It's an error to count on winning a medal in the triathlon. With one race every four years, anything can happen, especially in a sport as tactical as this where it isn't always the strongest who wins.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Triathlon is a sport where the legacy is obvious. Anyone can do it; there are loads you can do. It is a massive participation sport. You can do it as a challenge, for charity or whatever. I believe it will continue to grow, and I will look forward to that happening.
The triathlon can be a very hard sport to train for. You see all the time when people try to improve - like their swim, for example: they train really hard for two to three weeks, and then when they go back to normal training, the swim goes back to where it was before.
Just because I have two world records, everyone assumes that means automatically it is two guaranteed gold medals, but it isn't like that, and anything can happen in a race.
The variety of training is a major selling point of triathlon. Different sports, different venues means it's always interesting, and you can always switch things round if the weather messes your plans up.
At the Olympics, you have almost nothing to lose, but at the Olympic trials, you have everything to lose. You have the last four years of your life to lose.
The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was lucky enough to go twice, but most people only get one chance. And in judo you can train your whole life and it'll come down to a split second: You can lose everything or win anything.
In the Olympics, everything goes back to square one. The world champion or the world record holder or the ninth last year are fighting for the same medal, and you have got to go there like it was the first time.
When you are at the Olympic Games, it comes down to a ten thousandth of a hair between making the next round or winning a race or getting second or third.
There's never going to be a decathlon that you're going to have 10 events that your satisfied with. You're always, always going to be dissatisfied in something, and that always draws you back to try to retry that the next time you do a decathlon. It's like you go for the perfect 10.
That's because the International Olympic Committee has a policy of never replacing medals.
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