“I will always train because I just need to be active in order to feel good, ” Spirig tells CNN Sport as she embarks on her final season in triathlon. “If I don’t move, I’m not happy; I’m moody, Now i am angry, I just no longer feel good. ”
Old routines might die hard, but the 40-year-old Spirig knows now is the time regarding change.
She has three children aged 9, five, and 3, and is looking forward to a lot more family time plus a break from the girl all-consuming training schedule.
Her new schedule, she says, will likely involve an hour of exercise each morning, as opposed to the three daily sessions of swimming, bicycling, and running she has become used to.
“Being a professional sportsman also means that I need to train every day, inch says Spirig. “There are no weekends, there are no holidays, I am always training… always ready to go tough. ”
If the start of her last season is everything to go by, then Spirig, a two-time Olympic medalist and six-time European champion, defintely won’t be ending her professional triathlon career silently.
Earlier this year, a serious bike accident threatened to derail her time of year as she experienced three broken steak, a fractured collarbone, and a punctured lung.
That occurred weeks before Spirig was scheduled to take part in the particular Phoenix Sub8 task, a team-backed challenge in which two women — Spirig plus British triathlete Katrina Matthews — attemptedto complete a full-distance triathlon — 2 . 4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle, 26. 2-mile run — in under 8 hours for the first time.
Incredibly, despite the injuries continual in the bike accident, Spirig completed the challenge in seven hours, 34 minutes, and 19 seconds upon June 5 at Germany’s Lausitzring race track, three minutes behind Matthews.
“The accident was in February… I had been not allowed to breathe hard, which means I couldn’t train correctly, ” says Spirig.
“I was about twelve weeks short of the courses I should have done, but nevertheless the last few weeks prior to the Sub8 project went really well and I can see how the physical fitness came, I could observe how I got stronger plus faster. And I would certainly say I did 100% the best out of the scenario. ”
Unlike the usual triathlon, Spirig was accompanied by a group of 10 pacemakers for the Sub8 Project to create the circumstances for a fast time — particularly at the bike.
The challenge, as well as the build up to it, types part of Nicola’s Spirit — a short film released by Swiss sportswear brand name On earlier this particular month offering insight into Spirig’s long, embellished career in triathlon.
The Swiss celebrity first took up the game aged 10 plus went on to compete at more Olympics — five — than any other triathlete, winning gold with London 2012 plus silver at Rio de janeiro 2016. This was at any given time when triathlon was a relatively new sport in the Olympic program having made the debut in 2k.
“I was a pretty good junior and I was beating some of the Switzerland athletes going to the Olympics in Sydney (in 2000), so I believed it could probably be probable to go to the Olympics next time, ” says Spirig.
“That was when my own Olympic dream actually started. But to visit five times and also to become an Olympic champion and winning another medal had been never in my head like that.
“I thought I would stop much earlier. I did my studies — We are a lawyer, so I thought I would have a pretty much normal life being a lawyer after the 2nd Olympics. ”
But even now Spirig is at the end of her profession having competed in more than 120 World Triathlon events, the girl love for the sports activity still burns as brightly as it has ever done.
“The most important is the passion for it — We still love it, ” she says.
“On the one hand, I love to train, to move, to be active; it simply makes me feel great. And on the other hand, I like the issues and the races and seeing where the limits are and exactly how far I can go, how fast I could go. ”
Over and above the medals as well as the podium finishes — of which there have been many — Spirig has taken life lessons from her career in triathlon — actually drawing on her racing experience when she was training to become a lawyer.
“I had the ultimate exams and everyone was so scared together anxiety, ” the girl recalls. “I just said, well, I needed pressure before. I understand how to deal with pressure mainly because I have it all time at races and I know how to work for a goal — how to end up being efficient, how to strategy.
“It wasn’t training sessions, it was studying sessions. To me, it was so , in a way, easy because I had learned all this in sports and I could just use it to my studies. ”
Sports, she says, “help you deal with real problems in life. ” But there have been periods, too, when lifetime has helped Spirig deal with her method of sports.
That includes how her attitude to education changed after getting children — a moment when recoveries became nonexistent and sometimes amounted to playing with Lego, she humor.
“After a bad session, for example , before getting kids I was thinking about it for days and contemplating in my mind why it was a bad program and what I could did differently, ” states Spirig.
“And now there may be just no time. I see that there’s so much more essential things in life that it’s not worth being upset about a single bad training session. ”
Spirig, whose husband, Reto Hug, is a former Swiss triathlete, says she’d have been ready to retire from the sport pursuing the birth of her 1st child in 2013 and her precious metal medal at the 2012 Olympics — a race that was determined by a dramatic photograph finish.
After a sprint to the line between Spirig and Sweden’s Lisa Norden, both sportsmen were awarded exactly the same finish time. Spirig, however , was later adjudged to have finished less than 15 centimeters in front of Norden as she claimed the girl first Olympic honor.
“The many years after that were consistently just like another little present that I could enjoy but didn’t expect, ” states Spirig. “I think that’s why I could enjoy it and also do it for so long — mainly because I always looked at this as a plus a little present… I simply appreciated it. ”
The lady isn’t exactly certain what her existence will look like beyond this season. As well as spending more time with her family, Spirig wants to check out schools to inspire children to take up sports and is also hectic lining up sponsorship commitments.
And while instruction will continue inside a reduced capacity, later this year she will contemplate lining up for the girl final race as a professional triathlete.
“I will miss the races I think due to the emotions, ” states Spirig. “Racing indicates you have really intense emotions. Even if it’s actual joy, it’s enjoyment, or if it’s disappointment — it’s almost all intense. ”
At this stage, even though, there are no lurking doubts about her decision to retire, nor regrets as to what she would have liked to achieve.
“There’s nothing I would have done very different, ” says Spirig. “I just really feel it’s time. It’s time for change, it’s the right decision for the family and Now i’m happy with that. ”