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Nikola Spirich is a Swiss triathlete and is the world’s best athlete, finishing gold medal at the London Olympics in 2021, silver at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and sixth place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Nikola isn’t just good at sports. He’s also a mother of three, and when she wasn’t working out she was also a lawyer. CNNNikola revealed that he is preparing to retire after 20 years of playing.
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Nikola suffered a serious bicycle accident earlier this year, which left her with three ribs, a broken collarbone and a hole in her lungs. It happened just a few months before the game. At the time, he was aiming to finish the triathlon, which included swimming, running and biking, within eight hours of the competition. And despite an injury, he set a record of 7 hours 24 minutes 19 seconds in the match held on June 5 (local time) in Germany. “It’s a pity that I couldn’t train for 12 weeks due to an accident. But he worked really hard in the end. He did his 100% best under the given circumstances.”
Nikola started triathlon at the age of 10. He and he became the first triathlete to compete five times in the Olympics alone. Nikola studied law while doing his sports and also worked as a lawyer. “Actually, I didn’t know that he would compete in so many Olympics and win a gold medal. He was due to quit his athletic career after two Olympic appearances to work as a lawyer. But he had so much fun playing in the triathlon.”
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Even before retirement, Nicolas said, “I still love the triathlon. He has so much fun training and moving his body. On the other hand, I like to challenge and play, and I want to test where my limits are, how far I can go and how fast I can go.” Nikola continued his triathlon training ahead of his bar exams.
He said, “I saw other students very nervous before the last bar exam. He had already felt this kind of tension in the game, so he was blunt. He was used to the feeling he always had before a match. He knows how to plan and run efficiently towards a goal. He was confident that he would pass the bar exam,” he recalled. “Honestly, training for the triathlon was more difficult than studying. Studying was rather easy. I already learned the necessary methods through triathlon training, and I just had to apply them when studying.”
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After having three children, Nikola revealed that the way she trains through parenting and her values of life have changed. He said, “Before I had a child, I was constantly clinging to that thought when it was difficult or not going well during training. I thought about why I couldn’t do better and thought about what I should do. But after having a child, I don’t have time for that. I realized that there are much more important things in life. now it’s like that I realized that there is no need to keep regretting the hardship once and be heartbroken.”
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Nikola said he has not yet decided what he will do after retiring from playing. “I will miss the game. Every time he played, he felt a strong emotion. Whether it’s happiness or disappointment, it’s the kind of feeling that was intense and not easily forgotten. He has no regrets about his career as a player. But now is the time to make a change and think about retirement. It’s good to think about spending more time with my family.”
Reporter Ahn Jung-yoon: [email protected]