CSB - Kerri Williams - Olympic champion.

One of New Zealand’s most successful female rowers has announced her retirement from the sport.

Kerri Williams, 30, won three Olympic medals and five senior world championship titles in a unique international career that began in 2013.

“Mind and body-wise, I’m ready for a change,” says Williams. “I probably could have kept going, but I’m satisfied with where I’m at and what I’ve achieved and it’s time to do something else.”

At the Paris Games in July, she became only the fourth New Zealand woman to win gold, silver and bronze medals at an Olympics, alongside Barbara Kendall, Dame Valerie Adams and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to talk rowing now on the show, and
some big news this week. The New Zealand rowing great
Kerry Williams has announced her retirement from the sport that
she absolutely loves after completing the set of Olympic Cup medals.
The thirty year olds hanging up her oars after a
decorated career which saw her win three Olympic medals and
five World Championship titles, and she joins me this morning

(00:22):
on the show, Kerrie, good morning morning.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, look, an absolute pleasure. And first off, I've got
to congratulate congratulate you on an amazing career. Well done,
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, no, it's been very special.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
So what made you call it quit?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I think for me, I'm so content with everything I've achieved.
I mean, I still love the sport, but yeah, I'm
ready to move on to something else. And I am
just so yeah, so content, and there's not a lot
else out there that I have the desire to achieve

(01:04):
and rolling.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, you've virtually achieved everything, haven't you really. Olympic medals,
World championship titles, in factor, I think you became just
a fourth New Zealand woman alongside Barbara Kendall, Dame Valerie Adamson,
and Zoe's Azaitzki Senate to win a gold, silver, and
a bronze medal.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, it's pretty surreal, and I think reflecting on that
after Paris has been a really special time, and yeah,
I feel just so lucky to have been able to
have the support to achieve all of those goals and more.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Was it hard making the decision?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
It was always going to be hard, but I think
for me going into Paris, I sort of thought that
might be my last games, but obviously you don't really
think about it until after. But yeah, this past couple
of months, I've definitely felt like it's the right.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Time and for you now that's it. I mean, the
early morning training is getting up early, doing the kilometers
on Lake Katapiro, the whole lot. It must be a
bit of a relief.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, absolutely. To be honest, I used to love the grind.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
I used to love the training, but it is really
nice at the moment to sort of wake up and
be like, oh, I mean, if I don't feel like
doing any form of exercise today, I don't have to, So.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
What are you going to do? What a change of direction?
Have you got any plans.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm not too sure at the stage.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
I'm going to take a little bit of time to
figure it out, and yeah, sort of figure out what's
next to me. But at this stage I don't have
any set plans in place.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
An amazing career, really, Carrie, when you think about it,
I mean born and Ratahi for a start off, and
then you went to school in Martin where your preference
initially was a questrian, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
I went to Natawa, which is a Harsey school. Used
to take my horse long to school. But yeah, when
I followed my friends off to Row, that quickly became
a hot favorite of mine because yeah, the more if
it I put in, the more I got out of it.
And I just thrived in that environment.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
And of course your sister also followed. A young younger
sister followed in your footsteps, Jackie, didn't she.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yes, Yeah, it's been pretty cool being in the system
with her for a majority of my career, and we've
ended up in a lot of boats together and it's
pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah. I was just going to say, what's it like,
you know, being in the boat Like in Paris, you
were in the four with your sister, along with Divina,
Waddie and Phoebe Spores. What was that like?

Speaker 3 (03:36):
I mean, it's pretty special. I think we often did that.
I mean, there's no one better in line up within
your sibling, so you know that you're gonna go to
war with each other, you know, So it's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool to know that there's no doubts there.
But equally same from Divina and Phoebe. We all had

(03:58):
the utmost confidence in each other and we're going to
give it our all in that day.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Do you and Jackie do you push each other give
each other a hard time? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (04:08):
You might have noticed where the other opposite ends of
the boat.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, we lose a bit of a filter,
But I think it's a benefit we get our point
across straight away.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
When you think about it. You've been on the international
rowing scene for what ten years now? Really? I think
your first World championships were twenty fourteen. Have you got
any one highlight? I mean you Rode and Cox fours
and pears in the eighth. What's the highlight for you?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
I feel like.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
It's really hard to sort of out nail it down
to one highlight. I think every middle, and every games
and race has its own sort of journey and story
and thing that's special about it. But I think the
when Grace and I won gold and the pair in Tokyo,
we just the amount that we'd put into that, and

(04:59):
with the five your campaign and COVID in the middle
of that, and then to just execute what we knew
we were capable of.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
I feel like that's got to be up there with
one of the.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
One of the high ones winning gold in Tokyo in
the eight, or rather silver in the eight in Tokyo,
that must also have been special.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
And to have such a great bunch of women and
Caleb our Cox and at the time and now coach
Gary Hay. We had such an awesome journey together and
I feel so lucky to have been part of that.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
It was really special.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, Kerry again, congratulations on an amazing career and thank
you so much for joining us in all the best
for your future.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Thank you very much, thanks for having me