Since leaving the “Love Island USA” villa, Nic Vansteenberghe’s been on the move.
There was the “baecation” with his fellow runner-up Olandria Carthen, then more recently, a Miami trip alongside Season 6’s Rob Rausch and Kendall Washington. In between, he’s been training for his next big move: running the New York City Marathon on Nov. 2.
“Ironically, this week has been the busiest week since leaving the villa,” Nic tells TODAY.com. “I have a marathon to train for, so of course the week of is going to be the busiest.”
Nic, who will be running the marathon with Team Strava, says he decided to run the race just a few months ago, “which I know is a bit later in the training process,” he admits with a laugh. The registered nurse already has two marathons under his belt — one of which was part of an Ironman race.
“Hopefully it won’t be too hard,” he says of the NYC race.
Even if it is, Nic says he’ll have plenty of support. Fans can track his race via the New York Road Runners app, and “hopefully meet me every mile of the way,” he says.
“I think the potential fan involvement is what’s going to get me to the finish line,” he adds.
Plus, one of his best friends is headed to New York to cheer him on throughout the race. He’s also planning on having another special someone there: Olandria.
“She’s flying in the day of the marathon, so hopefully she’ll catch me at the finish line,” he says.
Nic and Olandria both rose to pop culture prominence as contestants on the seventh season of “Love Island USA,” which premiered in June 2025. After sharing a kiss in the first episode, they each moved on into different couplings, until fate — or more accurately Casa Amor — intervened.
Both Nic and Olandria were dumped from the show during Casa, but a getaway car twist whisked them away to a date, where they were given the option to return to the villa if they coupled up. They chose to give a romance a try with the Soul Ties kiss heard ’round the world, much to the joy of their devoted legion of “Nicolandria” fans who say they saw their chemistry on Day 1.
Their coupling finally stuck in the final week of the show, and Nic and Olandria were voted Season 7’s runners-up, just behind Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales.
Since leaving the villa, they’ve experienced a whirlwind of events, interviews, sponsorship opportunities and more.
“I feel like it’s been a year in the last four months with the way that things are going,” Nic says. “You get maybe like one breather a week, so taking those breathers a week is helpful, and that’s I guess the way that I stay present.”
Just over a week before the marathon, Nic was in Miami for a launch party hosted by Celsius. There, he met up with Rob and Kendall from the show’s breakout Season 6. Because they have shared “lore,” as Nic puts it, they didn’t end up talking much about what happened during their time in “Love Island” villa.
“I asked Rob specifically how he’s been navigating the life afterwards,” Nic says. “I think asking people from the last cast is so beneficial, because they’ve literally gone through the same thing.”
His biggest insight?
“The thing that I noticed was that Rob and Kendall just seem to be the same people they were online. And so I think the biggest takeaway is just being who you are, and if people can’t accept that, then they’re not your cup of tea,” he says.
When it came to balancing marathon prep with all his opportunities, Nic says finding the time to run helped quiet all the “noise.”
“They don’t go hand in hand,” he says of his busy schedule and training. “But after doing the events at night it’s nice to wake up early in the morning and get the run done. It’s definitely a way to clear the mind.”
Nic finished his past two marathons in around five hours and 20 minutes, “so I think hopefully that’ll be pretty easy to beat,” he says.
“That’s the goal … under five hours would be great,” he adds.
After the race and into November, he says he and Olandria will have a “lot more downtime.”
“I think at this point we’re looking for just a breath of a fresh air from all the hectic-ness,” he says.
“I’ve said this before, like I want to go on our hot air balloon date, I want to do all these things — but at this point, I’m like, I just want to sit on a couch and do nothing with her,” he adds. “That sounds elite.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
Nicolandria is still going strong. On Aug. 13, the top two couples from Season 7 of “Love Island USA” — Amaya and Brian, and Olandria and Nic — stopped by the Bravo Clubhouse for “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.”
