EP59 Simon Whitfield - Triathlon - Olympian

This is episode 59 of the Empowered Athlete Podcast. Canadian Sports hall of Fame inductee Simon Whitfield joins the Empowered Athlete podcast today. Whitfield, the triathlete, represented Canada internationally for over a decade and stood atop the podium in Sydney at the 2000 Olympic Games and finished with a silver medal in the 2008 Games in Beijing. He is a fierce competitor and and gives it his all in every aspect of his life. We hope you enjoy finding out what Simon is up to now and how he keeps scratching that competitive itch. Sit back for a great chat with Mr. Simon Whitfield. Are you six' five, 225 and male, or maybe five' four, one, 10 and female? Are you a swimmer, runner, gymnast or hockey player? Have you had three knee surgeries like me or a shoulder that tends to get sore? We all have different bodies and it makes sense that we require specific training and adjustment for best results. Are you self motivated, ready for consistency, and want to follow a training plan customized for your needs? Maybe you are ready to be coached.

Being trained typically means you rely on someone to take you through each workout. Being coached means you are ready to do it on your own, but want the guidance from an expert to efficiently get to your best results while staying accountable. If you're ready to be coached, then contact us for an assessment in person or online and we will make a customized training program for you to get to your goals. Welcome to the Empowered Athlete Podcast. Podcast created to support athletes in their pursuit of excellence and inspire others toward their best lives. Hosted by Kari Schneider, coach to top performers in sport and life, and Paul Durden, former national and professional volleyball player.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Empowered Athlete Podcast. I'm Paul Durden, joined as always by Kari Schneider, and today we are thrilled to present you with Simon Whitfield. Simon, thank you so much for making the time for the show today and quickly have to ask, how did you start your day?

Well, yeah, thanks for having me. I went to the Ocean Oak Bay Marina. We have a paddle shack there. So I went out paddling with our group and welcomed the day out on the water and then back to it. So yeah, that's where I'm at.

Oh, that sounds amazing. So when you say got out there on the water, is this a group that you're leading? Is this a. Is this kind of a regular group that comes out and. And when you say morning, you're. You're Pacific time, so that's bright and early for you.

Yeah, we have. We just have a paddling club. We Meet down at the paddle shack, Oakley Paddle Shack. And we're out in the morning. And it's most 6, 6:30 most mornings and with, with a good number of exceptions. And then throughout the day we're based there, we have a South Island Sup and Ocean River Sports have kayaking and stand up paddling equipment there and then. So I'm one of the tour guides there, teach lessons, do courses and otherwise go paddling or organized gear, which I quite enjoy.

And how long has this been a passion of yours?

I think it's the same thing as sport was. It was, it's organizing gear, preparing for something. You know, you have like this set agenda and each day I just go through my little like, okay, I gotta do this and then I have to organize that gear and then I gotta be out on the water by that time. And so it's exactly the same thing. And it doesn't. And it has, the competition's built in there. But I play soccer now instead of racing triathlons.

Oh, okay. So does this, I read somewhere that you as a kid started with soccer, so does this mean it's come full circle that you were kind of into soccer as a young one and then, then tried a few kids of steel competitions before you kind of got serious about triathlon?

I think it's as much about playing, growing up, playing team sports, played hockey, soccer, basketball, and then finding an individual sport and everything that goes with that. But where you're subtly, you're training, you're competing with your training partners in a sense you're balancing this thing where you're both trying to make a team and you're sort of on the same team, but you're an individual sport. And so you might make alliances but you're not on the same team to then coming back to play soccer now and enjoying the. I like the bench. The best part's the banter. I don't really care. The theater's great, you know, but I like meeting the people on the bench. And this weekend I played in the Labor Day tournament for one in Juan de Fuca for a team called Serengeti, team of Arabics from Seattle. And a couple of us joined them because they needed the numbers. And all of a sudden you're in with, you know, I don't know, five, five guys from Iraq and a couple guys from Jordan and you're, and you're, you're in amongst their language and their culture and you're just experiencing something in such a different way. And we lost every game. We lost to my local neighborhood, like the neighborhood I live in here in Victoria. We lost. Oh, no, the final.

So there's a couple things I'm hearing. Number one, in that little, you know, they picked up players being you. It sounds like the common language though was the bench banter.

Yeah.

You know, there's the common language and the common language is sport, which is cool because that permeates across cultures. But then the other thing you said prior to that though is when it comes to the, the individual sport and working with or against your teammate, that's that kind of positive rivalry that is so amazing in individual sport because even though you're against yourself in some ways and your opponent in other ways, that positive rivalry on a group in something like swimming or triathlon or the individual sports is so powerful to keep you motivated and keep you going. Whereas sometimes, not always, but sometimes on a team sport you can kind of fall back into not necessarily being your absolute best, but relying on the level of the team.

Yeah, I suppose it's. It depends on the circumstances. And I, I had both experiences in individual sport. I had a really positive group and I around really negative groups. And then in the same. I've been through the same thing in game and on team soccer teams and within individual games on the same team where one day we're very hard on each other. We're chirping a lot, we're almost, we're bemoaning. I call.

Yeah.

