Photos: The Bennetts

“It’s all about experiences. Going back to the ’04 Olympics, what I really remember is the eight weeks before. Laura put her own training aside and the two of us trained everything together. Every workout. It was the intensity and focus of that period that sticks in my mind forever,” said Greg, who finished fourth in Athens.

“If a race doesn’t go my way, I’m allowed to be disappointed for an hour. And that’s important to me—I need that time. I can’t just wave it off. But then I move on,” said Greg, who won Hy-Vee this year, which offers triathletes the sport’s biggest prize purse ($1 million) and $151,500 to first. To read more about the Bennetts, pick up the March/April issue of Inside Triathlon magazine, on newsstands now.

The month of May looms large in the household of Greg and Laura Bennett. That’s when it will be decided whether the pair—two of the most talented and successful short-course triathletes in history, with 30 World Cup podiums between them—will score berths on Team U.S.A. bound for London’s Olympic Games.

The pair met while training in Victoria, British Columbia, and have been together ever since. “Sometimes they still are like teenagers in love,” said longtime friend, fellow pro and frequent houseguest Mathias Hecht. “They really are a perfect match.”

Greg, who is originally from Australia, became a U.S. citizen in the hopes that he and Laura, who grew up in Florida, could go to the Olympics for the same country. Greg represented Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and Laura represented the U.S. in Beijing. To read more about the Bennetts, pick up the March/April issue of Inside Triathlon magazine, on newsstands now.

“Winning is great, but it’s more about the process than the result. If you look at life like that, I think it helps a lot,” said Laura, who won Hy-Vee in 2007, when first prize was $200,000. To read more about the Bennetts, pick up the March/April issue of Inside Triathlon magazine, on newsstands now.

“It’s so easy to be serious, and we try constantly not to go down that road. And truly, we have no real responsibilities. Everything on our plates, we’ve put there. We’ve chosen to try to be the best in the world,” said Laura, who is attempting to become the third and last American woman to make the 2012 London Olympic team, which Sarah Groff and Gwen Jorgensen qualified for in August.

To read more about the Bennetts, pick up the March/April issue of Inside Triathlon magazine, on newsstands now.

To read more about the Bennetts, pick up the March/April issue of Inside Triathlon magazine, on newsstands now.

To read more about the Bennetts, pick up the March/April issue of Inside Triathlon magazine, on newsstands now.