Podcast 2025 EN
The Conversation · BBC World Service · Ella Al-Shamahi

Pushing limits, on condition you master them

On The Conversation, the BBC World Service show that pairs two exceptional women, Domitille Kiger, ten skydiving world records, talks with a hula hoop record holder. Two ways of pushing the limits of the possible, and one shared conviction: you do not get there by chance.

Published June 9, 2025 Hosted by Ella Al-Shamahi Language English Broadcast BBC World Service

Being invited by the BBC World Service already says a lot about the reach of Domitille Kiger's path. The show sets two paths of women who have broken world records side by side, and lets Domitille state, in English, what her keynote rests on “De l'Audace” : pushing limits is nothing like a reckless bet, it is the product of mastery.

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The Conversation, BBC · Domitille Kiger

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On the far side of fear

Domitille goes back to her very first jump, at fifteen: the aircraft door opens, the body screams at her to stop, and it is one of the strongest fears she has ever felt. But that day she also discovers what would become the thread of her life: on the far side of that fear, there was an enormous amount to find. Fear is not an enemy to run from, it is a threshold to cross, provided you know how.

On the far side of my fear, there was so much to discover.

Pushing limits, without gambling your skin

This is where what she says becomes valuable. Skydiving, she insists, is nothing like a random jump: it is a sport of rules and procedures. When you train for something, you reduce its danger. She gives a telling example: to pull off a night jump record with forty-two people, each carrying fireworks, it took nearly three months of research and development in the wind tunnel to make sure it would not be their last jump. Pushing a limit, for her, always goes through the preparation that makes the risk bearable.

Mastered risk, not vital

The distinction she draws for an international audience is the same one she draws on stage. Jumping from a plane, with its procedures and proven equipment, has nothing to do with BASE jumping, leaping off a cliff or a building, which she calls, without hedging, far more lethal. Not every risk is equal: there are the ones you prepare and that make you grow, and the ones that pass no reasonable test. Telling the two apart is the heart of “De l'Audace”.

What your teams take from it
  • Pushing limits by preparing them, not by forcing them.
  • Training and procedures that reduce danger instead of ignoring it.
  • Innovation tested before it is attempted (R&D, wind tunnel), never improvised.
  • The clarity to tell a mastered risk from a vital risk.
Going further

This episode illustrates one of the five topics of the “De l'Audace” keynote: Risk taking in business →

What does Domitille Kiger talk about on The Conversation?
In this English-language BBC World Service episode, she talks with another record holder about pushing the limits of the possible. She explains that going through fear and breaking records comes from mastery, training and procedures, not from recklessness.
How do you push limits without taking reckless risks?
By preparing. For her night jump record with fireworks, it took three months of wind tunnel research. When you train seriously, you reduce the danger, which lets you go further while keeping the risk mastered.
How does it connect to the keynote De l'Audace ?
Telling a mastered, prepared risk from a vital risk, the BASE jump kind for instance, is exactly the mechanism of the keynote: taking on the risks that make you grow and clearing away the ones that destroy.
Let's get to work

De l'Audace

Performing together by telling the risks that destroy from the risks that propel.