ATHCO

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

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Daniel: @dannyjd_ 
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

We started ATHCO to answer one question: can you turn a passion for sport into a full-time profession in South Africa? Twenty-seven episodes later, we have an answer and it's not the one we wanted.

This is just the two of us being honest about what we've found. Why the best SA creators still have full-time jobs even at 40,000 followers. Why brands here don't have creator marketing budgets. The brutal market maths that makes the numbers not work. And why South African creators are grafting twice as hard for a fraction of the return.

We're also open about our own situation. Burning savings, flying back and forth, pivoting business models, and possibly having to tap overseas markets just to keep building something here.

But it's not all bleak. We get into the real value that comes from a personal brand even without the money, and why documenting your life tends to make your life better.

No six-step formula. No secret hack. Just where we're actually at.

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Daniel: @dannyjd_ 
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

Cameron Tripney is 22 and one of the fastest stand up paddle sprinters in the world. Junior World Champion at 18 on his first ever international event. Bronze in the Pro Men's division at 21. World Cup gold in Italy.

He gets almost nothing for it. No government backing, no salary, none of the support paddlers at his level receive in South America or Europe. And the hardest part isn't the training. It’s that being world-class isn't enough anymore. Results don't get you sponsors. Content does. And he'd rather be on the water than behind a camera.

In this conversation we get into how a kid who was terrified of water became a world champion on it, how an ACL injury accidentally turned him into a sprinter, why his left arm is double the size of his right, and what it really takes to reach the top of a sport, plus why paddling lost its golden era and whether he'd move to Europe to chase it.

If you've ever been great at something nobody was watching, this one will hit.

🔗 Follow Cameron
Instagram: @camerontripney

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Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

Amish Kooverjee was lonely during COVID. His cricket career had ended and he was running alone, feeling like something was missing. So he invited a few cricket mates to do a 5K and grab a coffee. Only two showed up but five strangers found the Instagram page he'd made that day, and ten people ran.

Five years later, Running to Coffee is in four cities across South Africa. He accidentally built one of the country's OG run clubs, back when run clubs weren't cool.

In this episode, Amish shares the philosophy behind a community that lasts. Why chasing numbers is the wrong goal and why the best advice he got was that people come to your crew for one reason: you. He opens up about his first Comrades, impulsively registered at 10pm with a McDonald's, and why a self-described "normal guy" who isn't the fastest runner ends up working with big brands.

One of the warmest conversations we've had about what running communities are really about.

🔗 Follow Amish
Instagram: @keeping_up_with_koovers

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YouTube: ATHCO

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Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel

Twelve months ago, Jake Bird had never owned a bike and couldn't swim 25 metres without stopping. After a few beers at a New Year's Eve party, he signed up for an Ironman 70.3 on the spot. Eight months later, with no athletic background, he qualified for the 70.3 World Championships.

He documented the entire journey on Instagram from day one and four months into posting, off a single race, he landed an ambassadorship with Ironman itself. His first brand deal came at 6,500 followers.

In this episode, Jake breaks down the whole playbook: how he used seven years of managing influencers to grow his own following, why talking-to-camera content beats viral videos, why a focused niche is more valuable to brands than a huge audience, and the brutal reality of training 16+ hours a week alongside a full-time job.

Part comeback story, part social media masterclass.

🔗 Follow Jake 
Instagram: @jakeebird

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Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO

🔗 Follow Us 
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel