World Triathlon

Great Britain’s Tracey Sample is set to compete in the upcoming 2023 World Triathlon Cross Championships, all part of the 2023 World Triathlon Multisport Championships, in Ibiza, Spain. The race in Ibiza will see Sample, triathlon coach, wearing the GBR team suit for the 22nd time.

HOW IT STARTED

“My first triathlon was in 2004 and I was in my mid-thirties. I had done no sport since I left school (so around 20 years of little sport) and was encouraged by my husband who had already been doing triathlon for a couple of years.  I didn’t think it was something I’d ever be able to do when he took up triathlon.  I had to convert from breaststroke to crawl in the swim and that was my best discipline in those days.  I was a terrible cyclist. 3 weeks before my first tri, I recce’d the bike route on a bike I’d borrowed from my husband, who is 25cm taller than me so I couldn’t reach the brakes. I fell off 3 times and eventually sat on the side of the road and cried until he went and got the car to pick me up.  My running wasn’t much better.  I was really proud I had just managed to get under 10 min for a 1500m run and completed my first training 5km a week before the event.  I had no idea if I’d be able to complete the race, but I did. I loved it and I was totally hooked.”

“There was no club in our area so all the residents who did that first local triathlon in 2004 got together and formed Alnwick Tri Club. We were lucky as there were a couple of coaches who already knew about triathlon so we got pool time and became a big family.”

THE TEAM GBR EXPERIENCE

“A friend of mine went to the 2005 Duathlon World Championships and I was totally overawed at his achievement but never thought I could be good enough.  In the 2006 season, I had started to improve. I got 2 podiums at sprint tri but had no thoughts of ever being able to compete for GBR as the World Championships were over Standard distance and I was still relatively bad at that distance. At the end of 2006, I attended the British Triathlon AGM where they announced that in 2007, there would be the inaugural Sprint distance world champs at Hamburg I decided in that moment I was going to work seriously hard over the winter and I was going to be at Hamburg.
I got to the qualification race at Redditch Tri 2007 and whilst I still didn’t feel I was great, with 1km to go on the run I started to cry as I knew I’d done enough to qualify.  I had to pull myself back together quickly to ensure no one in my Age Group went back past me!  I continued to work hard over the summer and went to Hamburg and competed for Team GB in the 35-39 AG almost 3 years to the day from that first local triathlon done on a borrowed bike.”

“Competing for Team GB on that first time was like nothing else I’d done up to that point in my life.  I cannot put into words how proud I was to wear the tri suit or how excited I was to be lining up with all these amazing athletes.  It was all a bit overwhelming but 5 of us from our club had qualified so we went out as a big group and the race at Hamburg was so well put on, I fell in love with the whole process of being in the atmosphere and meeting up with the other athletes.  I had no expectations of doing well but I found when competing against those just in my 5-year age group, I was not bad. Ok, I got a top 10 in my first World Champs and it was unbelievably amazing.  By Budapest World Champs in 2010 I got a similar top 10 result on the face of it but the standard had improved massively and the quantity of competitors had more than doubled so was super proud of my achievement. In 2007 I put my first GB sweatshirt on and I have been decked in GB kit ever since. That is how proud I am of what I have achieved.”

“I have had some ups and downs in triathlon. I only competed in 3 world championships before an unknown hip defect I’d had since birth, stopped me from competing. I have been told twice I’ll never get back on a bike again due to hip issues but luckily, I didn’t care if I was competitive or not and just wanted to take part.  After my first hip operation, I took 2 years to come back and even then, I fell off my bike at my first triathlon and broke my collarbone, so I didn’t complete another triathlon from September 2010 to May 2013.  I managed to qualify for the Duathlon World Champs in Ottowa in 2013 and London Triathlon World Championships 2013 by the skin of my teeth.  I loved the experience at Ottawa but duathlon is not my strength so just had a good time during the race, high-fiving the crowd.  In London, I was 55th of 91 in my age group. Possibly good but I was the last Brit with 36 people behind me.  It was at this point I realised how good the Brits are at triathlon. It is something I’ve been able to quote as I talk to people who might want to try age-group racing and are put off because they are only “ok” in Britain. The likelihood is that if you can get on to Team GB, you will stack up well against the rest of the world.”

“I had to have another hip operation in 2016 so my races in the period 2016-2018 were just as completers, with no expectation for a top 10 ever again.  I turned to wider multisport events to have some fun and decided I wanted to compete in all disciplines of multisport (on the road as I didn’t even know there was such a thing as cross tri and cross duathlon).  It took a few years but I’ve now competed in a GB tri suit 21 times in every discipline and distance up to the middle distance and I am quite at peace with the fact that my body won’t withstand the rigours of long-distance training.”

“I rounded off my “achieving everything in multisport” in Bilboa 2022 where I was one of 6 people over the whole event to become a triathlon Legend, competing in 4 events during the European Multisport festival. Racing a Sprint Duathlon, Standard Duathlon, Aquathlon and the Middle Distance Aquabike all in one week was very tiring and mentally difficult to go into the races, not going as fast as I wanted so I could survive to race another day.  I got my first experience of being last in the age-group but I was surprised how little it bothered me as I was absolutely focussed on just completing the 4 events.”

