Posted on TRI247.com by: Annie Emmerson on Friday 7th March 2008

In Sydney 2000, a young and talented Canadian triathlete by the name of Simon Whitfield stood on the start line at triathlon’s Olympic debut. He was fit and strong, but certainly not tipped as a favourite to take Gold. One hour, forty-eight minutes and twenty-four seconds later his life was to change forever as he became the first ever male triathlete to win a Gold medal in triathlon at the Olympic games. Complacency and a breakdown in team unity saw him finish in a somewhat disappointing 11th place in the 2004 Athens Olympics, but Beijing is going to be very different, with his team back to full strength and focus, and a much improved swim, Simon’s desire to win Gold is as strong as ever.

AE There’s 100m to go, you’re in the lead and you know you’re about to make history by becoming the first male triathlete to win an Olympic Gold medal in triathlon, the absolute pinnacle of any athlete’s career, can you describe that feeling?

SW Honestly, I just wanted to lie down. Vuko (Stephan Vuckovic (GER) who won Silver) had dropped me with 1km to go and I was fading fast. I started thinking ’silver is good’, but then I saw Jan (Jan Rehula (CZE) who won Bronze) was coming and I started thinking ‘bronze is fine’ until I saw Dimtri Gaag and thought ‘fourth sucks’ and started sprinting away from him and all of a sudden I was coming up on Vuko and thought ‘Gold is best’.

AE You were involved in a bike crash early on in the cycle; you must have experienced the ultimate high and low within one race?

SW The bike crash ended up being a very positive thing; I lost about 200-300m to the lead pack with only 1½-laps to go but was able to ride back up and when I made it back all alone I thought, ‘wow, I’m having a great race’, and my confidence went through the roof.

AE What thoughts run through your mind when you stand on the startline at the Olympic Games?

SW In Sydney I was just a kid; smiling, loving the experience and feeling so fortunate to be racing at the Olympic Games with this internal feeling that I had a chance to surprise some people. In Athens it was completely different; our team (coach, manager, staff, athletes) had completely come apart and I take a fair amount of responsibility for that. We simply imploded and arrived at the games with low morale and lacking that sense of camaraderie, especially compared to Sydney. We had complicated everything and lost sight of the joy of racing and competing. I’m very excited about Beijing, our team is so happy to be together and supportive of each other. We’ll play guitar hero the day before the race, eat dinner together (and do the dishes together) and everyone brings such fantastic energy, from our massage guru, Kim, and her great smile, to our Hungarian mechanic and his monster hands (and big laugh), to our soft-spoken Chiro, who’s all about doing the shitty jobs and doing whatever it takes to get it done, and finally, our chef named Cosmo Memo, who is a dude, with a mohawk and the greatest food ever. Oh yeah and coach Joel, he’s OK.

AE We’re coming up to triathlon’s third Olympics, it’s eight years ago since Sydney, how do you think the sport has changed?

SW ITU racing is so much fun as it’s always changing and you just have to keep adapting. For a while, guys felt they could get away with riding twice a week and have no bike fitness, so other guys said, ‘fine, let’s smash the bike and see how you run’, so more guys started trying to break away and the round and round easy rides started disappearing. Javier Gomez and Andy Potts really changed the sport, just like Simon Lessing could have continued to do, if he’d just let himself enjoy it (instead of just complaining that the ‘drafting sucks’ and I don’t want to play). I have enormous respect for ‘the king’, but I didn’t like his attitude towards the Olympics. The ITU has put on upwards of fifteen, $60,000-$100,000 races a year, for over ten years, almost 90% of those races are new races. We’ve raced in NYC, London, Sydney, Madrid, Hamburg, Jordan, Tokyo, etc, etc, how can this be so bad?

AE The ITU has recently announced that its current global partnership with BG Group will end in December 2008, how do you think this will effect the athletes and the sport?

SW from what I understand, the ITU made the right decision. It’s unfortunate, but it appears that BG had a very different vision of the sport and the location of races. The ITU cares about the sport, the Olympic movement and the athletes, and I’m confident they made the best decision for the sport’s future.

AE Are there any changes you would like to see made to the sport?

SW I think the reality, and I’m fine with it, is that we’ll never be a mainstream sport (equal with American football, rugby, baseball, etc). I’m fine with that, triathlon at its core is a wonderful grassroots sport, a participation and lifestyle sport that encourages/requires its athletes to lead healthy lifestyles, hopefully care for their environment (you can’t swim in dirty water) and with the comradeship of events like the world championships, Kona, Maui, etc, it brings people from all corners of the world together. It’s certainly not perfect, but without knowing the internal realities of the politics of sport, working with cities to put on races and satisfying sponsors is tough. I’m not sure I want to be an ‘armchair quarterback’.

AE Whenever you run, you always look so controlled and balanced – do you work specifically on run technique and style, or are you fortunate to be a natural runner?

SW I’ve actually never ever used the Robbo sticks (Australian triathlete Paul Robertson, who uses them religiously), but if I thought it could win me three World Championships I’d carry a large tree. I grew up playing sport and at the end of the day I just love playing; soccer, basketball, gridiron, field hockey, bring it on. As for looking relaxed, I’m working too hard to waste energy on making it look too hard.

AE You are now a front pack swimmer, is it true you re-built your swim stroke after Athens?

SW Yes, I simply had to. Like I said, Javier and Andy changed the sport, the old deal was the swimmers couldn’t run, but these two jerks came along and said, ‘oh yeah, I’m the best swimmer and I’m the best runner’. So I had to respond. Just hoping I would have a good swim wouldn’t pay the bills, so my new coach applied the ’shut up and swim’ swim programme and after two years of simple hard work I finally led out a World Cup swim in Austria last year.

AE You’ll be racing in QR wetsuits this season, what was behind your decision to chose QR as a sponsor?

SW Thin arms, super stretchy shoulders, simply a fast wetsuit. My deal with wetsuit companies over the years has been: give me a few suits, if they are the fastest I will wear them, if someone else makes a faster suit then I’ll give your suits to a junior triathlete and get the faster wetsuit. QR is the fastest suit for me.

AE First child or Olympic Gold medal - which is better?

SW Easy, Pippa Kathryn takes the cake! I’m an expired Olympic champion, I plan to prepare for Beijing with the attitude and dedication to win again, but eventually that fades. I’ll be a dad now for the rest of my life and it’s the most challenging and most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done. It’s also so inspiring to see Jennie as a mom, incredible.

AE Being a professional triathlete has its pros and cons, but one thing for sure is that it’s also very physically demanding, how do you stay motivated to keep training as hard as you do?

SW We have a mortgage! I love competing and pushing myself, I also really like the people, my training partners and competitors, except Tim Don (he laughs) I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to do what I do.

AE With an Olympic Gold medal safely locked away in your cabinet, what more do you want to achieve in triathlon or any sport for that matter?

SW Win again! Period!

AE What’s your Mantra?

SW Do as I say not as I do. There is no I in team but there is an M and an E.

AE And, finally, who’s going to be on the podium with you in Beijing?

SW Two Brits!!!!