Triathlon
What did Kiwi Hayden Wilde do to become a world class triathlete?
New Zealand's best triathlete took bronze in Tokyo and silver at the Commonwealths in Birmingham. Hayden Wilde's trophy cabinet is about to get a lot fuller…
As things go, 2021 was a pretty crazy year for Hayden Wilde. As well as claiming victories in the Xterra Off-Road Triathlon in Maui, Hawaii, there was the small matter of a bronze medal in Tokyo.
Not one to rest on his laurels, he followed that up with a series of big Superleague Triathlon Championship wins in 2022, as well as securing second at the World Championship Series in Yokohama, Japan, and at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK.
Now aged 26, the New Zealand native – nicknamed ‘The Falcon’ for his under the radar rise – is looking to add more tin to his trophy cabinet. After that, things might get weird…
01
Coming up
Hayden Wilde in the pool
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Growing up in the small town of Whakatāne on New Zealand’s east coast, Wilde found himself about half an hour’s drive from Crankworx Rotorua, but unfortunately, MTB was not to be his path…
“Looking back, I guess I just followed my brothers,” Wilde says of his introduction to sports. “I was just a normal kid who played football and rugby and hockey and cricket and whatever my brothers were doing.”
Wilde says apart from an uncle who mountain bikes, no one in his family is in to triathlon. Still, in high school, his general love for sport transitioned into ‘beach racing’ and running in general, along with a love for mountain biking. “That's how I got put into XTERRA triathlon,” Wilde explains. “It was just my teachers telling me: “You might be pretty good at this.”
Soon, Saturday mornings watching his brothers play football or cricket had competition in the form of Wilde’s triathlons. It wasn’t long before the family was chasing triathlon all over the country. Not that his brothers minded sharing the limelight. “My brothers are probably my biggest fans,” Wilde says. “They're just stoked, but they also remind me to keep my head in. For example, in Abu Dhabi, I got a flat tyre, and we had a group chat phone call and they were just giving it to me the whole time like: “So, what was that performance?” They're always keeping me in check.”
02
Early challenges
Hayden Wilde grew up in Whakatane
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Wilde’s upbringing sounds idyllic and supportive and to a degree it was, except for it was also marked by an early tragedy.
“Back when I was in primary school, my dad passed away – he was a pilot – and yeah, I guess you kind of miss that figure growing up, so that's why I’m so close to my brothers,” Wilde says.
“I was more or less eight, I was still at primary school, so I didn’t really understand too much,” Wilde says, recounting the pain of learning his father was gone. “My two older brothers were at an age where they did understand. I was probably in the best position in my family because I was the youngest and had my brothers to lean on. And my stepdad, he knew my father really well, but also knew my mum, so, he was really helpful to my mum.”
“I think that made me stronger and more resilient as a person. I had no real ambitions through high school, not until the last two or three years – that's when I really started opening doors with being a better student. I guess having a slight bit of dyslexia with terrible spelling and everything I’m really good at maths. But yeah, I definitely matured in my last few years of high school and picked up Deputy Head Boy.”
In fact he was doing so well that he was about to go to university when a supportive teacher sat him down and told him: “School will never go away but your physical ability will.”
“That’s kind of when I flipped the switch and tried to push my sporting ability,” Wilde explains.
Even then, he didn’t really have an idea of how far triathlon might take him. In terms of heroes in the sport, he says he didn’t know who the Brownlee brothers are, or who was the Javier Gómezes of his era. “I kind of just looked at locals like Braden Currie,” he says. “He was the big guy of New Zealand, but was also racing internationally so I looked at him.”
03
Switching sides
Wilde in the wild
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Inspired by the legacies both of Currie and his father, Wilde doubled down, earning spots at the Maui World Championships and winning two years running as an Under-19. “That's kind of where I made my transition into a professional athlete,” Wilde says although he wasn’t quite able to support himself through sport yet: as recently as 2016 he was still supporting himself as a landscape gardener between comps.
It was the same year, on a break between jobs that he sat down to watch the on-road triathlon at Rio. Having grown up outdoors, road biking hadn’t really appealed to him, but watching the best athletes in the world compete, Wilde conceded “that's actually pretty awesome.”
“I like how close the racing is, how aggressive it is, and that's when I made the switch,” he says. He switched coaches and got to work, studying NZ athletes like Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty. “I was lucky enough to have Hamish Carter – the CEO role of Tri NZ – as kind of a guide and a mentor,” says Wilde. “He's been there, he's had massive ups and the downs as well, so to kind of get his insight was interesting.”
04
Japanese days
Training in Lake Rotoma
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Before competing in Tokyo, Japan had been an integral part of Wilde’s young career. “In triathlon, the big thing is collecting points,” he says. “You apply for your pro card, and then you go to Continental Cup [one of three tiers: Continental Cup, World Cup, World Triathlon Series]. You have to hit certain targets before progressing. The Asia Cup in 2017 was my first time to get points, and I spent three months in Asia, especially in Japan.”
Traveling to another continent alone, aged 20, takes some cajones, of course. “I think I had that self-pressure,” says Wilde. “I took time off work, bought a flight, and thought: “Well, if I don’t race well or hit the numbers I need to hit to impress Triathlon New Zealand…” I knew going to Asia was risky but if I raced well it could set me up to go to Europe and the next World Cup.
Knowing it was all or nothing, Wilde kept driving, and ended up collecting the points he needed. “I look at Japan as New Zealand, but just full of rice farms instead of cow farms – exactly the same,” he says looking back now. “I just love it, the pure relaxed-ness and the kindness reminded me of home.”
