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Photos: Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

  • By Triathlete.com
  • Published Jun 30, 2011
  • Updated Dec 22, 2011 at 12:06 PM UTC
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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Olympic gold and silver medalist Simon Whitfield is triathlon's greatest Olympian and he's currently in pursuit of his third Olympic medal and fourth Olympic berth. Inside Triathlon magazine caught up with Whitfield recently while he was training with the Canadian national team in Maui, and he talked a lot about what he's learned from his 20-plus years in the sport. Here is some of the photos we took. Photo: John Segesta RELATED: Simon Whitfield Talks Olympics With Bob Babbitt

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Inside Triathlon magazine caught up with Whitfield recently while he was training with the Canadian national team in Maui, and he talked a lot about what he’s learned from his 20-plus years in the sport. Click here to purchase the issue. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Pick up the most recent issue of Inside Triathlon, on newsstands now, to read Whitfield’s tips on training, nutrition, how to fit triathlon in with being a new parent, and much more. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    These shots are taken from a photo shoot with Whitfield in Maui. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Whitfield is known for the “relentless pursuit of…” and he credits this attitude for helping him scale the heights he has in triathlon. “There’s that saying ‘no stone unturned.’ He embodies that,” said Kyle Jones, Whitfield’s longtime training partner. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    In terms of the training that Whitfield did in Maui, he said: “We climb Haleakala because it’s probably one of the toughest climbs in the entire world. We get in some open water swimming, and we run in cane fields—it makes you strong.” Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Today, Whitfield is working on improving his swim technique with the help of Rick Say, pictured here, a former Olympic swimmer for Canada. Over the winter, Whitfield built “a camera that goes underwater and wirelessly transmits to a TV across the deck. … [There is a] 10 second delay so when you arrive at the wall, you look up and you see your swim stroke,” he said. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Perhaps Whitfield’s greatest legacy is he transformed himself from a poor swim/biker into an all-around triathlete, someone who led his peers out of the water at the 2008 world championships. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    A look at Whitfield's workout. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Whitfield says he takes his nutrition extremely seriously, eating lots of quality fats, meats and greens. He tries to “not just say oh, chocolate milk is fine. You know? Shrug, whatever is fine. I eat pizza—it’s funny. Haha. You can get away with that for a certain amount of time. You can get away with that when you’re 21. But you understand that you’re getting away with it.”

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Back home in Victoria, British Columbia, Whitfield has training loops that he has named after some of the sport’s greatest. “I have a route that’s the Yorkshire Dales [where Alistair Brownlee lives]. It looks like the Yorkshire Dales. I have a Benno [Greg Bennett] Lane. I have a Simon Lessing Lane. I have a Chris McCormack Alley. I have all these names around Victoria that I’m probably the only one that knows that I’ve named them,” Whitfield said. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Whitfield attributes his longevity in the sport to perspective. He says that this perspective is “that it’s about preparation. That winning and medals and that stuff is an outcome. I understood outcome and process pretty early on. Like when I was a kid I understood it. My parents reinforced it without me even really knowing it. I was never asked if I won. I was always asked, did I give a great effort? And that really paid off because it taught me that everything was about the process and about the preparation I put in.” Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    How did go from being a terrible swimmer to an outstanding one? “We did it through brute force. We just did it through miles and intense training and there was no stroke technique. We did no drills. Zero drills. Zero. We just didn’t do drills. Because we were like, we don’t even know how—we’re not doing the drills properly,” Whitfield said. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    “My swim my, bike theory would be summarized as go hard often,” Whitfield said. Photo: John Segesta

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    Simon Whitfield Goes After Fourth Olympic Berth

    Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Whitfield won a silver, Whitfield would do a hill repeat workout where he pushed his daughter in a jogging stroller up a steep hill several times. “I’m the fastest charioteer ever,” Whitfield said. It helped him create balance between his family and work. Photo: John Segesta RELATED: Simon Whitfield Talks Olympics With Bob Babbitt

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