Kerri Williams during rowing training at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical St Paris, France in 2024. Photo: Steve McArthur / www.photosport.nz
Three-time Olympian and New Zealand's most successful female rower Kerri Williams nearly didn't make it beyond the Whanganui river.
Williams is a five-time world champion and has the full set of Olympic medals, but she was turned away from national trials as an age-group athlete.
This week, Williams announced her retirement from an elite rowing career that began in 2013.
She said she believed her tale of triumphing over adversity was an example of what was possible with a bit of "grit and determination".
Williams (née Gowler) began rowing in 2009 for Nga Tawa Diocesan School and Aramoho Whanganui Rowing Club before eventually securing her place in a national squad.
"A lot of people go through the age-group system so they make the New Zealand under-19 - or junior team when I was coming through - and the under-23s. I missed both of those I trialled for them but wasn't successful and at the time it was pretty devastating but I think the drive that came from missing out has probably lead to further success throughout my career as I was really determined to not be sent home from a trial again.
"I really just knuckled down and worked really hard and reaped the rewards from that and I think for me it's just cool for everyone to know that there's not just one way to do it.
"If you miss out earlier on in your career it doesn't mean it's over, and there is always going to be up and down and you learn more from your setbacks and it's just your next step that you take is the key one."
Ten years ago, Williams first showed the world what she was capable of when she teamed up with Grace Prendergast to create a formidable partnership that would last nearly a decade of highs and lows.
Out of the boat, Williams and Prendergast are poles apart - but with oars in hand they were in sync.
Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler win gold in Tokyo. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Prendergast is now based in the United Kingdom and from her Cambridge, New Zealand base Williams regularly talks with her former boatmate.
"We get along so well inside and outside of rowing ... we are very different people but we had the same idea and the same goals and it really worked for us."
They won gold in the pair at the 2014 World Rowing U23 Championships in a record time. Weeks later they jumped in the women's four at the elite World Rowing Championships, winning gold in a new world's best time.
In 2019, Williams and 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.
They backed that up at the Tokyo Olympics with a gold medal in the pair and silver in the eight.
While Prendergast did not go to the Paris Olympics, Williams was part of the bronze medal winning women's four with her sister Jackie Gowler, Davina Waddy and Phoebe Spoors.
"I definitely wanted to be in Paris but I maybe needed a bit of a break after Tokyo but I didn't take it and I kept going, and then I found myself in a place where I wasn't sure about Paris. Two years seemed quite overwhelming so I stepped away for a bit, but it just made me appreciate it more and I just realised I really wanted to be in Paris, but I wasn't too sure whether I'd left my run way too late.
"But looking back I have no regrets with everything I did.
"The timing that I [took a break] wasn't ideal - I came back less than a year until the Games, so on reflection it would have been probably more ideal to have that break earlier, but it's also proved that it is doable if you put your mind to it. I definitely came back really fresh and with a lot more enthusiasm than when I was needing a break."
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Williams entered the Rowing New Zealand high performance programme full of youthful exuberance and competitive spirit.
She enjoyed the daily grind of putting in the miles for which rowers are famous..
To stay at the top of her sport for so long, she learnt when to push and when to back off, she said.
"It's a lot more managed now than when I first started and I was just young and keen and go out there and work as hard as you can all the time, which has its benefits as well. But I think it's always going to take a toll as rowing has always been quoted 'miles make champions', so we do do a lot of hours and a lot of miles, but it is just managing it and it is really well managed.
"Just with experience you learn the sessions that you should extend yourself and the sessions that you don't need to go and prove that you're the fastest to everyone.
"It is training a bit smarter but there's definitely that element of, I would never have got to where I did if I had've started off thinking I could train a bit smarter than harder. It's that underlying grit and determination comes from being a bit young and and going out there and putting it all out there every day."
After winning in several different boats across her career, Williams said "I just love sweeping".
Prompted to make a choice of which she preferred, Williams went back to where the success started.
"A pair will always be special to me as I spent the most time in it and it's equally the most frustrating but rewarding boat I've ever rowed.
"There's something about the art of putting a pair together that is really hard but so satisfying."
Photo: Steve McArthur/Photosport Ltd 2021
Williams said she thought the culture in rowing had improved over the years as the women became a tighter knit group and she left Paris feeling like they were a family.
"I was really lucky to be of an era where there was a really huge group of driven successful women coming through Rowing New Zealand and paving the way. It was a really special inspiring group and we're all great friends ... I'm really glad I was a part of that."
After spending a large part of her life on the water, Williams said she was not sure what was next for her. However, she believed she was leaving rowing in a good place for the next group of women to keep New Zealand on the podium at the big regattas.
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