Arête: ‘excellence’ of any kind
We often think that excellence is pursued and achieved by podium-placed athletes, highly branded heads of international corporations, or world leaders. But excellence can be achieved by everyone every day.
In our series of blogs, we are looking to address the transferable skills learned in our earlier lives that result in excellence in our later lives.
To achieve this, we are following the international swimming journey of commonwealth medalist Jamie Ingram who is currently training for the Paris Olympics. The lessons learned from Jamie can be applied to anyone at any time to various degrees. These can be passed on as ‘good habits’ to future generations through the workplace, communities, and families. We hope you enjoy following Jamie’s journey through what will be predictably lots of well-formed daily habits, some gains, some disappointments, and lots of learning.
Jamie began swimming competitively at the ripe age of 8 and was soon invited to join the Derbyshire Elite County Squad, Derventio eXcel. He won a national bronze medal in the 200 butterfly, aged 17, and a gold in the 100 butterfly a year later.
A national champion swimmer as a junior, he is now making a name for himself in the senior ranks. In addition to his athletic prowess, Jamie is also an achiever in the classroom, having recently graduated from the University of Manchester with a first-class degree in an integrated masters in Mathematics. With his combination of athletic ability and academic excellence, Jamie has made a splash on the international swimming scene.
Despite some injury setbacks and Covid disrupted training, Jamie finally started swimming closer to how he wanted to this year. At the British Championships 2022, he took home a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly event, posting a personal best of 52.46!
The up-and-coming swimmer with a promising future has shared his excitement with K&M, saying: “This resulted in my selection to the England team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games!
These games went very well for me, especially considering it was my first experience of world-class standard international racing. I won a silver medal as part of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and individually finished 8th in the 100m butterfly, setting 3 times faster than I had swum at trials that year.”
He has now set his sights on winning the British Championships in 2023, qualifying for the World Championships team and has eyes set on winning the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Swimming is at the core of our business with our founder Steven Dronsfield. After retiring from amateur athletics in 1990 following his silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, he transferred all his learned skill set into his now very successful business, K&M Global.
Followed out of the pool was his now International Operations Manager, Sam Horrocks, who still cherishes all learning outcomes as an opportunity to improve and creates a culture of learning around him with all of his team.
Steven and Sam are excellent examples of how athletes can achieve success in multiple fields.
Being an athlete requires intense dedication and discipline. You push your body to the limits and beyond what most people are willing to do.
You learn how to manage your time, set goals, and work hard. These are all values that are essential for success in any field. So when athletes retire from their sport, they don’t have to leave these skills behind. In fact, they can help to accelerate a career.
K&M is proud to sponsor Jamie Ingram as he continues striving for excellence within competitive swimming with the hope of inspiring other athletes along the way. Ingram’s dedication, hard work, and discipline are evident in his swimming and serve as an inspiration for others. Thank you, Jamie, for representing K&M!