Triathlon New Zealand Annual Report 2025 - Flipbook - Page 12
High Performance
LA2028
Calling
Building towards High Performance Success
2025 marked the first full period of activity in the LA2028 Olympic
and Paralympic cycle, with World Triathlon delivering an expanded,
sustainability focused World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS)
and World Cup calendar, alongside the continued emergence
of the T100 Triathlon World Tour as a pinnacle series for long
distance racing. For Tri NZ, the strategic focus shifted from Olympic
performance to sustaining series level performance, broadening
podium capable depth and integrating emerging athletes into
established high performance environments.
The New Zealand hosted World Triathlon Cup in Napier remained
a key feature of the elite calendar, providing an early season race
opportunity and controlled benchmarking environment for New
Zealand athletes and LA2028 prospects. The event is a great
early season test to trial race day systems, travel and logistics
plans, management strategies on a technical coastal course, with
performance evaluation weighted toward process execution and
learning, rather than final placing alone.
Across the WTCS, the season commenced in Abu Dhabi and
progressed through traditional venues such as Yokohama and
Hamburg, concluding with the Championship Finals in Wollongong,
Australia. New Zealand athletes consistently positioned within or
near front packs, with demonstrated gains in transitions, technical
bike execution and late race resilience contributing to more regular
top 16 and top 24 level results in deep international fields.
Mixed Relay remained a core strategic priority, reflecting both
its medal relevance for LA2028 and its value in building depth
across men’s and women’s programmes. At the Mixed Relay World
Championships in Hamburg, the New Zealand quartet of Eva
Goodisson, Tayler Reid, Brea Roderick and Saxon Morgan produced
a composed and tactically disciplined performance in a high quality
field. While the final placing did not replicate podium outcomes
from earlier cycles, the campaign reinforced key operating
principles including role clarity, leg execution and the expectation
that targeted athletes deliver across both individual and relay
events within the same championship programme.
T100 victories (Singapore, London, French Riviera, Spain and
Wollongong) and winning the T100 Triathlon World Championship
Final in Qatar to claim his first world title over the format. This body
of performances consolidated his status as one of the world’s
leading all round triathletes and generated valuable insights for
the programme on managing transitions between formats while
maintaining health, robustness and performance across tightly
scheduled race blocks.
A major feature of the year was Wilde’s injury and subsequent
return to competition. In May, while preparing for WTCS Yokohama,
he was involved in a serious bike crash during training, sustaining
a fractured scapula, multiple broken ribs and lung damage.
Early surgical intervention and carefully managed acute care
were essential to protecting long term shoulder function and
preserving his capacity to compete at elite level. Once cleared
to travel, Wilde transitioned into a structured rehabilitation block
in Europe, supported by multidisciplinary expertise through Red
Bull’s performance and medical network and Tri NZ’s wider support
team. Rehabilitation planning emphasised staged load progression,
conservative re introduction of swim, bike and run, and close
coordination between medical, coaching and performance staff,
with daily recovery and conditioning targets treated as performance
objectives in their own right. Hayden has publicly reflected that
The 2025 season also confirmed the strategic significance of the
T100 Triathlon World Tour as a complementary high performance
platform. Hayden Wilde converted his Olympic distance pedigree
into a dominant T100 campaign, securing five consecutive
Triathlon New Zealand
Annual Report 2025
Page 12
