Hayden Wilde eyes his legacy and aims for impact beyond the race course
Hayden Wilde believes that his ultimate goal will be achieved when he exits the sport, leaving behind a legacy that helps children from less privileged backgrounds to get into the sport.
Talking to Adam Leitch for the latest episode of ‘Face to Face’ for The Super League Triathlon Podcast, the former Championship Series winner says that although his goals include winning the Olympics in Paris and aiming for titles in long course later in his career, his main ambition is to help children get into the sport in which he has had so much success.
He said: “As you know, I’ve won the Super League title, which is cool, and I’d love to win more and get a World Triathlon Series title and more results.
“But for me, I want to leave a legacy as well. Like being the guy that was extremely easy to approach and didn’t have to be scared to come and take a photo or have a conversation or anything. I’m just a normal person. And, you know, for me, it would be really cool to set up a foundation to help people that were in my sort of situation to kind of get a foot in the door to elite sport.
“I never started when I was a kid. So it’s so hard to push yourself into that funnel of high performance. So for me to open a door to kids that aren’t as fortunate or want to start a career a little bit later in life as I did would be really cool and a legacy for me that I’d like to leave.”
Ahead of the Olympics in Paris this Summer, Wilde also talked about his rivalry with Great Britain’s Alex Yee as the pair go into the Games as favorites for the gold medal.
“It’s really nice to have a rivalry with someone; it could have been anyone, but with Alex, it’s been great. It’s kind of weird because when I go into the race, of course, I’m looking at Alex as a favorite and at Matt [Hauser] and Kristian [Blummenfelt} as favourites, but I don’t really worry about any of them until I get to the run. And then I get into the run, and that’s when you kind of start really focusing on that rivalry.”
Hayden also reflects on:
How he got into the sport
Balancing triathlon with his part time job when he started the sport
Losing his dad at an early age
His goals later on in his career
You can listen to the whole episode now or watch the episode in full on the Super League Triathlon YouTube channel.