And other days we're much more positive. We flow and we. And we tend to do better. And I like that part. I like that you can't. It's very easy in individual sports to just be accountable for yourself and kind of say, well, at the end of the day I'm just going to do this thing and if other people want to be around, that's great. But I'm doing this thing. And with team sport, you're, you're, you have to adhere to this team and so you make the compromises and all that comes with it. And in that, what I really enjoy is I get to, you know, all of a sudden I'm sitting there with, with Farzad from, you know, who moved here from Iran, is now a dentist and we're talking about life and.

Yeah, yeah.

It's funny you mentioned that because people ask me what I miss most from my playing days and the first thing that pops in my mind is what you're alluding to here is the team and the. Just the daily interactions and the fun of being with the group and the Guys. And that camaraderie of going through the process together is one of the things I almost miss the most, I think the really big, important games. But it's not the other stuff. It's the camaraderie. So.

Yeah, but if that. If that was completely true, though, I don't know. Just as an outsider, a close outsider, the competition, like the high. High level of competition seems to trump that, because if you really wanted the camaraderie, you'd be on a local club playing volleyball or, you know, doing a little more basketball or things like that. But the thing that was hard for you, it seems, is that the level of competition is the thing that really, really drove you to keep doing it.

Yeah, I guess that's true. It's in that, you know, the playoffs or the big games, but not the grind of a season and the long travel and things like that. It's the good and the bad of it. And Simon, did you. Are you feeling a longing for intense competition, or are you getting that through soccer, other experiences now? Do you?

Oh, yeah, I get plenty of that.

Crave that you do.

I get these great moments that I just. I stopped looking for them. I don't try and manufacture them, and then they just come along and that's that theater of the game that's on the weekend that maybe again, they're playing. Playing my local with. With this team from Seattle and in a C final, and essentially we go up one nothing at. We're up one nothing at half. We're down one man in the second, and I try and run from my. From right mid to left forward all in one go. The ball turns over, they come back and score right from where I left. And I love. I'm good with that. It was amazing. I was like, oh, I think I just gave one to my local.

Saboteur.

Yeah. Yes. Don't turn over the ball next time. Yeah, and I'm good with that. I mean, that was great theater. And I was just. I don't know, I was very present to it, and it was no more different than we played the jdf. The kind of. The rigged. The rigged team that goes on to win it every year that hosts the tournament. We held them to do nothing. So we're good. I don't know, there with them. I got a bow and a nod. It was good.

It sounds like you're. It sounds like you're really, really in touch with the fact that so many things are circumstantial and that you just have to kind of go with it you can do your best, you can step into it, you can have fun in the moment, but at the same time, you know, some things just go a certain way and there's nothing you can do about it.

Yeah, it's not better, it's just different. That's what I came to that after leaving sport was winning or not. It's not better, it's just different. And I think that as cliche as it is, is that just all the things that happen within it and then being present to what you're doing now, you know, at some point you're also. How much time do you spend looking back on what happened or reflecting and trying to learn from it? And what time do you spend just doing what you're doing right now, which this morning was watching the sunrise?

When you look back on yourself with the kind of mindset you have right now, would you say, you know, say sometime in that time leading toward your first Olympics, did you have a similar type of mindset then or would you say that you were thinking in different ways or different patterns?

I don't know the answer to that. I'm really trying to be careful about how I reflect on those memories because like, you know, we, we don't just tend to sculpt them, we do sculpt them to suit what we think now or need to think now. And so I don't really know the answer to that. I mean, I would like to think that I was really immersed in it and loved it and was, and very passionate about, you know, being immersed in mastery. But I don't know, I was a pain in the ass also. And we were, we were, it was, you know, we were very, it's a very self centered endeavor as everybody understands and knows. And so I don't know the answer to that. I think to perform at the highest level you have to be able to detach yourself from yourself. So you're just simply do intuitively doing instead of telling yourself the story of how it should go or what it means to happen. And so whatever place I was at led to that. You know, I was able to, to just perform and I wasn't thinking about all of the significance of it or anything. But that certainly changed after that. And you start to begin that, like that idea of legacy or, or lasting impression, you start to change and then the joy of it changes and the love of, you know, I don't know, the reasons you do it seem to change. And that's okay too.

When you, you just cut out there for a moment. Sorry about that, I apologize. What did you say right before legacy?

I just that if you're trying to establish a legacy, that you're thinking about things beyond what you're doing right now, you know, in a sense, you end up trying to manufacture your legacy. I mean, that's not something intentional. It's not. We want to frame that as narcissistic or whatever. It's just natural, isn't it? But also that takes you away from, I don't know, you start to manufacture spontaneity because you like, you're trying to say this is a picture of me and this is my legacy instead of just doing the things you're doing in the present. Your. Your day to day responsibilities, some of which are just mundane and preoccupying and thank goodness.

Mm. Mm.

It sounds like you're really clear on just being in the moment and not putting in it and just taking what you're given and what life is handing to you in that moment. Is that accurate?

And sport. Maybe. But then in life, maybe not. You know, I spent a lot of time pondering how to navigate through personal relationships so that that's not necessarily present to what I'm doing. I'm actually like, I'm out on the water and yet I'm completely lost. And like, why this, that, this story, that story, the story. So no. So I would hope that maybe I do it 50, 50.000% of the time if you can quantify it like that. You know what I mean? Like, there are times when I'm just. The time just goes blue blurring on by and I'm like, wow, that was just. I was so immersed in that I can't even really remember what happened. And then there are other times and this is just the natural flow of the day where I'm completely lost in thinking about what just happened or what might happen or blah, blah, blah. So. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

Do you, do you meditate daily?

