Simon Whitfield

Nickname

Whitto, Happy. (Athlete 01 May 1999; sports.yahoo.com, 17 May 2012 )

Hobbies

Playing ultimate frisbee, adventure racing, football, spending time with his partner, learning about farming as an environmental and social responsibility. (runnersweb.com, 07 Feb 2004; simonwhitfield.com, 12 May 2004)

Family

Wife Jennie and two children, Pippa Katherine and Evelyn

Language(s) spoken

English

Club name

Pacific Pride Triathlon Squad, Victoria, BC, CAN

Coach

Paulo Sousa (POR) (triathlon.org, 01 Jun 2012)

Debut

1997 (simonwhitfield.com, 12 May 2004)

Injuries

He broke both his wrists and his collarbone in a crash at the 2002 International Triathlon Union [ITU] World Cup event in Geelong, Australia. (triathlon.org, 15 Apr 2002)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
He began racing at the age of 11 in Kingston, Ontario. (simonwhitfield.com, 24 May 2004)

Reason for taking up this sport
He started to race as part of a bet with his best friend Brandon and now sees triathlon as a great challenge. He loves the people and the cultures he gets to see. (Athlete, 01 May 1999; simonwhitfield.com, 24 May 2004)

Ambitions
To be fully prepared to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and to get an honorary business degree from a major Canadian University. (ctvolympics.ca, 15 May 2012; triathlon.org, 01 Jun 2012)

Training
In the lead up to the 2012 Olympic Games he moved to New Zealand to train. His weekly schedule there included running around 140km, biking between 400km-500km and swimming around 25km. (ctvolympics.ca, 15 May 2012)

Hero
Canada's ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and New Zealand mountaineer and explorer Edmund Hillary. (Athlete, 01 May 1999)

Most influential person in career
Triathlete Greg Bennett, who he met while training for a year in Australia as a 17-year-old. (simonwhitfield.com, 01 May 2012)

Superstitions / Rituals
He likes to clap three times before the start gun. (Athlete, 01 May 1999)

Sporting philosophy / motto
"Be a student of your sport, learn everything you can, be open to all advice. Don't be afraid of your weaknesses, see them as an opportunity and be dedicated." (simonwhitfield.com, 12 May 2004)

"What you believe, you will achieve." (simonwhitfield.com, 12 May 2004)

Awards
He has been inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. (Accenture Series Magazine, 27 Feb 2003)

He was Canada's flagbearer at the Closing Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. (triathloncanada.com 26 Jun 2001)

He became the first Olympic male triathlon champion when he triumphed at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the first Games where triathlon had featured. (sports-reference.com, 12 Jun 2012)

Named Triathlon Canada's Athlete of the Year for 1999 and 2000. (triathloncanada.com 26 Jun 2001)

General
AUSTRALIAN LINKS
His father is Australian, he went to school in North Sydney, holds both Canadian and an Australian passport and feels his Australian links have given him good experience. "Australia taught me about competitive spirit and pride. I'm deeply enamoured with the whole Australian culture - a lot of my competitive nature comes from my school friends and training partners there." (sportsillustrated.cnn.com 17 Sep 2000; en.beijing.cn 04 Dec 2007)

ARMSTRONG ARGUEMENT
He was involved in an exchange with Lance Armstrong on Twitter in April 2012 when the former Tour de France winner, who had recently returned to participate in triathlon, suggested the distances chosen for the Olympic competition amounted to a "a shampoo, blow dry and 10 k foot race". Another of Armstrong's complaints was that drafting, using the slipsteam of another competitor to conserve energy during the cycling leg of the race, was allowed in the Olympic race but not in the Ironman [Armstrong's preferred distance]. "Disappointed to read Lance Armstrong's comments that those of us working so hard towards our Olympic Tri dreams are participating in 'a joke'", Whitfield responded. The pair exchanged several more message before agreeing to disagree on the subject. (sports.nationalpost.com, 26 Apr 2012)

EARLY DAYS
As a child he believes he knew he was going to achieve success at a high level. "I believed from a very young age that I was going to be the best in the world at something, that was always my goal. I was passionate about learning and when I was 17 I moved to Australia to go to school [at Knox Grammar School in Sydney] and began preparing for the Olympic journey." (simonwhitfield.com, 24 May 2004)

Previous Olympics

Beijing 2008, Athens 2004, Sydney 2000