By Satish Patel | May 3 2021 |
KCVI has been home to many remarkable people, from Gord Downie to Don Cherry. But have you ever heard of this KCVI product who reached the peak in athletic achievement in one of the most dramatic victories in Canadian sports?
Simon Whitfield was one of the world’s best triathletes for more than a decade, capturing a gold and silver medal at the Olympics, fourteen World Cup victories and twelve national championships. His dramatic gold medal victory at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was an incredible moment in Canadian sports history.
Born in Kingston, Whitfield was a devoted athlete, playing soccer and hockey before entering his first triathlon at age twelve. After attending KCVI for the first half of high school, he moved to Sydney, Australia at the age of 16, to attend his father’s alma mater and to focus on his running.
He soon gained major success at the national level, joining the Canadian triathlon team in 1996 at the age of 21, winning the Canadian triathlon championships in 1998 and 1999 and winning bronze at the 1999 Pan American games.
The 2000 Olympics were the first to include triathlon, and were hosted in Sydney, where Simon had lived since 1991. In an interview with Ron Mclean, he recalled the day Sydney was announced as the 2000 Olympic host: “I stood at the start line for the Sydney Olympics that would take place seven years later, I’m the first person there, I’m the first person to visualise that, I had run that course as a ten year old, I knew it intimately, I don’t think that's a coincidence.”
Going into the race, the 25-year-old Whitfield was predicted to finish top twenty or top fifteen, and the Australians were heavy favorites. Simon's uniform arrived the night before the race, and turned out too small for him. He ended up having to wear it ripped down the middle for the entire race.
The race was full of ups and downs. After the swim portion, Whitfield was out of the top thirty, and no one was predicting he would make up the time, but on his bike, he fought his way back to the race leaders against all odds.
Then disaster struck. Whitfield was involved in a crash with a dozen other riders. This set him back to starting the final running portion in twenty sixth place. Fortunately, running was his forte, and he again managed to catch up to the leaders in an incredible show of mental strength and athleticism.
With the race end in sight, Whitfield looked beaten as the German leader, Vuckovic, was several metres in front. But Whitfield did not give up. With 200 metres to go, he sprinted past Vuckovic and captured the gold with seconds to spare.
Simon recalled the moment in a CBC interview: “I saw the third-place guy was catching me and I thought, ‘Oh man, bronze would be fine too.’ And then I start looking back and I started realizing fourth was catching me and I was like, ‘Oh s--t, I don't wanna come fourth.’ So I was sprinting away from fourth and all of a sudden I caught Vuckovic and then I just went right by him. The next thing I knew I was standing on top of a podium singing ‘O Canada.’”
Simon Whitfield's win made him an instant celebrity in Canada and in the triathlon world.
At the 2004 Olympics he finished a disappointing eleventh. While speaking with Ron Mclean, he reflected about how his poor mindset had cost him. He illustrated this by contrasting his conversation with a competitor at the starting line in 2000 and again in 2004:
“I’m standing in the start line in Sydney [2000 Olympics], and I turn to Hamish Carter from New Zealand who’s world number one and I say ‘Hey Hamish there's a lot of sharks out there, I hope they don’t eat us’ and he tells me to shut up and get away from him. Four years later in Athens [2004 Olympics] I’m standing beside him again and he’s thirty-five with no expectations on him and I’m the defending Olympic champion and he says to me ‘There's a lot of fish out there’ and I said ‘Shut up get away from me’”.
Carter won the 2004 race. Whitfield remembers feeling as though he was only there to earn a medal and to succeed, and not to enjoy the race as he had in 2000: “I no longer loved it, I was just there to compete, I was just there to get the damn medal and Hamish was there cause he loved it. It speaks volumes about the journey you need to go on to do well. There has to be love, you can’t be afraid of failing, you must be in love with the idea of getting the most out of yourself.”
He must have had that love in 2008 where he excelled once again, capturing silver after being passed at the last moment by German Jan Frodeno. Instead of being disappointed, he was reminded by his dad right after the race that it was the “poetry of sport”: being passed by a young German athlete eight years after beating Vuckovic, another German racer.
Whitfield’s last Olympics were in 2012 where he was flag bearer for Canada at the opening ceremonies. But his race ended too early. Right after the transition from swimming to biking, Whitfield was adjusting his shoes as his bike passed over a bump and he crashed, resulting in a cracked collarbone and stitches on his foot. He could not finish the race that day, and he retired from competitive triathlon the next year. Whitfield did not take his loss too hard: “It’s racing. If it was easy, everybody would do it.”
Simon Whitfield currently lives in Victoria BC and is involved in several organisations that focus on health and athletic performance. He has also developed a passion for paddleboarding. His influence on the sport of triathlon was enormous, and his win at the 2000 Olympics inspired young athletes to participate in the sport and achieve glory at the highest level. His determination in races was incredible to behold and Canadians watching the first ever triathlon at the Olympics will always remember his remarkable comeback to reach gold.
Exciting! Those shark/fish quotes really surprised me.
Quite an emotional journey of an article, it is really amazing to see KCVI students excelling out in the world.