I. Not intentionally. I think it must be just active meditation. You know, I'm out there on the board today and I'm in this rhythm, breathing rhythm, and I. That to me is the same meditation as if I were to, you know, sit myself in the corner and put my hands a certain way. I just, when I can find, I try and find as much time in my day where I am in a patterned, you know, rhythmical set of breathing pattern. And that's the best I would describe it as my, my like move towards. Okay, that's a good Idea I feel better after that, which.

That probably. I mean, as an outsider looking in, you probably have been trained much more than most in those rhythmical breathing patterns between what you have to do in swimming, having the coupling with your cycling rpm and especially with running as well. So is that. Do you think it comes from your training, so it feels like a natural thing to you? Or is that. Or do you feel like it's different now since you're not in the sport?

No. That's an interesting observation. That must be. That's something I take for granted. I notice on a soccer pitch that I'll stop center, find my nasal breath again, get myself framed again, even close my eyes if the ball's gone out of bounds or if it's on the far side. And I noticed that not many other the caliber. As the caliber of player goes up, they spend more and more time doing nothing. And so they take these little moments to regather, you know, reframe their breath, consider them. And I think I do that just out of pattern, what you just said. I. I've done. That's. I've been doing that since I was a little kid.

Did. Did someone teach you that at the swimming pool? Or was that. Do you have a memory of learning how to breathe?

I wouldn't. I would imagine that you would. Someone early on would just set that you'd see someone doing it correctly. When you. Very early on, you go, huh, I noticed that that person has propriety of their breath more than anybody else here. Like, that person doesn't flinch, and so you gravitate. So I. I would imagine I had someone early on who didn't flinch. Just. Just maintain propriety of breath. Always considered. And now I look for that and say in the soccer field, I look for that in teammates. If it's. If we're coming down to. In critical play, I'm looking for the person who can maintain the propriety of his breath. And that in this case, it's like a military. It's a helicopter pilot.

Which can be regaining composure, regaining confidence, regaining so many things.

Yeah. And you see, it's funny because you see it on the soccer pitch so often again, is you see this person come into. They come into the ball, they're in the right place, they draw themselves forward, and then people kind of yell them, shoot, shoot, shoot. They're on their own team, lose propriety of their breath. They go. They flinch. And they'd be Esther. And one guy flinches, the other guy shoots him. It's the same thing there. The Person, you can see them flinch, they lose, they lose control. Their breath, they no longer have composure and the ball goes, you know, flying over the fence. And I really, I saw that with my dog. My. When she was my youngest daughter, when she was seven was. Would take a 750 pound horse into a barn. There'd be a 1500 pound horse doing laps right. And five feet from her and she would just stand there with no, just. Just breathing through her nose, totally composed. This ivy in the observation booth dying a thousand deaths. And then she just. It would end and she'd go and they'd walk in and I want to slow clap her in. Like that is propriety of breath. You have composure. If you can handle. You're 35 pounds, you got a 750 pound animal and a 1500 pound animal doing it. Labs that again always comes back to say if you stand on the start line, can you maintain propriety of your breath or do you lose it?

And with an animal like that, they certainly sense that.

Oh yeah.

Tell us about your family.

I have two children, two daughters. They're characters as all the kids are. Um, yeah, I don't know. They're you know school, mid middle school and elementary school and loving lots of activities and as a family we just go through it. We, you know, I don't know, get it done. We. There's lots of logistics to organize and things, trips to do and all that good stuff and all the ups and downs of it and we do a good job. I like what you know. Yeah, we've got a good family. We roll along.

What. Which is a tough. As a parent, you know, that's. It's a tough thing to say, oh, we do a good job. Because it's always the questioning of are we doing a good job?

You know, but there you go. I'm on this thing. Like we just do a good job. We do as a. Like as I'm good with it and all the ups and downs of it. I see my kids struggle, I struggle. Their mom struggles and I'm just like, yep, there we go. We're good. We're this.

Yeah, embrace the suck if it happens.

You know, I saw. I was as BC Science center and there's the. From the IMAX theater down to the center. There's this big long sweeping hallway and this mom is walking along and this little kid is running in front of her and he trips and falls and slides along and mom just says the struggle is real kiddo. And put the hand out to help her up. And I Was just like, I wanted to. Again, slow clap.

Like, totally.

Here you go. Totally. Never changes, kiddo. You know?

Yeah, totally.

So that's us. I don't know. And, you know, as parents, it's terrifying and it's revealing and all those other things, and so be it. It is what it is.

And I think it also connects you to your imagination that may have been lost if you had never had kids. It's kind of keeps you connected with youth and energy and creative imagination and to the world of what doesn't exist. That. That we can easily lose as adults.

Yes, that. How about. I love that. How about this? How about that? I want to play that again.

Yeah. What sports do your kids do?

Pippa's into soccer. It's just this. It starts up this weekend. Evelyn will play tennis and horse ride and do all the good stuff. Yeah, they're very active. We do a lot. They also get out. They spend a lot of time in the Rockies this summer. They spend time on the ocean, so they play sports. But I hope to give them the same gift my folks gave me, which was just this unconditional support and go play whatever game you're gonna play and just love the theater of it and express your gifts.

When you think of. Sorry, when. When you think of an organized sport, team sport like soccer, do you think that those young athletes should be kind of left to figure it out more on their own for longer spans of time versus being kind of siphoned into a competitive structure at really young ages?

