longer

the
road

Terenzo Bozzone sounds

too good to be true.
He has won five world
multisport titles. He is 24.
Next on his to-do list is the
Ironman World Championship
in Kona, Hawaii. But he doesn’t
just want to win it; he
wants to win it more often
than any other athlete.
And when he’s done rewriting
the record books, he wants
to tackle a REAL challenge.
by ROBERT TIGHE
photography ALISTAIR GUTHRIE

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 terenzo bozzone
The phone call lasted a minute or two at the most. Before
he answered the phone he was Terenzo Bozzone, Olympic
triathlon superstar in waiting; when he hung up he had to
deal with rejection for one of the first times in his life.
He had to come to terms with the fact that he hadn’t got
what he wanted. He hadn’t achieved his goal.
The goal was the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Bevan Docherty
and Kris Gemmell had secured their spots on the New
Zealand triathlon team and the third and final place was
a toss-up between Bozzone and Taranaki triathlete Shane
Reed. In the final qualification race in Mooloolaba, Australia,
Bozzone finished 14th ahead of Reed who trailed in 25th.
Yet under Triathlon New Zealand’s selection criteria
they needed to finish in the top five to ensure automatic
qualification for the Olympic team. When they didn’t it was up
to the selectors to make the call. Still Bozzone was confident
he’d done enough.
“Rankings-wise we were pretty close but head to head I had
finished ahead of him in more races and finished ahead of
him in the final selection race. I had proven myself before in
big events,” he says.
So when the phone rang on April 3 last year, just a few
days after the race in Mooloolaba, and Bozzone was told the
selectors (Josie Sinclair, Rick Wells and Lyn Pattle) had picked
Reed to join Docherty and Gemmell in Beijing, he
was stunned.
“It was a pretty short conversation,” he recalls. “I didn’t know
what to ask or what to say. I never really understood why. Even
now I don’t understand why.”
Stephen Farrell was high performance manager for Triathlon
New Zealand in Beijing and while he wasn’t part of the
selection panel he suggests Bozzone didn’t help his cause by
ignoring his advice.
“It was frustrating because Terenzo was clearly the better
athlete but he hadn’t done the right races to cement his spot.
I started working with Terenzo and his coach two years out
from the selection races and told him which races he should
do and which races he must do.
“He decided to only do the races he must do. He didn’t give
himself any opportunity in case things didn’t go 100 per cent
his way.”
Things started to go wrong for Bozzone in October 2006
when he came off second best in a collision with a car
during a routine training ride in the Waitakere Ranges in West
Auckland. He tried to ignore the pain in his right knee but in
February 2007 he was forced to go under the knife.
More damaging than the surgery was the fact that he was
forced to rush his recovery. The ITU (International Triathlon
Union) World Cup in Beijing in September 2007 was the
first of two Olympic qualification races (the second was in
Mooloolaba in March 2008) and Bozzone needed to be on
the start line.
In August 2007, just six months after his knee surgery, he
showed he was back to something approaching his best form,
Bozzone finished seventh in the Triathlon World Championship.
Reed was 49th.
However, the race that really mattered in 2007 was the
World Cup race in Beijing where another collision on the bike,
this time with a fellow competitor, ruined Bozzone’s chance of
a top five finish in the first qualification race. He limped home
in 55th with Reed ahead of him in 38th.
Docherty and Gemmell finished third and fourth respectively
to rubber-stamp their selection for the Olympics, which meant
38
line and work as hard as I can to
Bozzone and Reed had just one more chance to gain
achieve my goals. But everything
automatic qualification at Mooloolaba in March 2008.
But according to Farrell, Bozzone sabotaged his
happens for a reason and I reckoned
chances by deciding to compete in the half-ironman
world championships at the end of 2007.
“Five months before Mooloolaba I told him ‘this is
crunch time for you. You should not do these half-
ironman races’, but he still went and did them. It is like
a sprinter training for the 1500m when they are trying to
win the 100m final.
“There is an old Chinese proverb: ‘A man who chases
two rabbits will end up with none’. He was chasing
two rabbits.”
Bozzone refutes the suggestion he wasn’t fully
committed to the Olympics and he doesn’t accept that
competing in the world half-ironman championships
(where he finished a respectable ninth) had an adverse
effect on his preparations for the final Olympic
selection race.
“That [the Olympics] is where I wanted to be and I
usually get what I want.
“I usually put everything on the line and work as hard
as I can to achieve my goals. But everything happens for
“There is an old Chinese proverb: ‘A man
who chases two rabbits will end up
with none’. He was chasing two rabbits.”
getty images
terenzo bozzone
“I usually put everything on the
that fate would give me some
other opportunities and it has.”
a reason and I reckoned that fate would give me some other
opportunities and it has.
“My mentality was ‘let’s prove those guys wrong’.”
A year on from that phone call we are sitting in Bozzone’s
unit on Auckland’s North Shore, and the 24-year-old is
reflecting on a year that saw him win the half-ironman world
championship and record a world-class time in his first
Ironman in Taupo.
After the disappointment of missing out on Beijing, Bozzone
sat down with his coach, Jon Ackland, and they decided to
forget about the Olympic distance and concentrate instead on
half-ironman, otherwise known as Ironman 70.3,
and Ironman.
The Olympic distance triathlon consists of a 1.5km open
water swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run. Ironman punishes
athletes over a 3.86 km swim, a 180km bike ride followed by
a marathon of just over 42km.
The top triathletes complete the Olympic or sprint distance
in or around 1 hour and 50 minutes. In Ironman, the pain
lasts for over eight hours. Still Bozzone insists, “It wasn’t much
of a change. You are still swimming, biking and running.”
Ackland is even more blasé about the transition his young
charge made from the shorter to the longer form of the sport.
“It wasn’t like we hadn’t thought of Ironman before Terenzo
missed out on the Olympics,” he says, “but it was a case of
‘okay we can’t go down that pathway, let’s see what happens
if we go down this pathway’.”
What happened was that within a couple of weeks of
missing out on Beijing, Bozzone packed his bags and his bike
and headed for the US. In the space of three weeks in June,
just a couple of months after that phone call, he started in
three half-ironman races, winning two of them and finishing
second in the other.
His efforts may not have made the headlines in New
Zealand but the triathlon community was agog.
“To do what he did last year and win two half-ironman titles
in the space of three weeks was something special,” says
Greg Welch, the Australian triathlete who was the first non-
American to win the World Ironman Championship in Kona.
“I said to people after that, ‘watch out for this kid, he is the
future’. He is a phenomenon. Terenzo has done more in his
short career than most people have ever done.”
Bozzone ended 2008 with the biggest win of his career in
the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida.
He broke the course record, despite breaking his wrist just
four weeks out from the race, but again the win went largely
unreported in New Zealand.
Still, Bozzone and his coach weren’t too bothered. For them
it is just another step along the road to greatness.
“That is one half-ironman world championship and we
expect to win a few other bits and pieces before we’re done,”
says Ackland. “One of the things that we focus on in terms of
Terenzo’s training and development is based on the Japanese
word kaizen.
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 terenzo bozzone