05
Training days
Putting in the hard yards
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Having earned entry into the upper echelons, Wilde knew he needed to continue training like a mad man. “It’s seven days a week; my body does not cope well with rest,” he says. “If I do rest, it's active recovery. We're doing three to four hours of training per day and it's pure consistency. You definitely put your body through the wringer, but you've got to be extremely smart in how you train. For me, it’s about creating a very solid platform, and then building little blocks of bricks.”
Wilde says his training doesn’t consist of any “superhero sessions, or world record-breaking sessions” but “consistent sessions that will stack on top of each other, to hopefully make you a better athlete with consistency, less injuries and less suffering – although, a little bit of suffering is necessary in this sport.”
He never gets bored, claiming there are always new places to train. “I think we're really lucky in triathlon. I'm not just a pure swimmer, so I'm not just looking at the black line. And I'm not a pure biker, so not continuously on the saddle, or just a runner. You know, if I get a little bit bored of one of them, I can really do a lot in one other discipline, and then you can really move that around. Same with injuries.”
The Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre in Austria stands out as one of Wilde’s favourite places to train. “I really enjoy Austria, it's like a New Zealand on steroids – pure mountains and lakes you can swim in. The cycling is similar to NZ but supersized,” he says of his visit.
As for music, he “hates” running with tunes, but will listen to some Fall Out Boy or Rage Against The Machine to zone out when cycling. “Swimming is great because they’re starting to bring headphones in and you can listen to music underwater, which is sometimes good when you're by yourself,” he adds.
06
Dialling it in
Pick a lane
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Sport is becoming increasingly scientific, but Wilde doesn’t let the emphasis on metrics distract him but he is bringing in additional team members, like a new bike coach to help maximise performance. “I don't have any intention of leaving my team, it's more expanding our team because one person's never going to have the knowledge other people might have in their niche sport,” he explains.
“Everyone’s like: “What’s your VO2,” or, “What’s this or what’s that?” And I’m like: “I actually haven't done that test in two years or something.” But when I do it, it's good to get those numbers,” he says.
Last year, a big focus as post-session recovery, working with Red Bull Nutrition. “I was never good at fuelling before training so he's helped me a lot,” Wilde says.
“Triathletes are extremely lucky as we just have to get anything and everything into our bodies, because we're always burning,” he laughs. “In the pool, we're always using a different anaerobic system, biking, different anaerobic system, running different anaerobic systems.So it's about being aware of what you're eating, but also, not being too strict on yourself… I'm not gonna freak out if I go and get a burger. I’m also a big fan of 99 percent dark chocolate. It tastes like cardboard, but I love it. And I'm a shocker with peanut butter.”
07
Mind over matter
Making time for chores
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Like most sports, triathlons are a mental struggle – especially when it comes to mastering three different disciplines at once. “I've seen sports psychologists a few times – more so just the swimming aspect, coming up to a race,” says Wilde.
“I know swimming is my weakness. It's just trying to be as relaxed as possible on the start line, because I could potentially be 40th out of the water and then have a really good swim,” he continues. “It’s about not being tense and now I feel like I'm quite dialled in where I can really push myself to the limit.”
When it comes to the bike, though, Wilde doesn’t need extra motivation. “On the bike I can really just put my head down and put myself in the box, and the same with running,” he says.
“Generally, I’ve been building a lot of confidence in racing,” he says. “You're on the start line and you just don't see yourself not on the podium. And it's just a mindset that you've built for yourself. I think other people then look at you, saying: 'How am I gonna get this guy off the podium?'”
08
Podium position
At home on land and in the water
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
When Wilde did eventually get to Tokyo for the biggest competition in sport, he ended up bagging bronze – all of which came after a COVID-shaped year-long delay.
“I was stoked because when I changed to the on-road triathlon, I was only three years in the sport so having that extra year off, it gave me the four-year cycle, which was great,” Wilde says of having the extra time to train.
“I was watching everyone race overseas, and I was like: “Oh, man, I'd love to be there and race,” but you just had to watch from afar. When I eventually went to Tokyo it dawned on me that if I was going to have a good day, if the stars aligned, I'd probably have a really good day. I was running extremely well, I was biking great, and swimming, you know, the best I’d swam, and that's my weakness. I was stoked, I definitely didn’t regret the way I performed.”
While he bagged third place, Wilde says the hardest part was not having his family there due to COVID restrictions. There was one person whom Wilde carries with him everywhere, though.
“All through this journey up until Tokyo, my dad actually never saw me race because I was so young when he passed away,” Wilde says. “I was still playing football then.” It was to his father that Wilde dedicated his bronze medal.
09
Running into the future
Wilde limbers up
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Like many triathletes, Wilde sees an Ironman on the horizon. “Coming from multi-sport, I come from a long-distance background where I’ve raced 24-hour races, 48-hour races,” he says. “I kind of transferred into the short-course stuff. Normally, you start with short course and make your way to long course but I've started long course and went to short course. But I would love to race in Kona and some of the most iconic events like Roth.”
In the more immediate future, Wilde says he does want another Olympic medal, with Paris being a big focus. Outside of that, the only limit is his imagination.
“I still struggle to know what I want to do in the sport to leave my legacy,” he says. “I’ve had ideas like going to Antarctica and cutting a swimming pool in the ice and doing laps, and then around the running circuit, there's a velodrome style with ice slopes so I could do a mini-triathlon there.”
He might look into doing a triathlon on three different continents, or working with Red Bull athletes to complete their hardest runs, swims and bike sessions. “As a triathlete, you’ve just got to think outside the box because the sport is so performance-based that no one's really gone outside of that,” he says. “It'd be pretty cool if I could be the first person to go and push triathlon in a different way.”