“I grew up on the track, running around from the age of four and five playing on the high jump mat,” said Anouk Vetter. Born into a legacy of champions, her father, Ronald Vetter, a longtime coach, and her mother, Gerda Vetter-Blokziel, a two-time Dutch javelin star, Vetter was destined for the track. She rocked the heptathlon world, claiming multiple World Championship medals and a silver at the Tokyo Olympics and becoming a prime rival for America’s Anna Hall. But even legends must hang up their spikes, and now, as her dazzling career reaches its final hurdle, the world bids farewell to a true athletic sensation.

In an emotional video posted to her Instagram, Vetter reminisces about her journey in the sport. “The big word is out: I’m putting an end to my top sports career. For over ten years I have fought with full surrender at the highest level. There were lows, but so many more highs,” read the accompanying caption (translated from Dutch). “So lucky to have a great team around me, along with a fantastic coach and dear training partners by my side.”

In the clip, Vetter shows off pictures from her childhood on the track, career highlights, her many medals, and even some quick glimpses of her father coaching her. It was, in fact, her father’s coaching that made all the difference – at the start of her career, Vetter was easily injured, but when Ronald took over coaching duties, the training strategy he devised helped his daughter better utilize her talents and condition her body for elite competition.

“It was a beautiful adventure. I enjoyed, learned a lot, and I am grateful for everything that this journey brought me,” she continued. Anouk Vetter has claimed medals across all three major outdoor championships, including an impressive trio of two bronzes and a silver at the World Athletics Championships.

She has an impressive medal record in the heptathlon, having won a silver medal at the Eugene World Champs in 2022—finishing just behind Nafissatou Thiam—and bronze medals in London 2017 and Budapest 2023. At Eugene, she shattered the Dutch record with a staggering 6,867 points, catapulting her to 10th on Europe’s all-time heptathlon list. She also won gold at the European Championships in Amsterdam 2016, where she first rose to prominence.

However, Anouk Vetter has been inactive in the heptathlon since the Paris Olympics, where a hamstring injury forced her to withdraw from the tournament, but she closed her competitive chapter triumphantly by claiming the javelin title at the Dutch Championships in August. As she ends the sports chapter of her life, her competitors as well as her fans came forward to celebrate her legacy.

Anouk Vetter’s sensational career is celebrated by friends and fans alike

Celebrating the decades-long career of her compatriot, Femke Bol led the tributes, sharing multiple heart emojis to express her deepest love for her teammate. She wasn’t alone—another Dutch standout, Jorinde van Klinken, the 2025 discus throw silver medalist, also shared heartfelt words for Anouk Vetter, ““Quite an amazing career and I will miss you.”

Even Vetter’s fierce rival, three-time Olympic heptathlon gold medalist Nafissatou Thiam, took a moment to honor her with a long message of admiration, “won’t be the same without you Anouk 🥺❤️ it was a privilege to compete and get to know you all these years! congratulations for a wonderful career and all the best for the even more amazinggggg things coming ahead.”

Vetter was clearly one of the sport’s most celebrated competitors, claiming back-to-back medals at the World Championships and the Olympics, a standout whose success even her rivals couldn’t help but applaud.

British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson wrote, “one of the only athletes I would disrupt my own competition to stand in awe to watch! Selfishly, I’ll miss seeing you out there (both as an athlete and as a person) but I’m so happy to see you finish such a remarkable and celebrated career. A true legde of heptathlon.”

Vetter and Johnson-Thompson have a long shared history on the track with the Dutchwoman revealing that she and Johnson-Thompson even commiserated being “the old girls here,” at the 2023 World Championships where the Briton took home heptathlon gold.

Last but not the least, a fan added, “Happy retirement, Anouk Vetter. Olympic silver, three-time World Champs medalist, and European Champion at home. 6867 PB. What a career!

“I would like to thank my sponsors, my lovely family, my team and the fans for their support throughout the years. I will miss it, but will always look back on it with a smile,” Anouk Vetter wrote at the end of her Instagram post, bidding a final goodbye to the sport she has loved for so long. Her words reflect not just gratitude but a legacy of dedication, resilience, and inspiration.