Nikki Ayers - Rowing

Nikki grew up on the far south coast of NSW Playing as many sports as she could. Nikki was working towards her dream of playing rugby union for Australia when she had a traumatic knee dislocation. This stopped Nikki’s dream until she took up para-rowing. Nikki achieved her dream of representing Australia and went to the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021 and raced the PR3 mixed coxed four that came 4^th in the A final.

In 2023, Nikki moved to Adelaide to train with her doubles partner daily. Nikki competed in the PR3 mixed double scull won Gold at World Cup II and broke the world’s best time. Nikki then went on to win the Gold in the PR3 mix double scull at the Rowing World Championships.

Nikki is also a Registered Nurse and Midwife working when she isn’t rowing/training to be selected for the Paris Paralympics. Nikki loves being a Nurse/Midwife and having the privilege of caring for patients in the Intensive Care Unit or supporting mothers throughout pregnancy, birth and motherhood. When Nikki isn’t training for Paris or working as a Nurse/Midwife she is cooking or getting outdoors and exploring nature as much as possible.

Questions

The best thing about being a SASI Athlete:

Feeling valued as an athlete, having a great support team that contributes to better performance and meeting athletes from other sports.

My favourite food to fuel me as an Athlete:

Cheese and bacon rolls and strawberry milk.

My favourite movie:

Disney movies.

My favourite colours:

Purple and red.

My sporting hero and why:

My heroes are the female athletes who created change so that female athletes have the opportunities we do today.

My favourite possession:

My car – gives me the freedom to go anywhere I want in my downtime. Also, gets me to my training sessions.

The sporting activity I most like performing:

I loved playing Rugby Union until my injury. Now I enjoy rowing the double while the sun rises.

If I wasn’t doing my current sport I would like to be:

Travelling Australia and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The most important things in life:

Enjoy what you do and do it for you. Learn from mistakes and failures to better yourself as a person and an athlete.

My ambassador activity tip:

Do a variety of different sports/activities with family and/or friends to keep motivated and have fun.

My favourite way to keep active:

Being outdoors hiking, walking or cycling and taking in the beautiful native flora and fauna we have.

The sport I like watching the most:

Paralympic Games.

What sporting success looks like:

Achieving your goals while having fun and enjoying the journey.