Gold-medal Triathlete not concerned about air quality in Beijing

Written by Gary Kingston for the Vancouver Sun and published February 4
Triathlete Simon Whitfield of Victoria, who won gold for Canada at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, says that despite widespread concerns about air quality at Beijing in 2008, he doesn’t think it’s going to be an issue.

“We are 45 mintues north of the city,” Whitfield, 32, said Monday at a news conference to promote the 2008 world championships in Vancouver on June 8. “I mean it is such a big isuse now that they have to address it and I just don’t think it’s going to be an issue [in August]. We’re certainly preparing for worst case scenario and I just think they’re going to address it.”

Whitfield, who won three World Cup events in 2007 to finish second overall in the International Triathlon Union point standings, was fourth in the pre-Olympic test event at Beijing last September.

“I didn’t notice it,” Whitfield said of the pollution, while cracking on the Americans for showing up with masks over their faces. Whitfield said he likes the Olympic course, though he wasn’t too sure about it prior to the World Cup.

“When we pre-rode the course, I was thinking to myself, it’s a terrible course. After the race, I said ‘Wait a minute, that’s a great course.’ It was just hard to see as we surveyed the course how the race might unfold. After the race, a lot of us thought that’s a pretty neat course.”

Whitfield also says the Vancouver course is very much to his liking. Last summer, he won a World Cup race on the swim-bike-run course that went through part of Stanley Park.

He noted that last year’s triathlon world champion in Hamburg, Germany, was won by a German in front of a noisy home crowd and he’s hoping for the same for him in Vancouver.

“I’ve won six of my nine World Cups so having a home crowd can definitely help.”