Kerri Williams: Olympic rower on their bronze medal in the Olympic Women's Four race

New Zealand's medal haul at the Paris Olympics has increased by a rowing trifecta of gold, silver and bronze. 

Lucy Spoors and Brooke Francis took the gold in the double sculls, the men’s four of Logan Ullrich, Tom Murray, Matt Macdonald, and Ollie Maclean dipped their oars in the spoils with silver. 

And their female counterparts Jackie Gowler, Kerri Williams, Davina Waddy, and Phoebe Spoors completed the podium with bronze. 

Kerri Williams told Ryan Bridge it hasn’t really sunk in yet. 

She said it was a bit of a sprint at the end as the leading team set a pretty hot pace, but they came out on the right side. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's been a busy day for our rowers, the Kei
we four.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is the the women have taken out a bronze
medal overnight on the squad. Kerry Williams and his sister
Jackie Gowler the Kiwis, were placed fourth in the last
one thousand meters, surging past Romania in a push for
the finish line. Netherlands or Great Britain to the line.
It's the Netherlands, Great Britain and New Zealand bronze medal.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Not Romanian at all?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
That was the gold race? Joining me now is Olympic
rowert Kerrie Williams. Carey, good morning and congratulations, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, how does it feel?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's pretty special? I think I think it hasn't really
sunk in. We're kind of just out of the hotel,
which is unfamiliar to us at the moment. But yeah,
it's pretty it's pretty cool. It was a cool day
for rowing.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Are you in a car full of medals?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
I am in a car full of medals.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Who's in there? Who's in there with you? How many
metals are you holding?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Well? We have the woman's double gold medalists and the
woman's four fantastic. That sex medals.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
What a great day for New Zealand rowing.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, it's pretty incredible. I'm so proud of the team
and it's really cool to be a part of and it.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Made extra special obviously because you're in the boat with
your sister Jackie, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, that is pretty cool to be lining up with
her and to get on the podium.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
How did the race go? How did you find it?
It was? It was obviously a bit of a sprint
at the end there, as it always is.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, the race was they said
a pretty hot pace the leading crews, so we had
a bit of work to get back in the race.
And then we've sort of always said you don't want
to end up in a romain and sprint to the furnish,
and that's where we ended up, but where you came
out on the right side. So that's bloody good.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
It's more than bloody good. It's fantastic. So I was
counting your metals up this morning. So you've got a
gold from the pair at Tokyo, you've got an h sorry,
a silver from the eight, and now a bronze and
the four.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
If I got that right, that the clean sweep.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, yeah, that one of each.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Tell me about your journey to get to these games.
Because you had a year off, right, what was that for?
And did you did you think you would come back?
Was that always the goal?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
If I'm honest, I didn't think i'd come back. I
needed a break. And then I sort of thought that's
not like it's not the ideal time to have a
year off and like a qualification year, but a year
out from these games, I sort of started to be like,
I think I want to be there and and I

(03:01):
don't know if it's too late, And so I just
started training again and here I am.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
So what's the lesson we can all learn from that?
Just don't give up, go back to it, keep going
if you've got more in the tank.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I think so. I think it was just I
could have. I could have I guess said no, it's
too late, but I thought I'd give it a crack anyway.
And it's paid off. So and it's been really cool.
I've really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Are your parents there watching you? Girls?

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah? Yeah, the whole family's here.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh fantastic. Well go and enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
You're you're in a car full of six medals, which
is which is great for as I said, great for rowing,
but also great for New Zealand. We're very proud of you.
And we've still got Emma to go. Tomorrow is Saturday,
I think, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeap, Yeah, we have the lightweight double tomorrow and Emma
and tom on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
So we're going to get more gold, don't we.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Kerry Williams, congratulations and thanks for your time.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
For more from Newstalk set B listen live on air
or online, and keep

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Our shows with you wherever you go with our podcasts
on iHeartRadio