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After 25 years at the top of the world, triathlete Nicola Spirig will be contesting her last competition on Saturday.
The sprint at the end is tight. So close that Nicola Spirig doesn’t know who won at the finish line. You or your Swedish competitor Lisa Nordén? Minutes of waiting pass. Meanwhile, the athletes are already preparing for the award ceremony in a room. “It was a very special situation,” recalls Nicola Spirig. “We laughed that we didn’t know which of us won.” Only the finish photo brings certainty to the Swiss.
The Olympic victory in London is the highlight of Nicola Spirig’s career and a great success for the country. “I was only the fourth Swiss woman to win gold at the Summer Olympics,” says Spirig in retrospect. This is twelve years ago. On Saturday, Spirig ended her career as one of the most successful Swiss athletes with the Greifensee Run (ZH).
“I’m grateful that I was able to decide to retire myself and wasn’t forced to do so by an injury,” says the 40-year-old. “I’m looking forward to more time with my family and other projects.” Among other things, Spirig wants to continue to be involved in her foundation for children and young people.
The resignation also makes her sad, admits Nicola Spirig. “Of course I will also miss a few things. But I’ve also learned through sport to focus more on the future than on the past.” In addition, sport will continue to be present in her life.
As a kid on Sundays in the gym
Even as a child, Nicola Spirig grew up athletic, she is the daughter of a couple of gym teachers. “My siblings and I had the privilege of going to the gym on Sundays.” There they were able to try different sports. The family often played sports together.
Spirig and her husband, who was also a top athlete, would like to pass this passion on to their three children. “We both learned a lot for life through sport. And we hope that our children experience the same. It doesn’t have to be top-class sport.” But like little Nicola once upon a time, her offspring should also be able to try out different sports.
Nicola Spirig on the road to victory
As a child and teenager, Spirig played basketball, skied and snowboarded. When it becomes too much time, she decides to do the triathlon. “In this one sport there were still three disciplines. So I didn’t have to limit myself to anything.”
Another reason: Spirig witnessed triathlon being an Olympic sport for the first time in 2000 in Sydney. “That’s when the Olympic dream came about,” says Nicola Spirig. She competes five times in her career as a triathlete. Four years after her victory in London, the athlete won silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The medal wins still move the athlete today: “To be on the podium at the Olympic Games and to hear the national anthem is an amazing feeling.”
But no matter what competition it is: Nicola Spirig always tries to achieve the maximum. This also applies to her last run around the Greifensee. She does not expect a best time because she has not trained as intensively. “But when I’m at the starting line, I want to do my best,” says Nicola Spirig. “Otherwise I don’t have to start.”