I don't know. I mean, both. There's some. There's a beauty in both, isn't there? Like, you become a generalist, and you have a love of sport your whole life, and that's great. But there's also something really. I don't know. The preoccupation of mastery is such a unique thing. And to have that opportunity and that takes a sacrifice. And that means not necessarily having at all times this perfect experience. But you have this very. I don't know, intimate experience and very, like, it's. You pay all the prices of it, but you get to see something from the side of mastery. And I don't know if I would have traded that for a more kumbayan, campfire experience.

Right, right.

But when. As a. As a youngster, obviously, you're playing a lot of sports that you mentioned. When did you shift fully into triathlon? And that became primary. Yeah, the primary focus probably just doing.

The Chevrolet triathlon at age. I think age 11, and then again, seriously, at age 15, just the real. I don't know, you come from team sports, where you're also a. I'm. I don't know, I'm obstinate. So you're. It's hard to be in a team sport when you're very Austin. And so you end up. You gravitate maybe to an individual sport where you feel like, I don't have to rely on these people. I don't have to get along with anybody, and that you pay your own price for that. But then you also get the. You get. The whole focus of your mental landscape is on the mastery part of it, not on navigating people, which is not better. It's just different.

Yeah. And relationships are key for most of us.

Yeah, for sure. For everybody.

Of course. Yeah. So I. From a personal memory, for me, my oldest was born in 2000, and she was born in April, and she was this little young newborn at the time of the Olympics in 2000. But that meant that I was waking up in the wee hours of the morning to feed her and things like that. And so I got to. Instead of waiting for the replay of what happened in the middle of the night from Sydney at the Olympics, I got to kind of watch what was going on at four in the morning or whatever because I was up with a little wee baby. But I. You. Your. Your race was one of the things I watched in those dark hours in the morning, and it was one of those Olympic events that I just. I'll never forget, although I say that, and it's. It's hazy. But can you. Can you recount what that was like for you, that, you know, your first Olympics and I think you were a flag bearer and, you know, having that, the experience that you did.

Yeah. I mean, I went to school in Australia, so as my dad's an Aussie, went to boarding school there when I was 16 years old, I graduated from the steps of the Opera House. Six years before the Sydney Olympics. It all kind of culminated. I don't know how to put it any way. It kind of, you know, my grandmother's living there. My family comes over. The family I've been living with in Australia lives right on the harbor. And it all comes. And I go there thinking I'm going to compete as an Australian and grow up and train, you know, represent Australia, because I'm obstinate. And I wrote this great appreciation for Canada by leaving and then go there and represent and I'm able to hear the anthem. Yeah, I don't know. It was.

That's.

That's Just what happened. It was. It's, it's. It feels. All of a sudden, it feels so long ago, and yet, I don't know, a lot of memories from it are very fresh. And, you know, I, I have a lot of great friendships from it and great experiences that came with it.

Was it one of the examples of all coming together, coming the way that it rarely. Rarely does in sport?

Yeah. And that's the worry is that then you realize I. I have a. I had this distinct feeling kind of like, oh, wait, how do you replicate that?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, wait a minute.

I can't go. Like, how do I replicate all the things that had to go in to make that very special thing happen? And I remember thinking, you know, that's going to be interesting. And sure enough, it was. So. I don't know, I just didn't take it for what it was. It was really. I talked to Greg Bennett recently, who was world number one at the time and missed the Australian team, but was in the crowd, and he was kind of the first professional that took me under his wing and, and taught me how to be a professional triathlete. And so I. So we spoke recently and we have this great, you know, friendship that expanded on from that. And it's those, Those moments bring you back. That's fun. It's fun to relive that. And then it's also fun to connect and say, well, what's up today?

Yeah, it's. It's. Life is strange. It doesn't. It doesn't necessarily always go in the direction that people anticipate or you think will go. Direction.

That's that thing. Like, it is not a straight line. That's. No, it is not a straight. You think you're like, I know how this is going to go. I just. Yeah, I got the map. This is good. And then you're like, wait a minute, I had the map. It's just upside down. And now you're. There's no map. Help.

I'm lost.

You're kidding. This is all gibberish, isn't it?

Yeah. You go into a big squiggly line all over the place. Not even a line. What would you say is one of the toughest things that you feel, maybe that you've overcome or a tough time in your life that maybe athlete or coach, listeners, maybe that you were able to get through?

I don't know. I think that the. We. Because we generated our. Our triathlon Canada generated a lot of success. We had a lot of there. Whether it be long course or in Olympic distance. There's. We had a lot of success. With that came all of the trappings of success. And those things were very difficult. Those are relationships that become very, I don't know, entrenched. And they're very. This person that way, this. That other person that way. And. And I'm surprised how long those that has lasted that. I think that would be. The thing I found the hardest to. To accept, not overcome, just to accept is that, wow, those, like those things that happened 20 years ago still resonate now and stop people from choosing to spend time together, etc. Etc. And I find that part that's. That would be the acceptance of that obstacle is like, I didn't expect that.

When you say trappings of success, do you mean a hierarchy or division or people kind of choosing one thing or another? What do you mean exactly?

All of the above. You know, as an organization, you all of a sudden have far greater capacity to support people, but now you have to build the policies to underpin that. And then as individuals, you have. There's more. It's more and more at stake and the nature of the game changes. It goes from a simple love of pursuit to the trappings of, you know, like the earnings of.

