Olympic medallist and recently retired rower Nathan Twaddle is currently undergoing a move into the sport of triathlon.
The 34-year-old announced his retirement from international rowing late last year after deciding he didn’t have enough left to give for another Olympic campaign.
Twaddle won the bronze medal along with George Bridgewater in the Coxless Pairs at the Beijing Games in 2008 and has medalled at multiple world champs and world cup events.
Looking for a new challenge, Twaddle has taken up triathlon training as a physical challenge that provides something completely fresh from rowing.
"I used to do triathlons at school and the rowing group got into doing half ironmans a few years ago,” Twaddle says.
"I figure I should be able to push myself and I enjoy training so that’s a good start. I guarantee there will be people in front of me so I’ll always be trying to chase.
"I think I can balance being competitive with just enjoying being out and active. I’ve got nothing to prove to anyone.”
Twaddle enjoys the flexibility of triathlon and finds it easy to fit in a swim, bike or run session around other priorities in life.
He is finding that some rowing skills carry over to triathlon, but many other aspects are a bit of a shock to the system.
"Things like the cycling generally cross over pretty well but heavyweight rowers often tend to find running tough so that’s the hardest thing to get used to. Swimming is a bit different too but it’s pretty low impact and great to get the conditioning up.
"Physically I’m about 90kg plus and I haven’t used my muscles for running in a long time – I almost avoided running to reduce risk of injury with rowing. It tended to impact negatively on the top end rowing fitness so that’s something to get used to again.”
With several of his friends into the triathlon scene, Twaddle is motivated to keep going and is already eyeing up his first event.
He wants to start out slowly and is doing it all for the fun, although he does have some hefty long-term goals.
"It’s been a while since I attempted a full on triathlon event. There’s a local multisport club starting up here though and they’ll be doing a weekly training so I can work on my transitions a bit.
"I definitely had a few sore muscles after the first swims and runs but starting to get the hang of it now. It’s all about the chance to wind down really after my life in rowing. If you go cold turkey from what I’ve been doing to nothing it wouldn’t be pretty.
"I like the idea of trying to do the Taupo Ironman one day but it’s a long way down the track and a big commitment. We’ll wait and see.”
Twaddle’s sparkling rowing career started out with Rob Hellstrom in the pairs in 2003 before teaming up with George Bridgewater to win the world championship title at Gifu, Japan in 2005.
The pair went on to take two more world championship silver medals, Olympic bronze in Beijing and multiple World Cup medals, four of which were gold.
Twaddle and Bridgewater were also named Halberg Team of the Year in 2005.
