Olympic rowing champion Kerri Williams retires

Jackie Gowler, Phoebe Spoors, Davina Waddy and Kerri Williams claimed bronze at the Paris Olympics. Photo / Photosport

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.

Williams was stroke of the Women’s four, with her sister Jackie Gowler, Davina Waddy and Phoebe Spoors, that finished third only 0.44s ahead of Romania.

“I’m really proud of us as a crew for what we put out there that day,” says Williams. “We just constantly had to step and step and step. I was like, ‘Wow, how many more gears do we have’? I guess that’s the cool thing, I’ve constantly surprised myself throughout my career that there’s often another gear that you don’t think is there.”

In 2019, Williams and Grace Prendergast became the first New Zealand female athletes to win a World Rowing Championship title in two events in the same year, the women’s pair and eight.

It was New Zealand’s first world championship win in the women’s eight.

Grace Prendergast and Kerri Williams after winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Photo / Photosport

She and Prendergast backed that performance up at the Tokyo Olympics with a gold medal in the pair and silver in the eight.

Unlike most athletes, Williams did not advance to the elite squad through the age-group system.

Her international call-up came in 2013, when she was selected for the Elite Women’s Eight to row the World Cup regatta in Sydney. The crew went on to win the B final at the world championships in South Korea.

In July 2014, she and Prendergast signalled their potential by winning a silver medal in the women’s pair at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, beating New Zealand’s No 1 combination in the final.

They went on to win the under-23 title two weeks later. To their surprise, they were named to row the women’s four at the world championships that August.

Williams, Prendergast, Kelsey Bevan and Kayla Pratt won gold, in 6m 14.36s, a world-best time that still stands.