And so funding is based on this. And then if this hasn't been achieved, funding won't be there. Or is it things like that.

Yeah. Criterias and et cetera, et cetera. And then you have within, say, within traveling Canada, you have people who are living, making a very good living. And then you have people who might be on exactly the same team making living. And so all of those dynamics, what. I guess what surprised me the most is how enduring those stories are. You know, you're like, wow, that was. That was 15 years ago. We. And we still don't. We still don't connect. There's no. You don't have an hour? No. Oh, okay. Wow. That thing happened. Like, I can't really remember what happened. That surprises me. And I just accept it. It is what it is. But there's some friendships and relationships out of that where I go, wow, that just like, wow, that was very impactful.

So are you very. You're very well spoken in the sense that your words are chosen carefully, it seems. And would you say that you are. In terms of how you manage what comes at you in life and what has come at you in life, would you say you are more along the mindset of accepting things versus controlling things or overcoming things or. Or would. How would you describe that?

It just doesn't matter, does it? Like I, there you go. I accept it, but I just. It doesn't matter how we, the only thing we can do is get, get in the way of it. And my favorite term for it is the do nothing defense. You start to notice that the absolute answer is to not do anything. Just, just maintain propriety of breath and don't make the next decision. Don't, don't. And you see it in sports so poignantly way especially say in the corner when you've, you've been pinned down and you've got the ball and all of a sudden you just do nothing. And then both players move in the wrong direction. They've revealed their move and you take the next move.

That's.

You see it in sports, so such an acute example. See it in relationships where you want to say last thing, you want to make your point and it's not. That's the opposite of the do nothing defense. The do nothing defense is just, just. And that's it, you know. And so I don't know, I work towards that but I. Not in the calculated like I don't. It's just in a peace of mind perspective, working towards just that. Acceptance. I don't know. Act as if you're the other and find acceptance and like keep walking. Yay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I almost think of it in some ways it reminds me of something I've said a number of time which, A number of times. Which is time will always tell or time heals all. So it's, it's almost just the. Well, if you wait this out, you're, you're gonna find out what happens.

Yeah.

So yeah, that's, that's really interesting. What do you, do you feel at this point in life that you have a specific person purpose or is there or did you think you did at some other time in your life and that was like I don't know if there was a time in your life that you thought okay, my purpose is to master the sport of triathlon. Was that ever there? And what do you think is there for you now?

I like that idea of bare responsibility to find meaning that that speaks to me. I'm like, okay, wait, that makes my sense. And I take care of my day to day responsibilities and in that I find things that I felt find fulfilling and I try as best I'm able to see myself as the other. And then I accept all the struggle that comes with all that and then I just keep walking and I'm on, you know, and now I'm good with that. There. That's it. That's the best I can describe it.

Can you repeat that one more time? No, I just mean the first part. Bear response. Responsibility to find meaning.

Yeah, just bear. I bear responsibility. Find meaning. That's that I like, I have day to day responsibilities and I, and I do as best I am able to take care of them. And at times I'm really that up as I can to like come back the next day and be like, okay, the sun rose today and here I am. Like I showed up. And that like, I like that idea. Like you just show up, do the best you're able, take care of your day to day responsibilities. Like be good, junior. Be kind, like thumbs up, you know.

Yeah.

And, and otherwise, you know, rise the next day. And I, that's the best I'm able to. That's what I try, I try and do every day. And I do some variation of that.

I, I wanted to ask you in reading, you have some incredible writing on your website and you quote Neil Gaiman and this quote about American Gods.

Yeah, yeah.

And the idea of kind of a comment on celebrity, of people becoming godlike and a meme and that they just, everyone believes that they know that person. And then after it, you relate in the following paragraphs how you were meeting people and obviously being their hero. People in your sport, they were coming up to you and they had a vision of who you were as a person. And it sounds like that became a incredible burden to bear that you say yourself that you were tired and grumpy and struggle with good days and bad and couldn't live up to the athlete role model label. When, when was that happening for you in your career? And was it really a crisis of identity that you felt tied to being Simon Whitfield, Olympic champion triathlete and nothing else or what was happening for you at that period?

Yeah, I mean on September, call it September 1st of 2000, I walk into a Commonwealth place, Commonwealth pool here in Victoria, and a couple people there, you know, just the staff and like the people I train with know me just as well as they know anybody else. Like, oh, there's that guy, he does triathlon along with those other people that do travel. And then 20 days later I come back and all of a sudden like you're full photos on the wall and you're on the big screen and the whole thing is all everybody's now the entire place you walk in and the entire place that you walked into two weeks ago anonymously is now like you're like, oh wow, everybody is looking at me right now. And that's just a very strange experience. The other side of adulation is isolation. And I think I didn't understand that. The people around you don't understand that. And then you exist in this life beyond the pale. You're outside of the things that other people do and you don't want to be. Not intentionally. I went to this incredible gathering without getting in a triathlon. A bunch of people came back to the sport, they wanted to do it again, they loved it, they had a great time and they gave out awards at the end and they were all just wonderful personal anecdotes about each other. And they were ridiculous and funny and amazing and they brought me along and I, I had some association with it from a long time ago and we had a great laugh. And at the end someone said to me, oh, this is kind of a joke for you. Like you've been to, you've been on the Olympic podium. Like, here's our little, you know, beachside podium. Like, this is ridiculous. And I was so like, no, this is the exact opposite. You're with your friends, you're being celebrated by your people. When you get celebrated on that stage, you get taken away from your people and ornamented for other people that you don't know and they all leave and then you turn around and you go, hey, every where did everybody go? So I had this great, like I had sat on the beach watching these, this old timers get together and I was like, oh man, that's the best awards jam I've ever seen. That was hysterical. You guys were so self deprecating and funny and endearing and you have legacy between each other and you've gone through everything, you've seen each other go through it all and you're all in the same, you're staying on the same podium instead of dragging one person away and saying, let's celebrate that person and, and then when they go back to their life, everybody there's like, oh, you know, big shots back, like, oh, oops, that just changed.

