Olympic Debutant Joins Hayden Wilde, Nicole Van Der Kaay And Ainsley Thorpe In Triathlon Team

Dylan McCullough is poised for his Olympic Games debut after being named in a four-strong New Zealand team for triathlon’s mixed relay and individual races at the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris.

The 23-year-old Aucklander will line up alongside Hayden Wilde in the individual men’s race on July 30. Nicole van der Kaay and Ainsley Thorpe get their chance to dive into the Seine the following morning for the women’s individual, likewise over triathlon’s standard distance (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run).

The quartet will then combine for the Mixed Relay (male, female, male, female over 300m swim, 5.8km bike, 1.8km run legs) on August 5 hoping to eclipse New Zealand’s 12th place finish at the Tokyo Olympics. Wilde, van der Kaay and Thorpe were part of the Mixed Relay team which placed second at the 2023 World Championship, while McCullough was part of the U23 Mixed Relay Team that placed third at the same event.

Tayler Reid and Brea Roderick have been named as reserves and will train with the team on the outskirts of Paris right up to the Mixed Relay. The triathlon is headquartered on the Pont Alexandre III Bridge under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, with the swim in the River Seine before the bike and run on tight and technical central Paris street circuits including the iconic Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Tokyo bronze medalist Wilde spearheads the Tri NZ team. The Whakatane 26-year-old has been training at altitude in Andorra, his European base, ahead of a widely anticipated gold medal showdown with Brit Alex Yee.

Yee claimed the silver medal in Tokyo and has narrowly edged their numerous head-to-heads since, including pipping Wilde for gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Yee also won last August’s Paris Olympic Test Event when Wilde was forced to withdraw early on the run with injury but the Kiwi dominated the bike that day and knows he has the measure of his friendly foe on any given day.

“If it all comes down to a footrace, I don't think there's many people that can stay with us,” Wilde said of his rivalry with Yee.

“And yeah, I was pretty stoked with how everything kind of happened there [in Cagliari] and I feel like I know what I need to do to crack Alex if we do come off the bike with each other.”

The current World Triathlon No.2 behind Frenchman Léo Bergere, Wilde describes qualifying for his second Olympic Games as an “absolute privilege”.

“I've always wanted to get to this Olympics and perform in this Olympics. So, I can kind of take that and just, yeah, learn from my experiences in Tokyo and grab it by the horns and and go for it.”

For McCullough, an Olympic debut comes after his steady progression during the qualification period. It featured a maiden World Cup podium in Miyazaki, Japan last October, a series of impressive WTCS results and a rare solo bike-run breakaway to claim the Oceania Sprint Championships in Devonport, Tasmania in March.

“It's pretty special,” McCullough said of his selection.

“I've been kind of targeting the Olympics for a while now, especially after the Youth Olympics in 2018 [where McCullough won gold in Buenos Aires]. The kind of next goal I wanted to step up to was, obviously, the Olympics. And, yeah, to get there is a pretty big achievement.”

McCullough paid tribute to his family and coach John Hellemans for getting him to Paris.

“I mean, this is kind of just as much for me as it is for them, really. I would not be in this position if it wasn't for, you know, my mum, dad, my brother. They've kind of keep me going through all the hard times.

“Also my coach, John Hellemans, who picked me up in 2019 after glandular fever and got me going again. I probably wouldn’t be this athlete I am now if it wasn't for John and my family.”

Van der Kaay, meanwhile, is determined to better her 29th place in Tokyo. The Taupo 28-year-old began 2024 by temporarily relocating to Portugal to train under Estonian coach Paulo Sousa.

The new year, new coach, new approach has van der Kaay fizzing for Paris.

“I am incredibly honoured and proud to have been chosen to represent New Zealand at my second Olympic Games,” van der Kaay said from her altitude training base in Font Romeu, a Pyrénées ski resort in Southern France.

“I’ve been training tirelessly, focusing on every detail of my preparation, and pushing myself to new limits, all in pursuit of excellence. I am determined to make New Zealand, my friends, my family, and myself proud.”

Thorpe unfortunately crashed out of the women’s individual race on the greasy, rain-soaked roads that confronted the women in Tokyo three years ago. She’s hoping for more luck in Paris and is buoyed by a series of encouraging results at WTCS level, notably a Kiwi best 17th at last year’s Paris test event.

“I'm honoured to be selected to represent New Zealand at my second Olympics and with no [COVID-19] restrictions this time, I can have the lead up needed to perform at my best,” Thorpe said.

“I had my experience in Tokyo haunt me for a long time, but after racing at the Paris test event last year and finishing 17th individual, I realised how much stronger I have become as an athlete both physically and mentally in those two years. I loved the course and the city, and I can't wait to race in Paris again.”

NZOC CEO Nicki Nicol extended her congratulations to the athletes.

"We're really pleased to have an exciting and experienced triathlon team named for the Olympic Games," said Nicol.

"New Zealand has a proud history in Olympic triathlon and wish these athletes all the best as they strive to add to that legacy in Paris."

