Adriaan Venter may be a rookie rower, but he’s improved so much since taking up the sport four years ago that he and his American wife put their lives in the US on hold to return to South Africa and try to make the Olympic team.
The former swimmer, whose backstroker sister Mariella competed at the Tokyo Games two years ago, has established himself as a beast on the ergo machine, pulling the equivalent of 2km in under six minutes.
But the 29-year-old is still learning the finer points of a sport that requires as much finesse as it does grunt.
His interest started only after he’d finished studying at Duke University in North Carolina, while watching the massive annual Head of the Charles regatta in Boston in 2019. “I was a spectator and decided I wanted to give it a go.”
Wife Kaki added that he had suggested they do rowing together as a way of meeting people in their new home city, but she wasn’t smitten.
Venter researched ergo programmes on the internet and bought himself an old single scull boat from a Christmas tree salesman which he was able to train on during the height of the pandemic.
I had a Rocky Balboa-style camp where I was rowing every morning, learning by myself. I had no idea what I was doing, but I spent my time wobbling about
“I had a Rocky Balboa-style camp where I was rowing every morning, learning by myself. I had no idea what I was doing, but I spent my time wobbling about.”
His performance at an indoor rowing competition motivated his mentor to get him into a competitive programme in Boston.
“They have a high-performance group of aspiring athletes looking to go to world champs and so on. The coach let me in purely based on my physical strength and not my technical abilities.
“I remember being beaten by everyone, including the girls, on our first outing. I flipped my boat the first time.”
Venter trained with the group in 2021 and at his first US nationals he finished 11th. “I was happy. To be a semifinalist gave me a bit of wind in my sails.”
By late 2022 he had impressed the South African coaching staff enough to earn an invitation to a national training camp last year, having set the 17min 57.092sec club singles record for the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston shortly before.
“I was super-fit so I pulled the top ergo for the 2km and the 5km and then also did pretty well in the on-the-water trials,” said Venter. “And based on that I got my invite to go to the high-altitude camp in Dullstroom.”
And when the invitation to join the RMB national rowing squad arrived for real, he and Kaki had a big decision to make. “We didn’t know we were moving here until around Christmas,” said Venter, a software developer.
“We both work remotely, which has been one of the unintended outcomes of the pandemic — that employers now see remote work as a legitimate option for employees,” said Venter, living two doors down from his parents in Linden, Johannesburg, where he grew up, having gone to the high school there and then Helpmekaar College.
On most days his training is done by the time his office comes online in the afternoons.
As a swimmer Venter competed in freestyle events from 50m to 200m, but he admits he didn’t push himself as hard as he might have.
His rise in rowing has been entirely self-motivated, though he enjoys support from his training partners in the national squad, such as Jake Green, a veteran of the Rio and Tokyo Games, as well as John Smith, a member of the victorious lightweight four that won gold in London, who occasionally pops up at training sessions.
It’s frustrating at times … but you just got to keep on hacking at it
As a sculler, Venter taught himself to row using two oars, but in the men’s four, in which he’s trying to win a seat, he has to use a single blade in a technique known as sweep rowing, which is a different ball game altogether.
“It’s basically a new skill,” said Venter. “It is strange to be one of the oldest people on the team but also the least experienced.”
Venter was unable to make the team that went to the first World Cup regatta in May, and while he had every excuse to justify missing out, he still felt disappointed.
“When it comes to rowing, being physically the strongest doesn’t always cut it. I’m a proficient sculler, but I’ve never swept in my life. So coming straight into a national squad level environment and learning was an interesting process. It’s frustrating at times … but you’ve just got to keep on hacking at it.
“Rowing does have its bursts of accelerated improvement,” said Venter, who has been rewarded with selection in the single sculls for the third World Cup event in Lausanne from July 7-9.
Then there’s the world championships in Belgrade, Serbia, from September 3-10.
His dream is alive.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.