By Emily Sadler
CTVOlympics staff
Simon Whitfield has delivered some of Canada’s favourite Olympic moments.
His thrilling gold medal victory in the first-ever Olympic triathlon was the Cinderella story of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and his miraculous sprint to capture the silver medal in Beijing 2008 is forever etched in the minds of many.
With a track record like his, there is no doubt this Canadian triathlete from Victoria, B.C. will be one to watch in London 2012.
While Canadians are already envisioning yet another victorious sprint to the finish line, Whitfield is not there yet; instead, he’s focusing on today.
At 36 years old, Whitfield has enough kilometres behind him to know what it takes to win; for him, that means going back to basics. As he explained during a December phone interview, his preparation is remarkably similar to his first Olympic appearance.
“When I went to Sydney, I simply put my head down and worked hard and really focused on the day-to-day, not looking too far ahead,” Whitfield said. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I ended up doing the right thing.”
Whitfield jokingly refers to this mindset as ‘Size 11,’ — his shoe size.
“I literally just think, ‘left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot,’ and moving forward,” Whitfield explained. “I’m very focused on the here-and-now.”
There are a couple of additional reasons for Whitfield’s “one day at a time” mentality: his wife Jennie and two young daughters, Pippa and Evelyn.
“My day, as much as it revolves around training, also revolves around being home and available,” Whitfield said.
“The truth is, my children don’t really care whether Dad’s under pressure or not,” he explained. “They just want to know if we can get ice cream and if I can go for a bike ride with them.”
When it all comes down to it, Whitfield explained, being a dad is his number one priority.
And he’s having fun with it.
When he’s not training in his home gym — “‘My office,’ I call it,” — set up in his garage (so he can be closer to his girls), he’s taking his daughters to the park, rehearsing their living room dance routines and just hanging out. Their current challenge?
“Seeing how high we can jump off the couch.”
His daughters have helped Whitfield realize what’s most important in life and taught him a few lessons along the way.
“Selfishly, it’s taken the fear of the end of my career away,” Whitfield said. “Before I had kids, I dreaded the end of my career and athletic endeavors, and now I don’t.”
While London 2012 will likely be the final act in his outstanding Olympic career, he is not ready to count himself out just yet.
“I really love doing this. I love competing, I love preparing,” he said. “I have a very good perspective of how lucky I am, how fortunate I am to do this.”
Whitfield’s love for the sport is obvious; in his 15 years of training as a professional athlete, he’s only taken about three months off.
This brief hiatus came after the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, when Whitfield, who was favoured to repeat his success in Sydney, placed a disappointing 11th.
“I was looking too far ahead,” Whitfield said, explaining that he simply needed to regain his focus and rediscover his love for the sport.
That’s exactly what he did and, four years later, his trip to the podium in Beijing was proof that he’d found his stride once again.
So, as he travels the road to London, Whitfield remains true to his day-by-day training, no matter what the day brings.
“Today was cold, and a little bit wet, and I went for a 100 km ride,” he explained. “And you do it because nine months from now, you get to express that hard work. And that’s what I really enjoy.”
Ultimately, one race is all that stands between Whitfield and his third Olympic medal; however he knows it takes much more than that. For Simon Whitfield, it’s the days between now and that race that really matter. Days of running, biking, and swimming; days of ice cream and trips to the park and couch-jumping with the kids; days that, when all strung together one-by-one, form a path to London 2012.
