Life after Rowing (1/5) - Niki van Sprang

At the end of every Olympic cycle, following the Olympic Games, there’s a flurry of retirements from rowing. After the Paris Olympics it was not different. Over this week World Rowing is highlighting five retirements. They all have different reasons; they all have their own story.

It’s mid evening and Nicolas van Sprang is home preparing some food while he talks to World Rowing. Van Sprang’s Instagram description says it all. “Former Dutch Olympic rower enjoying retirement. German born. US educated. Vice World and European Champion.”

That’s the short version. Here’s the detail.

Growing up in Berlin, most of “Niki” van Sprang’s weekends were spent on a farm. Doing organised sport was not possible. “Then at some point my mum said ‘you must do a sport otherwise I’m not letting you do social media’.” That was enough to motivate the 15-year-old into action. Not being good at ball sports, the suggestion to row looked like a good fit.

“I stuck around at the (rowing) club and got more serious, to the level that I was spending more time at the rowing club than at home. All my friends were there,” says van Sprang who was now living in the Netherlands. He enjoyed the training and loved the student rowing culture.

He made the national team for the Netherlands as a junior and then was accepted as a student athlete into the University of California, Berkley. On returning home, van Sprang worked his way back into the Dutch national team.

“It was tough times along the way. I learnt a lot about myself and questioned why I was doing this. The answer was because I loved it.”

Van Sprang made it into the Dutch double and then the pair, earning a silver at the World and European Championships along the way. In 2021 at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta with Guillaume Krommenhoek, the duo finished first in the pair to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. They went on to win the B-final, seventh overall.

For the next Olympic cycle, van Sprang moved between the pair, eight and four, helping to qualify the four for the Paris Olympics. The following year, back in the pair, van Sprang tried to qualify for Paris. The crew missed out by 0.36 seconds. Van Sprang became the spare.

“It was easier for me as a spare because I wasn’t the new kid on the block. I’d been part of the Olympic squad already, I’d proven myself and I knew how to compete and what a good spare looked like.”

“I accepted my role as a spare. I didn’t want to be there hoping that someone would get sick or injured. I found pride in myself and what I could do for the team.”

Van Sprang says it still hurt a couple of times. “My fellow spare did not enjoy me on the day of the pair final. It was one of the best races of the regatta.”

Deciding to retire took some reflection. Van Sprang had already thought about it after Tokyo. He’d been working part-time and still enjoyed rowing.

“I still had some athletic goals. But my world was growing. To be in professional sport you have to keep your world small. I was ready for new experiences.”

Moving into retirement became a gradual process.

“I raced the Holland Beker after not qualifying for Paris and had fun but a bit of the fire was missing.” This turned out to be van Sprang’s last race on the Bosbaan.

Van Sprang is now working full-time for a power exchange company and he says he’s getting used to long days behind a computer. But training is still a big part of his week – up to 15 hours. He’s been road cycling and mountain bike racing and competes in Hyrox.

“I’ve rowed twice since Paris,” says van Sprang who has no desire to feel himself getting slower. He recently rowed with Olympic Champion Fintan Mc Carthy at the 2025 European Rowing Championships, as part of his role with the World Rowing Communications and Social Media team.

He says his biggest change is realising that he can do what he wants when he wants.

“I still have to get used to this. Sometimes I wake up and think I have to train. Then I remind myself I don’t have to. Now a whole new world has opened up. And I’m not as tired all of the time.”

Van Sprang has retired from Rowing and he’s done it on his own terms.

“I see people around me that rowed for a long time and in the end it didn’t go the way they wanted. Maybe because of a coach or a bad result. I made a deal with myself not to let that happen. It was a huge challenge ending as spare in Paris. I wanted not to be bitter, I wanted to end on a positive note. I wanted to get out on my own terms in a positive way. I’m proud of that.”