So, Arvetius Triaslan is a sport that exists more than 32 years, and he's a robot.
You're in the race for 21 years, so you're one of the old guys now, you're a legend.
I'm a sport, you're a legend for that.
And you're still one of the best, so how does it feel to be a legend like this?
I don't consider myself a legend, I consider myself a guy who fell in love with the sport when the sport was in its infancy.
I've grown up in Triaslan, and I guess as one of the athletes who is still around racing today, I still have a lot more fights in me.
I think I have a voice, and sometimes I get the impression that a lot of the people within our sport don't realise the beauty of the sport.
It's so new, they don't embrace our history, they don't embrace the champions of the past, they don't see where we've come from and see how far we've come.
We're an Olympic sport now, we're a global sport, we have races in some of the biggest cities in the world, and it just disappoints me sometimes that we don't embrace these past champions.
I've walked around here in Frankfurt a couple of years ago and I've seen Jürgen Zak a legend, a legend in Europe, a legend in Germany, a legend within our sport.
If this was cycling, it's Eddie Merckx, he would be at the VIP area, he would be...
It's just disappointing sometimes, but I think I love Triaslan, it's the sport I chose and I intend to do it for the rest of my life,
whether I'm a pro or an amateur, I just enjoy competing, I enjoy the people and I'm very, very, very blessed to have found this sport.
Okay, and if you meet people like Jürgen Zak or other ones like Lothar Leder, who you've just wrote about and you've tried with these days, they are retired, more or less.
Lothar is coming again maybe, but not as a pro maybe, so do you think of retirement? Obviously not.
Well, you know, had someone asked me four years ago whether I'd be racing at 36, 37 years of age, I probably would have said,
oh no, but then I look at Kona and everyone who is in front of me is two, three years older than I am, you know.
And I think the way the sport has evolved this endurance racing is definitely built around older guys.
You know, I'll retire when I feel the need to, you know, is it tough with the family now? I'm in a different stage in my life, I have children.
It makes travel tough and I don't get on an aeroplane anymore like I was in my 20s going, yes, I'm coming to Europe for six months.
It can be daunting. I'm like, okay, it does sometimes feel like work and that's primarily because of my time away from my children.
But that being said, I think competitively and strength-wise and physically, I'm still capable of winning races.
My season this year has seen me win five big events, a couple of seconds and, you know, I think I'm still in solid form.
And as long as guys like Alexander, who's a year older than I am, and Liado, who's two and a half years older than I am, and Cameron Brown, who's still winning races,
who's two years older than I am, continue to be successful, then they sort of set the benchmark of saying, hey, there is no age in our sport.
Age is a mindset and I really, really feel that way.
And I think it's up to the younger guys, I'm talking to you, to retire us, really, to come out and make me retire.
Because if I can continue to win races, why would I retire?
Okay, so that's the no problem to motivate you or to push you again and again and again.
Of course, you know, you have motivation issues, like I said, but motivation to train is, I never have struggled with motivation to train
because, you know, I've seen how hard my father worked, for example, in the real world.
Let's face it, as a professional triathlete, not in the real world.
I'm doing something I love. Not many people are that blessed to have an occupation.
They absolutely love and adore and enjoy doing.
And I get to travel the world and hang out with like-minded people and compete and feed that competitive desire.
But what makes it tough now is that I'm in a different phase in my life that I wasn't in when I was in my 20s.
I have children. I have a family.
And that brings other responsibilities into my life that I didn't have when I was a seek and destroy type athlete in my younger 20s.
My only concern in my life was to dominate, to beat people.
I didn't care what happened in between.
So, yeah, so that's where issues of motivation can come into play and preparing for this event.
I was preparing with Cameron Brown, who also has two boys, a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old.
And we're discussing that, how we've grown up in this sport, how we're in a different phase now, and how we really are.
You know, I think Cameron Brown, McKeeley, Jones and myself are the longest serving professionals that our sports ever had.
And I don't think we get, not that we want, I want kudos for that.
But I think Cameron Brown and McKeeley need to be addressed as 20-year professional triathletes.
