Olympic rowing great Kerri Williams has hung up her oars for the last time, after completing a rare sweep of medals at Paris this year.
Williams, 30, will depart as New Zealand's most successful female rower and just the fourth Kiwi woman to achieve gold-silver-bronze at the Olympics, behind sailboarder Barbara Kendall, shotputter Dame Val Adams and snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott. Golfer Lydia Ko would later become the fifth.
At Paris, she combined with sister Jackie Gowler, Davina Waddy and Phoebe Spoors to edge Romania for bronze in the coxless four, after taking gold in the coxless pair and silver in the eight at Tokyo three years earlier.
"I'm really proud of us as a crew for what we put out there that day," she said. "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."
Williams also picked up five world championship titles in the four (2014), pair (2017, 19, 22) and eight (2019).
She and pair crewmate Grace Prendergast became the first NZ women to win two world championships in the same year, as part of the 2019 eight. They were also part of the 2014 four that still hold the world record for that event.
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