Australian Triathlete – July-August 2017

58 | AustrAliAn triAthlete

roUTe

chANGe

text by jodIe Swallow

photogrAphy by getty IMageS foR IRonMan

provided insights for the outsider into the

elite-racing world I have lived and breathed

for 20 years. It’s a world of marginal gains,

of professionalisation, of minute detail and

both inspiring and cruel stories. Occasionally,

dismayingly, perhaps increasingly, it is also

sometimes a realm of unscrupulous

morals and questionable behaviours.

Sometimes, I have to temper my

stories - some experiences could be seen

as inflammatory, some are outright

shocking. The high-performance world I

have seen is not a land of sunshine and

rainbows. There are eating disorders -

there’s bullying, there is sexism and much

unprofessionalism. There has been

‘success’ through all of these things.

As an elite sportsperson, I occupy a

world of obsession to detail where sacrifice

is fairly rudimentary. Much of ‘the rest of

life’ is suspended in waiting for a time, or a

race, or a medal. Relationships suffer,

health suffers, and balance goes out the

window. In this environment, winning can

be worth such rigour - but not for the

W

ith this being my last

essay type article for

Australian Triathlete

Magazine, I had a good,

hard think about the most valuable

advice I could give a triathlete regarding

experience and improving performance.

Over the few years I have been writing

this column I have been forced to look

more closely at our sport from many

different perspectives - not just that of an

elite racer. Spectators, coaches, business

leaders, age groupers, family members

and the media all see our sport very

differently and have different priorities and

motives that lead them to love or to loathe

our triathlon world.

I grew up never questioning the value

that competitive sport offers society. As a

child - drugs, exploitation, sexism nor

elitism - ever entered my train of thought.

When it came to racing - sports winners

were heroes, their sporting endeavour a

worthy example of success in life.

I grew up with elitist principles, the

winner very definitely ‘taking it all’. I fought

to win races, enjoyed victories and

suffered defeats. I never had cause to

really understand the premise ‘it’s the

taking part that counts’. That was

something other people did.

It wasn’t until I moved to long-distance

triathlon that I ever really gave the value of

participation in sport much thought.

Age group triathlon opened my eyes to the

valuable role that inclusion and participation

in sport can play in everyone’s life - that

the human need for challenge and

endeavour can be fulfilled in ways that do

not feature a podium, a medal, or beating

everyone else. Merely completing a

distance can stimulate regular people to

feel the same sense of achievement and

esteem that the podium always brought

me. Elite sport and participation sport

stand poles apart in preparation and

performance but are intrinsically linked by

similar motives and reward principles -

courage, dedication, focus and commitment.

In triathlon, the two strata coexist

together in a unique way. There is a special

symbiotic relationship between the elite

side of our sport and the age groupers

whom we race alongside. All race on the

same course, at the same time, for the

same distance, with the same provision.

The sports business model relies on mass,

age group participation to fund events and

pay prize money to the elite. The elites

provide the entertainment - the

prerequisite principle of competitive sport

• the race. They satisfy sports elemental
  principal - to determine the ‘fastest/
  highest/longest or strongest’ competitor.
  Over the past few years of writing for
  Australian Triathlete Magazine, I have