“A lot of people get focused on the outcomes of

what they are doing but the concept of kaizen is all
about constant and continuous improvement in all
aspects of life.”
Ackland has worked with Bozzone since 2001
and knows him as well as anyone. I ask him to try
to sum up what makes Bozzone so special.
“The stars aligned,” says Ackland. “It is very rare
that you get someone who can run as fast as he
can, cycle as fast as he can and swim as fast as
he can.
“His physiology isn’t noticeably better than
anybody else; it is more the fact that he has
incredible endurance. Often he has been portrayed
as this freakishly talented, physiological machine
but I don’t think that covers the hours of training,
the dedication and the thinking that is necessary
to train on the edge all the time. That is what
makes him so exceptional.”
It was in the swimming pool that Bozzone first
showed his sporting prowess. Encouraged by his
parents, Diane and Carlo, who moved to Auckland’s
North Shore from their native South Africa when
their eldest son was 11, Bozzone won a national
age group title in the breaststroke, before fate
intervened and he stumbled into triathlon.
He was 13 when he burst his eardrum in a
wakeboarding accident. It took a few operations to
sort out his ear, which meant he had to stay out of
the water.
Bozzone wasn’t going to sit around and twiddle
his thumbs and so he found a new sport, the bike-
run discipline of duathlon. Within a year he won
the national secondary schools title and burst on
to the world stage at the age of 16 when he travelled to Italy It was a sour end to his junior career but a fourth place
and won the U21 world junior duathlon championships. finish in his first ITU World Cup race as a professional in 2005
He defended his duathlon title in 2002 and also claimed proved that the promise he showed as a junior was just a
the first of back-to-back wins in the U20 World Junior taste of what was to come.
Triathlon Championships. In 2006 he stunned the triathlon world, winning the
Bozzone was expected to complete the hat-trick of junior Wildflower half-ironman in the US and smashing the course
triathlon world titles in 2004 but instead he hit the headlines record by six minutes in the process.
for the wrong reasons when he was accused of going into the Then came the knee injury at the end of 2006 that put
world championships underdone after his appearance on the a halt to his gallop. Missing out on Beijing was another
TV reality show, Celebrity Treasure Island. potentially huge setback. So to bounce back in the manner
Initially he was lauded as a hero by the media for sacrificing he did last year, to prove the Olympic selectors wrong and win
his race to stop and help his New Zealand teammate, Ben his first world title since 2003 was hugely satisfying.
Pattle, who suffered an asthma attack on the cycle leg, but Winning in Clearwater at the end of last year also gave
after the race his teammates and management at Triathlon Bozzone a huge confidence boost ahead of his first Ironman
New Zealand suggested Bozzone milked the incident and that in Taupo in March this year.
when he stopped to help Pattle he was well off the pace. He finished second behind Cameron Brown at Ironman New
Zealand in what was the fastest debut in an Ironman by a
New Zealander by 26 minutes, according to Ackland.
Once more people in the know in the triathlon world
looked on, shook their heads and smiled at Bozzone’s
“The stars aligned. It is very rare precociousness.

that you get someone who can run “It is going to be tough for anybody to beat Cameron Brown
at Taupo but Terenzo put up a great fight and did very well for

as fast as he can, cycle as fast as he his first Ironman,” says Welch.

