With Christmas around the corner, Vasco Vilaca can at last take a minute to look back and see all that the sport has thrown at him this year. After all, 2024 has been nothing if not long. “This year was my hardest season ever,” he said. “I started in February in New Zealand because there was this world series relay and I had to go there to try and qualify the team relay for the Olympics. Then we went through the whole season and I think Super League was like the first week in November, so that's almost the whole year racing.”
“And we had the Olympics in between. So not only was it a very long season, but we also had to stay focused and tried to train properly throughout the whole time, which was made quite difficult with my crash in Yokohama. And then after the Olympics, I got very sick as well, so then I was recovering from there again. So a rather difficult season, but I think a season that has helped me grow into the next Olympic cycle.”
On the first day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me a relay qualifying
At the Mixed Team Relay World Series race in Napier all the way back in distant February, Vilaca produced the fastest leg of the day as the second Portuguese man and his time of 16:52 made him one of two athletes to go under the 17 minute mark. In one fell swoop, he helped to lift Portugal to 2nd place in Napier and into a provisional relay qualifying slot for Paris. Vilaca, though, was already ready for more.
A brilliant 2023 season in which he claimed four WTCS medals set him up for a tilt at major individual glory this year. “I definitely came into 2024 wanting to fight for podiums, maybe even tried to step up on the highest step on the podium that I haven't gotten yet,” explained Vilaca. “I had a few 2nd and 3rd places, but the main goal was the Olympics. I was always trying to prepare for the Olympics but as it was my first Olympic cycle, there was definitely an extra nervousness.”
On the second day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me two fallen stars
After his fine showing in Napier, Vilaca made his WTCS bow for the season in Yokohama. “I came into the race I would say very well prepared to perform. It had been quite a long winter season as Abu Dhabi was cancelled. A lot was on the line because I wanted to kind of prove to myself that all the training had been done well, you wanted to perform well to kind of relax towards the Games and to know the work has been done properly.” He paused for a moment. “It was probably one of my best races ever, up until the crash.”
Vilaca had one of his best swims to date in the Series. “I'm not sure exactly where I came out of the water but it was around the 5th place. I was the first onto the bike which is something I've never done over in a World Series, and I pretty much led the whole bike and almost got away a few times.”
However, in the closing stages of the bike, as the field came together in a large front pack, disaster struck. A crash split the pack and brought both Vilaca and the 2023 world champion Dorian Coninx to the ground. In one fell swoop, two leading candidates for Paris gold found themselves out of the Yokohama hunt and with their Olympic journeys in jeopardy.
On the third day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me three French men
“It was probably one of the worst crashes in terms of how much it impacted training. I didn't break anything directly, but I think it took me around two to four weeks to fully come back to training again.”
Vilaca had to sit out WTCS Cagliari a fortnight later – “I could barely sit on the bike or swim at that point” – and so became a spectator to the tense final turns in the race for Olympic qualification. Among the closest battles was that of the French men’s team, in which four WTCS gold medallists fought for three slots. Vilaca’s training partner, Vincent Luis, was among the contenders for the French berth but was the unlucky individual not to make the cut. Just as Luis saw his Olympic dreams fade, so too worried Vilaca that his hopes were already over before they had fully gotten going.
On the fourth day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me four worried words
“I was so sure I broke something because I was in so much pain. It goes back to the stress and pressure of wanting to try properly to perform at the Olympics and those four weeks where I can't really perform at the highest level were tough. I missed Cagliari and then I found myself in a spot where I'm not really able to train. I'm missing the World Series and it automatically builds up a stress of like, ‘I want to train, I want to perform’, but I couldn't really do it.”
Underlying Vilaca’s concerns was one simple question: what if it’s over? Having pushed so hard for so long, and with the Games barely two months away, he was not in the position he wanted either physically or psychologically.
“You know, the Olympics is all everything goes towards. It's all everyone talks about. The last four years are all about preparing for the Olympics, but only really the last six months are like, ‘okay, I'm actually qualified now. I'm actually going to the Olympics’. And you start to try to perfect everything, you try to make everything as good as you can for that one moment in your life that you feel like everyone's everything's built up to and that first experience probably brings more stress than it should for a perfect performance on the race.”
When it is put to him that the psychological aspect of the crash may have mattered far more than any missed training or physical element, particularly given the extensive work Vilaca had already banked previously, he was quick to agree.
“One hundred percent. The worst part of the crash I'd say was the mental part. I was in very good shape in Yokohama. The result in the end wasn't good because I was hurt but the performance there was very good. And I did perform very well in Hamburg the race before the Olympics. So actually I had been training very well and as you say I was fit and physically it wouldn't have been a problem. But I think it's exactly the stress and the mental distress in a way that the crash created going into the Olympics. A moment that already has a lot of pressure and stress around itself and if you then add to that what happened after this fresh, and it adds up and then kind of drains energy that you need for a special moment like Paris.”
