Simon Whitfield
Simon St. Quentin Whitfield (born
May 16,
1975 in
Kingston, Ontario),
Canada, is an
Olympic triathlon champion. He is also an Australian citizen.
As a young boy he played
soccer but at age 11 began triathlon and by age 15 was pursuing it on a serious competitive basis.
Simon Whitfield's gold medal win in the triathlon at the
2000 Summer Olympics in
Sydney, Australia is one of the most memorable performances by an individual athlete in Canadian sporting history. Whitfield got up off the ground after he and 14 other riders crashed in the bike race portion of the event and worked his way back near the leaders. In the foot race, he resolutely cut down the field one at a time then put on a brilliant finishing kick to take the victory. His final time was 1:48:24.02, which still (as of
2005) stands as the fastest Olympic triathlon.
In the
2002 Commonwealth Games in
Manchester, England he took gold again.
He took 11th place at the
2004 Summer Olympics with a time of 1:53:15.81.
Whitfield lives in
Victoria, British Columbia.