The men’s, women’s and Mixed Relay races in Paris are all scheduled for 8am starts Paris time, which translates to a convenient 6pm NZ time for fans watching from New Zealand.

Athlete Bios:

Hayden Wilde

Hayden Wilde, born in Taupo in 1997, is an Olympic bronze medallist and Commonwealth Games silver medallist and by 2024 had earned the No 1 world ranking in men's triathlon.

Wilde won Olympic bronze in Tokyo in 2021, New Zealand's first Olympic triathlon medal in 13 years. The Bay of Plenty athlete is known as ‘the falcon' in the triathlon world, due to his ability to attack from behind, and he did exactly that in Tokyo, producing a spectacular run in the final leg to claim a podium spot.

At the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Wilde held a comfortable lead and looked as if he might be heading for a gold medal as he entered the run, but he received a controversial 10-second penalty that ruled out his chances of winning the race. He was penalised for not racking his bike correctly, and ultimately lost out on the gold to England's Alex Yee. Despite the disappointment, Wilde's sportsmanship was praised by the press and on social media. His appeal was subsequently declined.

Wilde, who grew up in Whakatane, attended Trident High School, where he played soccer and hockey and was a good mountain biker before focusing on distance running to increase his fitness. When he was 16, he became the youngest winner of the two-day Coast to Coast, which consists of 243km of running, cycling and kayaking. He won in 12h 18min of hard slog.

He says he was inspired to really throw himself into the triathlon after watching the event on television at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and particularly the winning performance of Englishman Alistair Brownlee, who edged out his brother Jonathan by six seconds to take the gold.

In 2016, Wilde secured his third world title by the age of 19 when he won the Snowy Mountains ITU cross triathlon world championship, following two XTERRA under-19 titles.

He began to make his mark internationally in 2019 with a third placing in Tokyo in an Olympic qualifying event and several other good performances, including wins at mixed relay level in Devonport, Edmonton and the under-23 ITU grand final in Lausanne.

As well as his Olympic bronze medal in 2021 he also finished second in the Super League Championship series that year, with victory in London and a third placing in the European championship in Austria.

The New Zealander continued to move up the world rankings in 2022, when he won the Arena Games series finale in Singapore. He made a strong start to the 2022 Super League season, successfully defending his London title and then finished third in Munich the following week. There were further victories at Malibu and Toulouse and he ended up winning the series.

Wilde peeled off a string of strong performances in 2023 and eventually raised himself to the top of the world rankings. He had victories in a World Cup event in New Plymouth, a world series race in Yokohama, and the world sprint championship in Hamburg, plus several other podium finishes. He finished second in the world championship series.

Wilde was a finalist in the 2021 Halberg Awards section for New Zealand's Favourite Sporting Moment for his Olympic effort – his exciting race and the emotional interview he gave afterwards. It was New Zealand's first medal of the Games.

He lives in Tauranga, where he trains with Craig Kirkwood, his coach since 2016. Kirkwood also coaches athletics star Sam Tanner, and Tanner and Wilde sometimes train together.

Dylan McCullough

Dylan McCullough competed for New Zealand at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, where he placed 7th in the men's individual triathlon. The Auckland triathlete also represented New Zealand at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic games at the age of 17, winning gold in the men's individual and silver in the mixed relay.

McCullough finished 15th at the 2021 Europe Triathlon Cup in Barcelona, and finished 3rd in the 2022 Oceania Triathlon Cup held in Taupo, New Zealand.

Nicole van der Kaay

Nicole van der Kaay competed at the Tokyo Olympic Games where she placed 29th in the women's individual event. She has also competed for the New Zealand team at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games where she won bronze in the Mixed Team Relay alongside her teammates. She also placed seventh and top kiwi female at the same Commonwealth Games in the individual triathlon.

Van der Kaay is from Taupo and was attracted to triathlon for its variety and capacity to absorb her boundless energy.

Ainsley Thorpe

Ainsley Thorpe is originally from Auckland but now lives and trains in Cambridge. She competed at the Tokyo Olympic Games where she unfortunately crashed during the bike leg of the race.

Thorpe earned her first World Cup podium in 2019 and is part of the team that won World Triathlon Series in Edmonton and U23 World Championships at the Mixed Team Relay (MTR) event.

Her grandparents are the most influential people in her career, they are her biggest supporters and watch her race around the world.

About The New Zealand Team for Paris 2024 

In July and August 2024, New Zealand will take on the world at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Around 190 New Zealand Team athletes will compete at the Games, with the stunning city of Paris set to host 10,500 athletes from 206 nations. 

With competition taking place at the Palace of Versaille, beneath the Eiffel Tower, inside Stade de France, and around landmarks such as Les Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Hotel de Ville and along the Seine, the Games are expected to be a spectacular event. 

The Zealand Team is once again set to shine in sports from equestrian, to rowing, rugby sevens,
swimming, canoe sprint, sailing, athletics, cycling and more, while New Zealanders can check out the action in incredible new urban sports including skateboarding, sport climbing, breaking and 3x3 basketball.

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