On the fifth day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me five Olympic rings
Vilaca is clearly an athlete that thinks deeply about the sport. Reflecting back over this summer, it sesems there is a chance he may have over-thought aspects of his preparation. Having gone down the rabbit hole of worrying in the build-up to Paris, what were his thoughts of formally qualifying for the Games for the first time?
“It's hard to live up to the expectation that you build up for so many years because you talk about this huge, huge thing. My whole life as a child was about the Olympics. It's every race, every world title, it's about points for qualifying and everything is slowly building up to that. So it's very hyped but in the end it is just a race and that's the truth.”
On the sixth day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me six champagnes spraying
Before the Games arrived, Vilaca was back in full flight and made his presence known with a silver medal at WTCS Hamburg, repeating his result from the year prior. The champagne flowed on the podium afterwards, however Vilaca’s mind was already on the big show to come a few weeks later. Even now, his assessment of Hamburg is understated: “It was alright.”
On the seventh day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me seven Seines a-swimming
In the end, Vilaca came away from Paris with a creditable 5th place in the individual race. He was a mere 13 seconds away from the podium having had to make up considerable ground after a challenging swim in the Seine. In stark contrast to Yokohama, he lost over 50 seconds to the fastest athlete in the water.
“Paris, I would say, was an ok race. I didn't feel like my best for sure. I think because of all the stress, and a lot of new things, I didn't handle the situation in the best possible way because it was my first experience. But with what I had in the day, I think I did quite well.”
On the eighth day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me eight teams a-teaming
Vilaca was back a few days later for the Mixed Team Relay having played such an important role back in Napier. Once again, he brought everything he could to the race and, just like Napier, he was the fastest athlete of his leg. Another 5th place finish followed. While the top-3 teams were out of reach, Portugal were part of a cluster of eight teams that occupied positions 4th to 11th and their 5th place inserted them as among the best of the rest. And like that, Vilaca’s Olympic adventure was done.
“I think that I was very lucky that these were my first Olympics. Paris was a beautiful experience, both the Olympic village and actually the race venue. It was amazing, amazing, and so was the amount of people that came out to watch. French people are huge fans of the sport which made it even better. The expectations were very, very high, but I would say Paris created a unique experience that the Olympics were supposed to be.”
On the ninth day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me nine splits of racing
By this point in the year, Vilaca had already experienced plenty but there was no sign of a pause in sight. He threw himself into the supertri season and a different style of racing in which participants take on three consecutive short triathlons, totalling nine splits altogether. In this phase of the year, Vilaca had an inconsistent batch of results, rising from a DNF to a podium before dropping down to the middle of the pack in his third outing.
On the tenth day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me ten lines a-leaping
It was only a matter of time, though, before he recaptured his best form and at the fourth supertri event in Toulouse Vilaca triumphed in a tense showdown with WTCS and Olympic medallists Hayden Wilde and Tim Hellwig, among others. After detonating a massive sprint finish, Vilaca claimed a first win of the year. For good measure, he was able to leap over the line and hit the pose popularised by his footballing compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me eleven seconds missing
After Toulouse, Vilaca was ready for the WTCS Final in Torremolinos. “I was really going for the Final, but I didn't perform quite there either.” At the crucial moment, when the four man pack of Wilde, Leo Bergere, Simon Westermann and Tayler Reid escaped on the bike, Vilaca was not in a position to react. He spent much of the bike thereafter leading the efforts to reel in the leaders, but the crucial eleven seconds lost in the early moments of the break proved decisive.
Once November rolled around, Vilaca headed to the supertri final in Neom. This time, he tried to seize the day just as his rivals had in Torremolinos and broke away on the bike. However, he was slightly too exuberant around a tight corner and came crashing down for the second time this year.
“A lot of ups and downs,” concluded Vilaca with a wry smile when considering his year. “I would say it was a growing year. It wasn't really as good as last year, mostly because I wasn't as consistent. I'm definitely growing. I can see it in training and in the races when they do go well, I'm getting stronger. But growing this year because mentally, I've had to learn a lot handling the pressure and stress.”
“For me, my goal has always been not about getting to the top, but about being consistent at the top. I believe a lot of people can get to the top. Staying there, that's what's really hard and very few can do.”
On the twelfth day of Christmas, triathlon sent to me twelve months incoming
And so we come to today. A year finished, Christmas around the corner: perhaps it is time to rest. Vilaca, however, is thinking of nothing of the sort. Rather, with the 2025 WTCS starting in February, he is raring to go.
The season opens in Abu Dhabi and given the time of year, he does not imagine he will do specific work for it so as not to compromise his form later in the campaign. Equally, having medalled last time out there (in 2023), it is a venue he favours. “I really like this form of race course. I think it's spectacular that we were able to race there (on the F1 circuit).”
“After this season, I'm looking forward to getting back to some consistent results and putting myself out there. I feel like I didn't race as much this year with the Yokohama crash, missing Cagliari, and then I missed Weihai trying to prepare for the Final. I really want to get back out there and do as many WTCS races as I can.”
It may have been his hardest season yet, with more things sent his way than the real twelve days of Christmas, but Vasco Vilaca is ready to do it all over again.