Yeah. This judgment that's been put upon you that you know, that you can't do anything about. Yeah.

And it just is what it is. I mean it comes with a whole other series of things that were great and wonderful and interesting. But that piece of it, as you come back to your like where you actually live on the date where you take care of your day to day responsibilities and people are like, you know, gee, nice to have you back. Oops, I didn't mean to leave.

I didn't think I did leave. Yeah.

Changed.

Where did I go?

I'm wearing the same sweater.

Yeah, it's still me. Can't you see me?

Do you have any advice for a younger athlete who is having success on how to keep that ability to poke fun at yourself and not take things too seriously and, and stay grounded somewhat to stay connected with the people that really matter to. Especially in this day and age of, you know, the instant gratification through all the different social media channels and things like that. Do you, do you have any words of wisdom or thoughts?

I mean, it's for all of us. Nurture relationships and find daily ritual and find preoccupation just like that. Be like, I, I do as best I'm able and I, as I said, I go up and down on this. I, I do stuff where I go, I can't believe I just did that. Best of intention, poorest of execution. But otherwise, as best I'm able. Nurture relationships, find daily ritual to find preoccupation. You know, show up. That's it.

Simple.

I love show up. So many people aren't showing up. Your daily rituals, do you find that those ground you and just keep you kind of into the present moment, into. It's. It's like the, the equipment and the timing and the stuff and the. Do you find that that methodical, ritualistic kind of repetition keeps you in a, in a good state or feeling accomplished? How is that for you?

Yeah, I think my dad would tell you, say to me, you can't choose the direction which you're going, but you can choose the direction which you'll error. And that morning ritual of just make sequencing the dominoes and like saying, okay, if I know if I do this, this, this, this, that in that order and I get some fresh air and I get my body moving and I, and I take a moment to just, you know, do nothing and I get outside and I make my way towards some exertion. Then I'll, you know, have a plus one day. And I like that. I don't know, that's, that's why I try as, again, as best I'm able to each day just kind of run through this routine and then. And I try and do it, I don't know, three and a half days a week, you know, I'm more, more times than I don't and yeah, with varying degrees of success and that's it. I, that it helps me remind, you know, have continuity from the day to day what I doing Yesterday that I. I need to accomplish today, too.

What's your, what's your training like now?

I paddle every day. I paddle six days a week. I play soccer three days a week. I ride my bike between the shack in my house. I have some big day. I mean, this weekend my Achilles was sore because I think I played five soccer games in three days.

Yeah, that'll do it. That'll do it.

But, yeah, that's it. So I, I get a lot of exercise. I spend. I try and put everything in terms of how much time do I get to spend outside. So every decision that I'm confronted with, I say, well, what's the ratio of will that enable me to spend time outside? And that's how. Yeah, I make a lot of judgments based on figuring out how I can go on different excursions, how I can go play soccer, I can spend some time at the park with my kids. And that's it. Yeah.

At this point in your life, do you have a greatest fear?

I. No, I don't know. I don't. I don't think so. I don't know. There you go. There's the mystery. Will be the mystery.

It's one to ponder on your next paddle.

There you go. Well, I like that thing right there. There's no clarity. Yeah, there just is not. There's no clarity. So I'm doing that. I don't know. I don't know. Wake up tomorrow.

That's. That's great, though. I mean, like, a lot of people are driven by fear and to kind of not be sure because you're in the moment so often. And I don't think people in general, I don't think they realize how. What your typical day looks like. Being outdoors, being active, having methodical rituals, being with people, engaging with people. I don't think that between the outdoors, the nature, the activity, that people really get how grounding that is and how fulfilling that is compared to what most people lead. You tend to live in a place that a lot of people would love to live, but at the same time, you're not just living there, you are maximizing your experience of life there. And I don't have a doubt in my mind that those types of daily actions and those types of experiences in nature with other people also help you feel more present and maybe less fearful than the average person who's hustling all the time and day to day and get things done and never seeing the outside of a cubicle or whatever, a car or whatever it may be.

Just part of you do envy a bit of that preoccupation, though.

Do I envy some of the preoccupation?

Well, I would. I mean, I. So I envy the preoccupation of things. So I, as much as I very much cherish being outside and doing and having choices, that part of me also envies the idea of just like, wait a minute. So all you. Like, you just have this one thing to do. You can just. You could. You can be off in your head thinking about all. Like you can make up all the greatest.

Well, yes, one thing. Yes and no. Because I don't think that people become creatively preoccupied. I think that people become a little bit dull and numb if they're. If that becomes the habit. So if the habit is something where it's the same, it's the same. It's the same. I don't think that fosters creative ponderings or preoccupations.

It's not an energized state or a positive state.

Yeah.