“Becoming a legend is a very difficult thing to do, partly due to the amount of races needing done in a week but actually being able to qualify for the events means you have to be solid over all the swim, bike and run disciplines to be good enough to qualify. If you are not good enough to qualify in just one of the events, your whole Legend dream is over and you have to start again trying to qualify in all the events for the next championship.”

“I felt this was my last chance to gain Legend status as the requirements to become a legend have changed now to completing 5 events which means you have to take 2 bikes to a championship (there were only 3 events with a road bike, 2 events with a mountain bike and one event without a bike at multisports festivals so anyone attempting it now would have to do a combination of on and off-road multisport events which really does make you an all-rounder if you complete it) and it is logistically hard with living in the North east of England to fly or drive to events with two bikes.”

THE SUPPORT ALONG THE WAY

“Friends are what keep me coming back to do the events.  I have lots of friends whom I met in 2007 in Hamburg at my first world championships and I pick up new friends at every event.  I have been truly blessed in being included in the multisport community and because I have done every discipline, I have groups of friends at any and every race. But I am also lucky enough to know some amazing Technical Officials from around Europe so I do my best to catch up with everyone at the championship events. It is one long party of coffee and cake with friends I only get to see there.”

“My husband, Ian, used to do triathlon. It was him who introduced me to the sport just before triathlon was in the Olympics for the first time in 2000. I remember supporting the “youngster”, Tim Don.  Ian doesn’t really do triathlon anymore, he just rides his bike (mostly in gravel sportives) but he does come along to support me when the championships are somewhere he wants to go.  My daughter also did triathlon until she went to university so was a great training partner. When she was young, she would ride her bike with me when I went out for a run so we got some great chat time for many years.  She discovered Ultimate Frizbee at University and whilst she still swims, bikes and runs, she is an amazing Frizbee player now, but she is still part of the tri club and trains with us when she is home.”
 
WHAT ABOUT IBIZA

“I am doing Cross Triathlon but when I tell people that, I feel like I am the only person in the world who gets the reaction “are you only doing one event?” As if Cross Triathlon isn’t hard enough on its own.”

“I am so excited to be returning to Ibiza to compete in Cross Triathlon. The Cross Triathlon will be my 200th multisport race, which I feel is quite an achievement. It will also be my 22nd time in a GB tri suit.”

“With a 5-year focus on getting me to the Ibiza World Multisport Festival, I was so excited to be doing final preparations with the hope of doing really well but injury means I have changed my expectations and I’m looking forwards to just enjoying myself.  I love swimming and me being out on the bike is my happy place, add that together with doing them while wearing my GB tri suit and there is actually nothing else I could want to do or a better place I could be doing it. We will have to see how well I can run, but if I am not going very fast, it’ll be more time for me to chat to spectators and marshals.  One thing there is no doubt about, is that I will be finishing with my arms in the air and a great big grin on my face as I just love doing it.”

WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED

“I love all things swim, bike and run. I compete in it, I coach it, I organise multisport events and I basically live it 24/7.  I don’t need anything to keep me motivated to train or compete. I have had so many long periods off training in the last 19 years where I have sat looking outside at people running in the cold November wind and rain and been jealous of them, that I appreciate every day I am able to do my sport.  I also know that with my hip issues, there will come a time when I won’t be able to train enough to qualify for international events so I am taking every opportunity so I can to do what I love, whilst I can.  I have loved the journey of ticking off every combination of multisport and the challenge to learn new skills with each event.

FAVOURITE MEMORY IN SPORT

“I live swim bike and run so it is very difficult to pick one memory out.  I am proud that the work I have done with inspiring people to take up the sport, I have taught hundreds if not thousands of people to swim in the 36 years I have been a coach. There have been so many of the kids I have coached who have gone on to do brilliant things.  I have hundreds of memories and stories that I cherish. I love that I have whole swathes of friends that I would never have met without triathlon. The best day of each year is on the day we run the disability triathlon in Newcastle. I am always reduced to tears seeing what they go through to get to the start line and it is a constant source of inspiration, knowing that my injuries are nothing in comparison to what they have to deal with every day of their lives.”

“But one of the stand-out memories was running down the blue carpet in the Ibiza Aquathlon in 2018 with my good friend, Nicky. Obviously, we followed the rules making sure we came home in the correct order but running down the blue carpet, just as the sun was setting, hand in hand with Nicky, the crowd cheering us on still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.We almost got to repeat the scenario in Munich in 2022 European Sprint Tri Champs where I started in a wave behind Nicky and caught her just as we hit the blue carpet but this time we sprinted for the line with Nicky pipping me on the finish line.  We go thousands of miles to race and the best memories are when I have been racing my friends or club mates. I don’t care who wins if I get to do a sprint finish with a great friend.”

World Triathlon wishes all athletes, competing in the 2023 World Triathlon Multisport Championships (29 April – 7 May), all the best! For the elite races, TriathlonLive.tv will have full coverage of the duathlon (including mixed relay), aquathlon and long distance triathlon events, and extended highlights of the cross duathlon and cross triathlon and with over 3,000 athletes from 61 countries competing for world titles, all age group races will have a finish line camera watchable on the platform.