Simon Whitfield

Simon St. Quentin Whitfield

Personal information
Born	May 16, 1975 (1975-05-16) Kingston, Ontario
Residence	British Columbia
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	70 kg (154 lb; 11 st)
Sport
Country	Canada
Medal record Triathlon Competitor for Canada Olympic Games Gold 2000 Sydney Men's competition Silver 2008 Beijing Men's competition Commonwealth Games Gold 2002 Manchester Men's competition Pan American Games Bronze 1999 Winnipeg Men's competition

Simon St. Quentin Whitfield (born May 16, 1975) is an Olympic triathlon champion from Canada.

Biography

Whitfield was born in Kingston, Ontario. As a young boy he played soccer but at age 11 began triathlon, honing his early competitive skills in the Canadian Kids of Steel program. By age 15 he was pursuing triathlon on a serious competitive basis. Whitfield won a gold medal in the triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He 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 cut down the field one at a time then put on a finishing kick to take the victory. His final time was 1:48:24.02, which still (as of 2008) stands as the fastest Olympic triathlon.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England he claimed gold again. He ended up in 11th place at the 2004 Summer Olympics with a time of 1:53:15.81.

Whitfield was named to the 2008 Summer Olympics team and won a silver medal while competing at his third consecutive games. With a time of 1:48:58, he finished 5 seconds behind the German gold medalist. Whitfield's accomplishment was made even more impressive considering he was a distant fourth behind the lead three runners heading into the final kilometre of the run before he burst forth into the lead with 200 metres remaining. Whitfield, exhausted by his effort to get back into the lead, was then passed by the eventual winner Jan Frodeno of Germany at the end of the race.

Whitfield lives in Victoria, British Columbia and maintains a second residence on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. He is currently coached by Paulo Sousa, who has been referred to as "an evil genius".

Whitfield has won 10 consecutive Canadian Triathlon Championships titles.