I think it dulls and makes someone more asleep in areas of their brain. And yet when they are in, you know, when they're exposed on a mountaintop or they're just things that awaken. It's one of the reasons that cold exposure is good for depression, because from a primal level, we weren't meant to be depressed. So, you know, I. Yeah. So I think there's things that get kind of dulled and numbed by the day to day. Singular focus. If there's not kind of a broader perspective. Yeah, you are. It seems that you're into kind of a routine right now that's serving you between your investments or affiliations with. I think it's Velo Fix and stand up paddleboard and your writing. Are there things that you're looking to do or directions or projects that are on your mind or what does it look like for? Do you want to continue on with the current things that you have? What's happening for you now?

I'd really like Danny to put together a very good squad for our over 35 Bays United Soccer team. In the middle of all the selections. I'm not trying to be silly, honestly. We have an opportunity to beat some A flight teams and we're in the B division. So I'm kind of excited that we're gonna do that.

You're not competitive at all.

Yeah, I was just gonna say it's the competitor and you speaking first.

Loudly.

Totally.

There's like. I just. I love. I don't care if we win or lose, but I want to. I want to like let's get.

You want the opportunity, let's get into it.

Good. So I, yeah, I've had some really fun moments with that and the whole picking of teams and etc. Etc. And all joking aside, I mean that's honestly that's the things that I'm working on right now. Our Paddle Shackle opens September 15th. Ocean River Sports owns the has been running this shack for five years. That's kayaking. We open it for it with stand up paddling and half of it on the 15th and I'm super excited about that. We go up to Tofino and do a sub symposium where we just nerd out and talk about paddling, you know, for 36 hours straight. It's great. And then this winter I'll go do a couple excursions, some of them biking, some of them paddling and then next year I'd like to get back to Vietnam or something like that because I was there a lot in April and it was just absolutely remarkable. So that's, yeah, that's my short term and medium term projects and otherwise it's attend kids soccer games and, and celebrate. I don't know. Yeah. The day to day here.

Have you, have you had any interaction or done any work with triathlon since retiring or. Yeah, I've had coaching or not, if.

Not not triathlon coaching as such. But yeah, I've had really meaningful and fulfilling interactions with trican and, and the athletes since then. It's an interesting. You know, I think you, I, if you'd asked me before I retired what I was going to do, I would have said I'm going to be fully immersed in it and I going to consult and they're going to come ask me all these questions. Nobody asks you any questions.

See that's. You answered the question I had because I know just through the experience through Volleyball Canada that when an athlete retires they're done and there's this separation and this breakup and there's not a nurturing of the alumni to tap into that incredible knowledge base. And obviously you have incredible knowledge to share and give in triathlon. And that's why I wondered if it was the same kind of scenario where you're this untapped resource that's just lying in wait and not being used.

But I think it just is what it is though because I've had that same conversation and wandered through that. And then there's that navel gazing aspect of it. Like you were like I have all these things to share. But then. Yeah, and then you can hear answers like, well, you know, you don't want to come talk to the wise man on top of the mountain or anything and you're going, oh. And it's like now I just feel like it doesn't really matter, you know, like, I'm here, I do my thing. I exist at the PAL Shack and if people want to come down and come paddling and don't even want to talk about sport or anything, I'm like, I'm all game. I just want to come play soccer or invite me and go do something. That's the only way I think you can do your best offering. Because if you, as soon as you pursue it and say like I'm really interested in, in consulting, you had the person like, man, yeah, we're right. It's all, you know, seats taken. So instead the only approach can be is like you just do your thing. And that's what I do now. I just, I'm like, this is where I am. My schedule is on the thing. If anyone wants to come hang out and talk about whatever. Like what honestly, you know, with their business plan for their Pilates studio, like whatever they want. And that's the best most contributor I can be. And it's also, it's not altruistic. I mean, I get this. I, I get to have fine, greater understanding in the things that I struggle with too by, by participating in those conversations. So it's not, it's a two way thing and I really enjoy it that way. And if we can do it on. In a. Out paddling or out whatever, you know, dirt biking, I don't care. That's it.

Form doesn't matter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we've got a couple more questions with you before we wrap up here, but one, one more deeper one here. Do you, do you think that you want to be your. Be the best or do your best?

I don't. I say I have no idea what that would mean. Like, I don't. Yeah, I really don't. I don't. I. There, there would be no. I like that because there is no best. Like if that's. So it's just subjective, isn't it? It's like you just. There is. I'm not striving for anything. I'm not striving to be the best. I'm not striving. I just like, here's my day to day things I got to do and this is the best version I can do of that and it's super flawed and like off we go. But I, I'M okay with it. It's my own perception of what is the best effort I have because within that I, you know, as everybody knows, you go oh wow, I, those people are happy with me and those people are disappointed in me and I just asked so I didn't mean to not answer your question, but that's the only way I can approach it.

No, that's okay. Do you, do you think that, do you think that when you were approaching any major games at that time were you in a thought pattern that started similar to what you are now or at that time were you going in your mind where you're going? I'm aiming for this podium finish or I want to be the best or I want to just try and beat my previous Olympic time or like what was the thinking like at that point?

I mean then it was total preoccupation with doing everything you thought you could think of everything possible. N minus N plus one. You're like I'm going to think about this one more time than anybody else.

Make the do all the things to make the results inevitable.