“You just have to look at the time he did and he is already

can and swim as fast as he can.” world class. But Kona will be a different ball game because
there will be 30 people around him doing the same pace that
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Cameron did at Taupo. But I think he can finish in the top

eight at Kona if he has a good day.”

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 terenzo bozzone

“I don’t operate well with people

telling me what to do so I am not sure
Welch is, of course, referring to the Big Kahuna of Ironman, if I will go back to the shorter stuff.”
the World Ironman Championship which is held every October
on the island of Kona in Hawaii. Bozzone was at Kona last
year as a spectator but he will be back there this year on the
start line and while he is under no illusions as to how tough it
is, he is hoping for a top five finish. isn’t restricted to swimming, biking and running.
“I’d be happy with that for my first year,” he says with a grin. On his website he says: “I am committed to making a
“Ironman is a step up but Kona is another huge step up. You difference to the lives of the kids of New Zealand and the
are racing in temperatures that are out of this world and a world.” If that sounds like the kind of platitude you might hear
wind that is blowing the whole day. from a beauty pageant queen, then listen to this.
“I knew it was windy but I went for a ride there last year and “I’ve always felt that I’d like to do well and then put
it does your head in. It just doesn’t stop and it feels like it is something back into the community. I read a quote
blowing against you the whole way.” somewhere which said, ‘a life lived for others is a life worth
The extreme temperatures and the wind are a couple of living’. That is what it is about. You feel good when you do
reasons why Kona generally rewards experience. Since 1980 something for someone else and I guess I just like making
only Belgium’s Luc van Lierde has won in Kona on debut and a difference.”
he recorded the fastest time in the history of the event in The thing is, Terenzo doesn’t just talk the talk, he is already
the process. an ambassador for a number of children’s charities including
Germany’s Thomas Hellriegel is the youngest winner at What’s Up and the Life Education Trust and he plans to get
Kona. He was 26 more involved in mentoring and education when he is finished
when he won in 1997 rewriting the record books.
which gives Bozzone “I think everyone is put on this earth to do something. Right
another couple of now I am happy doing what I am doing but the thing with
years to try to beat triathlon is you can only do it for a fraction of your life. This is
his record. But he is part of my journey.
thinking bigger “This is what I’ll be doing for the next 10 years but I hope it
than that. can lead to something that has a greater good.”
“I am hoping to get Whether he is doing the longer or the shorter form of
it right in two or three triathlon for the next 10 years depends on what happens in
years. And I guess the next six months or so. If he performs well at Kona expect
ultimately Mark Allen to see Bozzone commit himself to Ironman.
and Dave Scott have And if in the process New Zealand loses one of its best
both won Kona six Olympic medal prospects for 2012 and 2016, it will all come
times. I’d like to win it back to that phone call.
seven times. I’d like to If Bozzone had been picked for the Beijing Olympics,
go one better.” regardless of how he did, the likelihood is that the
Even Welch, who Olympic distance triathlon would be his focus for the
is one of Bozzone’s foreseeable future.
greatest admirers But given how well how he has performed over the longer
and has followed his distances and the added bonus that he doesn’t have to
career closely since depend on the whim of selectors to determine where and
he was a junior, is when he can race, Bozzone seems set to sacrifice his
taken aback by his Olympic dreams.
bravado. “I’d love to go to the Olympics but if you want to go to the
“That could backfire Olympics it is a political sport and you have to play the game,”
in a huge way,” he he says. “I don’t operate well with people telling me what to
says. “I wouldn’t go do so I am not sure if I will go back to the shorter stuff.”
around saying those Farrell has no doubt that Bozzone could still make the
things, I’d let his legs switch back to the Olympic distance but again he has some
do the talking. He is advice for him.
a confident young “If he focused on the Olympic distance he would be one of
man but I wouldn’t be our better, if not best, prospects for a medal at London 2012.
putting that out there.” But he would have to start focusing on it from now onwards.
Bozzone has never Another year of Ironman will put him behind the eight ball.”
been shy about saying Not surprisingly, Ackland disagrees with Farrell.
out loud what other “We’ll give it a year and see what happens. Terenzo is
people dare not even incredibly talented over the longer distances and he is very
dream. When he was talented over the shorter distances but he needs to decide on
17 he proclaimed a particular direction and then focus on that.
that he wanted to Going to Kona this year we want to do well but it is only a
be “the strongest step to what is going to happen in the future. The plan is to
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man alive,” and his make him the best possible Ironman athlete ever.
magnificent ambition “We want him to be extremely good for a very long time.” 

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