Hayden Wilde on scrapping for everything – and why he wants to leave a legacy

Short-course superstar Hayden Wilde says his mindset of treating every race as potentially being his last began right at the start of his triathlon career.

Speaking to Adam Leitch in the latest Super League ‘Face-to-Face’ series the 26-year-old Kiwi, who already has Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals to his name as well as a SLT title, explained: “I think there are so many factors which has made me the athlete today.

“[One of which] was not coming from a really wealthy background and going to every race knowing that it could be my last financially.

“My first bike was just a loan bike from a friend. I didn’t own my first proper bike until probably my third year of enjoying the sport, and that was all self-funded.

“How I saw it, I was coming to every single race and thinking if I don’t do well here, I’m maybe not going to the next race.

“So I was always making sure that I was crossing the line and if it was a great result, I did everything I possibly could. If it was a crap result, I still know I did everything I possibly could to get over that line.

“I still have that mentality today. Obviously I’m a little bit more well off with great help from partners and race results and everything. But I still come into every race like it’s my last.”

Family comes first

Wilde also revealed that a significant part of his prizemoney has gone to help his family in New Zealand – and he’s hoping they’ll be able to get to Paris this summer to support him at the Olympic Games.

He explained: “My goal and my vision was to never get rich from the sport but to make sure my family was financially sound so they can enjoy it and hopefully one day come to Europe to watch me race.

“The only time they get to watch me race is domestic racing, which is normally not that big. Our biggest race is the New Plymouth World Cup, which attracts massive numbers. But it’s not a Super League, it’s not a World Triathlon Series. So it’d be really cool to get them overseas and do that.

“And then, as I said, what I bring into every race, is my desire to be better and to always think my race is the last race.

So it’s always coming into a race being as fired up as possible – because you’re not just racing for yourself, you’re racing for your coach, your friends and family, and your personal ambitions of success.

“But I think [some] other people, when I was looking at the start line, I feel like you just kind of get that sense of energy where there were people that just get a lot of funding from their federation, they’re like, oh, hopefully race a good one next race, and they kind of give up pretty easily.

“So I never wanted to get into that trap of kind of turning up to a race and going, maybe I just tone it back a little bit and wait for the next race. As soon as I get into that mentality, I’ll probably just quit and get out of the sport, because that means you’re just kind of losing the love of the sport and losing that real fight.”

A lasting legacy

And Wilde also revealed that another driver for him is leaving a legacy that benefits the sport, citing the Brownlee brothers Alistair and Jonny and their Foundation as a prime example of giving back.

“It’s results, results, results. But for me, I want to leave a legacy as well.

“I’m just a normal person and 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. I had to funnel myself into the high-performance New Zealand programme as I never started when I was a kid.

“It’s so hard to push yourself into that funnel 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 like a really cool kind of stepping stone and the kind of legacy that I’d like to leave.

“Because at the end of the day, you can be an Olympic gold medallist or you can be a Super League champion but in reality, in a generation’s time, people are just going to forget about it. But if you leave a legacy with a foundation or something, you’re always going to have it.

“The Brownlees have done it brilliantly with the Brownlee Foundation. And I think that speaks volumes of how much they’ve moved the whole sport of triathlon. They’ve got a big complex in Leeds and I did a podcast with Jonny recently and they’re up to over 50,000 kids given free entry to participate in the triathlon, which is an amazing thing.

“So to do something like that in New Zealand would be pretty cool.”

Hayden Wilde wins SLT Malibu 2023 [Photo credit: Darren Wheeler / Super League]