ATHCO

Vicky-Leigh Kruger wasn't sporty, was bullied for her weight, and hit a wall in grade 11, glandular fever, 21 days out of school, a colon infection, her gran passing, and five days away from repeating the year. Her words: she had no purpose and she was drowning.

She found CrossFit at 16 through one guy's Instagram videos. At 18 she failed her Level 1 exam three times because she'd never actually coached anyone. So she started training people in her back garden for R95 an hour, buying one dumbbell at a time with each payment, dragging them indoors when it rained.

By the time she walked into Virgin Active as a trainer, she arrived with fifty clients already on her books.

In this conversation we get into how she built it from nothing, why practical experience beat theory every time, why she refuses to run the salesy funnels that would grow her faster, and her honest response to a creator who suggested people who don't look a certain way shouldn't be personal trainers.

🔗 Follow Vicky-Leigh
Instagram: @_byvicks
Coaching: @coached_byvicks

🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO

🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

Oscar Armstrong was a professional kitesurfer from 16 to 22. Sponsored, homeschooled, travelling the world on tour. Then he burnt out, moved to the Caribbean, picked up a camera and built an entirely different career. Since then: Indonesia, Sardinia, a van in Oregon, marine conservation documentaries, and a 50km surf ski from Hout Bay to Muizenberg in 7 hours 42 minutes.

Now he's a fitness entrepreneur building Apex around strength, endurance, mindset and community.

In this conversation we get into what it takes to build a body that actually holds up. Why bodybuilding-style training makes you stiff and less capable, where most people go wrong with hybrid training, and why he threw away his Whoop and refuses to let a recovery score decide his day.

We also get into why he never picked one career, why he deliberately puts himself in positions where he's a beginner again, and his honest take that balance is a myth if you want to be genuinely great at something.

 Follow Oscar
Instagram: @oscar14rush 
Apex: @os_apex

🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO

🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

Giorgia Wessels couldn't afford running shoes, so she showed up to sprint trials barefoot. A teacher asked why she was even there and she never went back. She walked into a gym at 17 instead, and that was over ten years ago.

She was too shy to approach people on a commercial gym floor, so rather than face it she left the country. Two years in Bangkok, two in Singapore, working nine clients a day, six days a week, with seven days of paid leave a year. Then her visa was denied and she had 60 days to get out.

She came home and walked straight into the commercial gym she'd crossed the world to avoid.
In this conversation she gets honest about a decade in the fitness industry. Why so much online advice comes from people not telling you what they're taking, why confident-sounding advice is usually the worst, why the all-or-nothing mindset ruins progress, and why she refuses to comment on her clients' bodies.

🔗 Follow Giorgia
Instagram: @giorgia.bw

🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc 
YouTube: ATHCO

🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_ 
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

Kyle Schoonbee rowed at the Tokyo Olympics. Five years of work, a ruthless centralised program, two stress fractures he never told anyone about. Then three weeks out from the Games the squad overcooked it. He took two strokes off the start line and watched the entire field disappear.

He walked away from endurance sport after that. Then HYROX came along and he couldn't stay out of it. Seven and a half minutes off his time between his first and second race. Sub-60 in Chicago. Now he's chasing Elite 15.

In this conversation he breaks down what actually separates elite HYROX athletes from everyone else. Why his rowing background helps less than you'd assume, why he deliberately rows slower than he can, and why comparing HYROX times across courses is meaningless.

We also get into elite-level training and recovery: why program completion should be a health metric not a goal, his honest take on ice baths, and the funding reality for niche sports in South Africa.

🔗 Follow Kyle 
Instagram: @kyle.schoonbee

🔗 Follow ATHCO 
Instagram: @athco.cc 
YouTube: ATHCO

🔗 Follow Us 
Daniel: @dannyjd_ 
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

Vicky Van Der Merwe thought about the Olympics every day from the age of eight. She got there at 34.

A hip injury cost her 2012. Glandular fever cost her 2016. By 2020 she'd stepped away, finished a law degree and moved on. Then her son was born in 2022 and two weeks later she told her husband she still wanted Paris. Her last international race had been seven years earlier. Almost everyone thought she was crazy.

Five months postpartum she was eight minutes down at African Champs. One year later she won it by three minutes.

In this conversation she explains how she did it on far less training than her competitors because with a newborn, broken sleep and a business to run, more hours weren't an option. Instead she made every session count and kept a list of every mistake after every race, fixing them one at a time.

We also get into the chaos of that campaign: getting hit by a car mid-race, her race bike written off the night before a qualifier, and what it's actually like inside an Olympic village.

🔗 Follow Vicky Instagram: 
@vickyvandermerwe

🔗 Follow ATHCO 
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO

🔗 Follow Us 
Daniel: @dannyjd_ 
Jannis: @jannisrothermel