From Texas to South Australia that’s the story for 2025 duathlon star Matthias Bianchi who is gearing up for another season of racing while balancing the life of school and study.
And while school is a key focus, Matthias still has a burning passion for triathlon and multisport earmarking the upcoming duathlon on Sunday 2 August as an excellent opportunity to ‘test his fitness levels, before ramping’ things up as the season goes on.
Matthias’ exposure to triathlon wasn’t traditional with ambassadors coming to his school in Texas one day almost 8 years ago to explain what and how to get involved in the sport.
“I did one race over there after the ambassador. And I absolutely despised it, because I was cold and I was wet on all of the three legs.”
And although the initiation into the sport wasn’t exactly what Matthias was hoping for, something in him, kept him coming back for more.
“But I did a lot more after that in the coming year,” he laughed.
When asked why he kept coming back, the answer was two-fold.
“Firstly the community.”
“But also I liked it because I did the 3 legs separately and once I found triathlon I was like, huh, I enjoy all three. Put them together and the sense of accomplishment is threefold.”
Living abroad in a completely different climate, culture and environment for close to 8 years, made moving to South Australia somewhat challenging for the youngster.
“It was difficult at first as you’d expect, you had all your friends and everything and then you come over here and you know no one.”
But one thing that has provided him with friendships and camaraderie was the support of Tempo Systems Triathlon Club, who he had trained with back in 2022 for a short stint while visiting family in South Australia as he continued his preparation for the USA Triathlon Nationals.
“I think that the extension of friendship that all the juniors and the club gave me definitely helped me find my feet,” Matthias explained.
“They’ve got an ever growing community of people who train regularly through the club. And it’s good having lots of juniors on the team because then you can train with them, race with them and it’s great having some solid friends that you get to travel to interstate races with.”
Competing at Worlds in Wollongong last year was somewhat of a pinch me moment for Matthias who was overawed by the sheer number of triathletes and what it meant to represent the green and gold.
“It’s impressive, like there’s so many people that do this sport, you kind of forget about it. You go there and there’s thousands of people all from different countries.”
“And the camaraderie not only between Australians, but also different countries as well. You just walk up to someone randomly and can start talking with them about how they got into triathlon and multisport in general.”
With no shortage of events to choose from, Matthias found it hard to go past Moana as his favourite race in the South Australian calendar – noting the significance the race held to him.
“It was the first race I did after moving here.”
“So that to me holds a special place, but also in comparison to the US where most races had little elevation and the water wasn’t always clear. You go to races here and it’s more than likely hilly and the water’s usually crystal clear. The locations are nice, and the race is just beautiful.”
For many duathlons are a great way to almost ease back into the season – removing the need to swim – and just combining the bike and run work.
“While open-water swimming is off the table it lets you get into the feel of racing again. It keeps you motivated and is a great way to interact with the community and racing scene through the stretches of winter training where not much exciting happens.”
And this duathlon season will be no different. Register to race today: Adelaide Duathlon Series Race 1 – Victoria Park – AusTriathlon
