Nico Sterk

Meet our head coach, Nico Sterk. He began coaching in 2012 while racing Triathlon, Cross-Triathlon and Xterra for South Africa professionally on the international circuit. Alongside this, he achieved an accounting degree, attributable to the value he sees in education and maintaining a well-balanced life while competing as a high-performance athlete. Since then, he has built up a well-established and thriving triathlon and endurance sport coaching academy. He heads Sterk Span with a skilled team of coaches, administrators, health-care professionals and a large network of partners within the sporting world.  

​

Nico’s current sporting focus lies with Ironman and Ultra Mountain Biking. His most recent achievement is qualifying for and racing at the 2023 Ironman World Championships in Nice, France. He also finished 5th at the 2024 Cullinan Ultra Gravel race against South Africa's top cyclists and 2nd in the 2023 Desert Dash Ultra Mountain Bike two-man relay.

​

Nico is one of only a handful of South African coaches with a Level 2 Coaching Qualification through World Triathlon – the international governing body for multi-sport disciplines. This high-performance knowledge, coupled with over 20 years of professional endurance racing experience, has led to his ability to coach athletes to reach their full potential.

​

He takes pride in researching and staying up to date with the science involved in training and racing at a high-performance level, especially with regards to nutrition and fuelling strategies. He has a great understanding of human physiology and biomechanics and has helped many athletes rehab and manage their injuries.

​

His coaching experience has led to hundreds of his athletes successfully achieving their goals at events such as elite level short-course triathlon and duathlon, Ironman, 70.3 Ironman, mountain biking, ultra running and other endurance events. He has coached multiple national and international level athletes in various sporting disciplines.

​

Nico coached one of South Africa’s female triathletes, Hannah Newman, to the 2022 Bermingham Commonwealth Games as well as one of South Africa’s top duathletes, Natalie Sterk, to the 2022 World Games in the USA.

​

Below are some of his other highly regarded coaching achievements:

​

• 3rd Elite Male at Xterra World Series France 2023

• Female gold medallist (Top 10 pro) at Comrades Marathon 2022

• Multiple Multisport World Championship medallists at junior elite level

• Multiple top 10 finishers at junior elite Cross Triathlon World Championships

• Multiple National and African Champions and podium finishers

• Multiple athletes qualifying for Ironman 70.3 World Championships

• 2nd Place at African X Ultra Trail Run 2021

Nico has also developed the unique skill of teaching adults the correct form of freestyle swimming, especially for those who start from scratch and need to learn swim strokes. He has a great eye for correcting athletes form and style in swimming, cycling and running.