Ant Williams is no ordinary speaker. He’s a world-record freediver who has held his breath for over 8 minutes, dived to 100m on a single breath, and swum 182m under solid ice in an unforgiving Arctic landscape. He doesn’t just talk about risk-taking and mental fitness; he lives it.
But here’s what makes Ant different: he wasn’t always a risk-taker. A former Sport Psychologist, Ant spent years coaching elite athletes - MotoGP riders, big wave surfers, rock climbers – only to feel like a fraud. Everything he was teaching came from a textbook, not from actual experience. So, he decided to take up a dangerous sport and discover whether risk-taking could be learned - and what advantage his mental fitness techniques would create.
Recently featured in an immersive film with Apple (2025), Ant’s keynotes combine gripping storytelling, powerful techniques from applied psychology, and interactive experiences to help audiences perform at their peak when it matters most.
Talking Points
Fearless under Pressure
Ant holds world records for the deepest and longest swims under ice. A sport psychologist turned extreme athlete, he combines mental fitness with relentless innovation to excel on the world stage. In this keynote, Ant teaches the strategies needed to perform in moments that count, sharing actionable techniques anyone can apply. Using insights from sport psychology, and his own extreme feats, he helps leaders and teams excel under pressure, embrace uncertainty, and develop a performance mindset that thrives in times of change or challenge. Fearless under Pressure
This high-impact session blends storytelling with jaw-dropping imagery from Ant’s world record attempts in ice diving. Ant takes audiences behind the scenes of his world record-breaking Ice Dive - an audacious 182m swim under ice in Iceland for an immersive film with Apple on the Vision Pro. He reveals what it takes to prepare for the extreme, the role of trust in high-stakes situations, and the mental strategies that helped him succeed when failure wasn’t an option.
Key takeaways: Mental Fitness
1. Why taking positive, calculated risk is essential to achieving your dreams
2. How to rewire your brain for courage and composure
3. Techniques to unlock new levels of performance
4. Simple tools to refuel your mind & body
Leadership at the Edge
What happens when a high-performing team, built for success, completely unravels under pressure? Leadership at the Edge
Business leaders may not face the Arctic cold, but they do face relentless change, the challenge of shaping culture, and the pressure of leading others through uncertainty. In 2019, Ant Williams set out to break an extreme sport world record — becoming the deepest man under ice. Yet, within 24 hours of arriving in the Arctic Circle, his elite dive team fell apart. Heated arguments, poor communication, and a weakness for Vodka descended some team members into chaos.
In this dynamic and interactive keynote, Ant takes leaders inside this high-pressure mission to uncover the real reasons teams succeed or fail. Through vivid storytelling and an immersive problem-solving challenge, attendees will step into the shoes of his dive team, identifying critical decisions that could have turned the team around before disaster struck.
Key takeaways: People Leadership
1. How to match your leadership to the situation and the person
2. The art of giving feedback that challenges, without crushing
3. Having honest conversations about poor performance
Keynote: Unlock your potential: Find your path to success
This is a high-impact, super interactive session, as we explore how to boost individual performance through taking on positive, calculated risk and by changing how to think about discomfort. I blend storytelling, from my competitive freediving, with some powerful imagery and video. My goal for each audience can be tailored to themes around leadership, sales growth, team performance, change management or health and wellness.Keynote: Unlock your potential: Find your path to success
1. What attracts me to compete in a dangerous sport
2. How mental toughness catapulted me into a top 5 world ranking
3. The importance of constantly evolving. Plus the need to take positive, calculated risks to achieve your goals.
4. Application activities to help us perform under pressure: correct breathing & energy management
Keynote includes option to share a 15min instructional video on correct breathing technique.
Workshop: Failing to adapt: Ice Dive case study
This is a table group problem-solving task on the Ice Dive World Record (2019) that took place high in the Arctic Circle. It is designed to explore what happens when a team fails to align around a common goal and create a performance culture. The elite team we pulled together to help me break the world record in ice diving fell to pieces within 24 hours of arriving in the Arctic Circle. With some jaw-dropping imagery to help me recount the story, I explain how even the best performers will deliver poor results if we don’t get the focus and culture right. Table groups will be encouraged to discuss and agree what steps they would take to turn around this under-performing team - in time to achieve their highly publicised goal. The interactive activities include having a performance conversations to team members in the ice dive team context. Strong links can be made to the performance or collaboration needs of the teams in the audience and where management want to see them evolve.Workshop: Failing to adapt: Ice Dive case study
Duration: 60 minutes
Video
Ant Williams | Showreel | Saxton Speakers
Bravery begins with belief | Ant Williams | TEDxMelbourne
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. By definition, Freediving is a life threatening sport, every single time it's attempted. What is your definition of "Stepping up to the Edge?" One of the deepest freedivers in the world, Ant can descend to the staggering ocean depth of minus 100 metres on a single breath of air. With a breathhold of eight minutes, Ant was ranked World Number Three for five years in one of the toughest disciplines of the sport. For two decades, he has studied the psychology of human performance, applying this knowledge to coaching both elite athletes and business leaders. He has undertaken the challenges of international consulting assignments with Super Rugby Teams, Olympians, World Championship athletes, and was director of a motorcycle racing team in the prestigious MotoGP world championship.ANT WILLIAMS - The Risk Taker's Handbook: How to Excel Through Positive, Calculated Risk Taking
Ant is an international keynote speaker on positive risk taking in business. For over a decade, he's developed the leaders of Blue Chip companies teaching mental toughness to help them build courage, perform under pressure and deliver results. Ant worked as a Sport Psychologist coaching big wave surfers, motoGP riders, rock climbers and other risk takers on how to break through mental barriers when he realised, according to him, he was a fraud. He hadn't done anything risky in his life. He wanted to know if anyone could learn how to become a risk taker. So Ant decided to take up freediving and learn first hand how to perform under pressure.Free diver Ant Williams on taking positive, calculated risks under pressure | Fearlessly Australian
How do you make the right decision when you’re under extreme pressure? It’s a question free diving world record holder Ant Williams has had to ask himself many times. Ant explains what free diving has taught him about taking positive, calculated risks and the techniques he uses to make the right decision when the pressure is on. Ant is a guest on the Fearlessly Australian podcast.Simply brilliant - what an inspiration. I could not recommend him more highly ... keep reading GE
Truly inspirational. The Global CEO and Executive Team referenced your presentation throughout the final session
Ant made a massive impact on our top performing sales teams
Your presentation at Macquarie yesterday was awesome I was absolutely enraptured as were my colleagues. You were able to bring us all on a journey with you, we felt your highs, lows, solitude and terror; it was amazing the way you did this. I found myself anxious before we did the holding the breath challenge and relieved once done. The way you seamlessly linked your rich experiences with our working environment and challenges was very clever, you left a very strong impression on me and on everyone else in the room