Exactly. Like you just manufacture, manufacture, manufacture. You do everything to convince yourself that what you think is going to happen is going to happen. And I think and reflection that what if you are so adhere to one outcome then you give yourself no room to, to come into it. So if you want to aim at something, you don't aim straight out, you aim just to one side and then drift it in. Does that make sense? So in the same sense you, you have that your room for error is the thing that will find the target. And then it just, that's what happened. And I, I try as best I'm able now to do that. I, I, back then I was so fixated on, you know, cloaking the idea that I wasn't outcome orientated with saying it's all about preparation, it's all about preparation. But at the end of the day you're quietly going yeah, but I want to win.

And because that preparation is focused on a goal of victory.

Yeah. Otherwise you, that's the underlying.

Yeah.

Give yourself more excuses to sit on the couch, you'd be like, well you know, I'm only going for 35ths so day in today. So that's is what drives you. But I guess later on you find my pilot light still lights like I still have moments where I get really fired up, competitive but now I just, I enjoy having some sense of being able to temperate that like that flame. I can, I have to douse it every once I Have to lick my thumb and douse it every once in a while. But, you know, I like it when it lights, too. And go. I'll have that feeling. Oh, hey, hey. There you are. Like, welcome. Let's go play.

Yeah. On the soccer field. Yeah.

I have trouble.

Not in the B division.

Yeah. I have trouble in racing. If I get racing and I tend to that pilot light doesn't really turn on. But in games light, every once in.

A while, it comes on a couple of little fun personal questions. What would you say is a favorite food or dessert?

Favorite food or dessert? My. My kids and I do fresh prep all the time. When the little meal baggy thing comes, when you got all the recipe in there and you got to follow through on that and our.

It's like, hello, fresh. We do that.

That's the.

We got our kids doing the same thing.

Yeah. Teach them to cook.

Yeah, that's taught me to cook. My kids eat way more. I waste way less. It's great. And so what was my favorite one? I think we made taco avocado tacos recently. I was good.

It was bad.

Yeah.

And no desserts. Come on now.

Dessert part, I don't know. We just always battle over chocolate ice cream or mint. And I go for chocolate, and Evelyn goes for mint, and I usually lose mint chip.

You get both.

Mint chip. Yeah, I know, but that's like a bad compromise. Still too much.

That's a compromise.

I see her, I go, yeah, sweet kitty. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Mint. And I think I want chocolate.

You said, that sounds like us. Paul's chocolate. I'm mint chip.

Yeah.

Anyway, we can't talk about dessert. We're not doing sugar from.

We have no sugar this month, so we got 70 days of no sugar. Do you have a favorite movie, a favorite movie or genre?

I really liked Forrest Gump. I remember a lot about that. That's. Yeah, yeah. No, that. That'd be it. Yeah. Forrest. Forrest Gump.

And so you've never said run, Forrest Friends. And what about when you were training in any of your competitive times, did you have a favorite type of workout throughout those times or a least favorite or at least, you know, like a brick run or, you know, what was. What were some of your favorites or least favorites?

Joel Filio, JFT coaching. He had the N plus one workout where you had to run this one segment of lockside trail on a certain interval one more time than you thought you could. You just kept going. Yeah, that's by far like that. That solicited the Greatest, most intense memories, most like, most epic getups, the most rally as a team. Like, come on, fellas, we got one more.

And would that be, like, a favorite and least favorite all in one.

Yeah. All in one.

Yeah.

And how did.

How did that work exactly? So she defines what the. And what's the.

Yeah.

Where.

Where was n and where was plus one?

Yeah. And who made the decision?

You could. You no longer made the interval time. But we had. He had no set prescribed number we were going to do. He would just say, we're gonna. Let's see. Let's see how many of these we can do on that interval. So you go and go. And I, Like I said, you just. The. The squad would rally and rally and rally together and that. And Joel just kind of coached both world champions Katie Zafaris and Vincent Louis at this. At this year's Grand Final. And I'm. I'm. I can only imagine they've done their fair share of N&1 workouts.

That's awesome. That's awesome. And favorite book.

I think that the Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu. Yeah. Or the Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron. What a book.

And lastly, any tips or advice to young athletes upcoming in triathlon or soccer or any sport for that matter.

I like that. A breath considered. If everything comes back to maintaining propriety of breath, so whatever task you embark on, it's come back to finding your nose knows. You know, you find your nasal breath, you maintain your nasal breath and everything else transpires. And if in those moments when you're challenged, when the circuit's about to break, if you can maintain, If you can find consideration or pause or empty space, that's it. The frames between each frame gets bigger. You see more, you're able to do more. That's it. A breath considered.

That is fantastic. What a great place to finish.

Well, thanks, Simon. We want to thank you for making the time with us today. It's been fantastic to chat and get your insight into so many different things. And I can tell you that Kari and I will definitely be looking you up if we're in the area for a paddle to get some lessons or get out on the water. It's something that we would absolutely love to do out there.

Oh, please do that.

Yeah.

Obviously for and for all our listeners as well, to look up, I guess. Is it the easiest way for people to find you through your website and for your paddling business and the.

Yeah. South island stuff. Brian Ramer at South Island Sup runs our little touring business and I love working there. And so if people want to come out paddling, we have the Oak Bay Paddle Shack and South Island. Sup?

Okay. Well, thank you so much. It's been wonderful having you on. We're so grateful to speak with you.

Thanks. Thanks for having me. Much appreciated.

Thank you so much.

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