It's incredible, you know, you look back at Mark Allen and Dave Scott, 10 years, isn't it?
10 years, like, they had 10 and 11-year careers.
And 13 years for someone like Greg Welsh, when now you're looking at Cameron Brown, who races a professional in 1990, and was good.
You know, it's amazing.
Okay. And concerning the race on Sunday, there are some people who are saying that if you are going to Frankfurt,
then it's probably more serious to be the best in Hawaii, because the race is so tough that it takes a lot of energy.
You have not so much time on three or four months to recover and build up again for Hawaii.
Do you think so?
I 100% agree, and I honestly believe that the failings of the Germans in Kona these last few years
has been about the expectation on them in Frankfurt, but in Germany.
And if you look at the Germans who have done well, Norman and Farris who won, they had terrible Frankfurts,
or terrible Kölchallenge Roth events.
And the guys who have been successful here have tended to have average Kona.
The reason I see it is the race is so much hype, so big, and it doesn't get the kutos that it deserves globally.
It does here in Germany, but I think that's the responsibility of Iron Man to recognise that this event,
in my honest opinion, and I can say that because I have won both.
So it's not someone like me who's saying, oh, well, I think it's just as big as Kona because I never won Kona.
And having won Kona and having won Frankfurt, they stand parallel together as far as, for hype, for difficulty to win,
for sheer what it takes to win the event, they stand parallel.
And like you said, the difficulty is trying to master, have a great race in July,
and then turn that around and have another one in October, but it can be very, very difficult.
And for guys like Timo and Andreas, where their sponsors are based out here in Germany,
their expectation to win here is probably more than it is to win in Kona,
because their sponsors are sitting here in the VIP area and get to watch their athlete compete.
But I definitely agree, and I think the solution to that would be for the WTC, the governing body,
to address that and say, okay, it's time to give Frankfurt the European championship,
the global kutos it needs, the TV time globally, like it does with Iron Man,
the WTC package together for the event, and allow these athletes to market themselves globally
of a victory here, because this race is damn hard to win.
And as I said in the press conference, I have three trophies that sit on the top of my trophy cabinet,
the Iron Man World Championships, the ITU World Championships, and the European Championships,
and they stand top shelf, parallel with each other.
And that's how much I think this event is important in our sport.
Am I right? In the beginning, you didn't want to start Frankfurt, and later you stepped in?
No, I always wanted to start in Frankfurt, but...
Because the first press declarations from Kai, it was said that you're not in the race in this...
Oh, for this year? Oh, no, no, I...
No, they... no one came to me to ask me to... I had a contract with them.
I thought you were talking before I ever came to Frankfurt.
I had a contract that was for two years, and no one approached me,
and like you said, I won the race, I finished third, and my focus was definitely on Kona,
and I was like, oh, okay, I'm not going to pursue it, I don't...
If they want me, they'll bring me back.
And, you know, it's definitely not very interesting unless you start to get some people from other places
to give the Germans a point of reference to how their boys are going.
It's one thing to beat up on your own, but you need a point of reference.
I usually am a good point of reference, and I was approached probably eight weeks ago.
I was preparing primarily for 70.3 events.
I'd done an Ironman in China earlier in the year.
I actually fell ill before on the Thursday, and I had to contractually start that event,
but I pulled out just after the swim.
And Kai came to me and asked if I would be interested in competing in Frankfurt again.
I said I would be.
We went for the negotiation, as you normally do.
I left that in the hands of my people, and on the bell it came through.
And so, compared to years past, I haven't had the build, the Ironman build,
that I have for other Ironmans, but I think my speed's a big factor this year.
I think the back end of my race this year may not be as strong,
because I simply haven't put the volume in that's required to be strong at the end.
But I think the pace that I have early could pay dividends.
If the temperature's really, really hot, it could make people suffer early.
And then when it's 36, 37 degrees, nobody moves fast anyway.
So it'll just be a matter of survival.
So yeah, it's true.
I'm a late addition to the field, and I'm happy to be back.
