate her audience with her personality and knowledge. Her stories of exciting experiences in sport, management and international stations are compelling and capture the essence of leadership, teamwork and personal success.