Hayden Wilde: Background, career highlights, quotes

Charismatic Kiwi Hayden Wilde has proved he can come up with the goods on the biggest stages after taking bronze at the Tokyo Olympics and silver at the Paris Olympics. Here’s how the off-roader rose to the very top of road triathlon…

Who is Hayden Wilde?

You would have thought that – being born in the North Island town of Taupo, home of Ironman 70.3 New Zealand – triathlon would have loomed large in the young life of Hayden Wilde. Not so.

As a kid, he played hockey and football before graduating to off-road events. A strong cross-country runner, at the age of 16 he became the youngest-ever winner of the Coast 2 Coast race in his homeland – a two-day multi-sport event involving kayaking. He was also a two-time Xterra U19 world champion.

Wilde only took up road triathlon after watching Alistair Brownlee retain his Olympic title at Rio 2016, but his progress has been extraordinary swift, culminating with two Olympic medals of his own – bronze at the 2020 Games in Tokyo and silver at the 2024 Games in Paris.

Along the way, he’s made a huge impression in World Triathlon competitions, both in World Cup and World Triathlon Series (WTS) format, as well as proving a fierce competitor in Super League.

A healthy rivalry with his contemporary Alex Yee has helped draw viewers to the sport, the pair producing foot battles not seen since the Brownlee/Javier Gomez days.

Not only is Wilde in clear possession of sporting chops, but he also has the determination to be a regular diner at triathlon’s top table.

It’s what has got him here so quickly, working as a landscape gardener to make ends meet. “I have never been given everything on a silver platter,” he explains. “I’ve had to fight to get into start lines and pay my way.”

How old is Hayden Wilde?

Hayden Wilde was born on 1 September 1997, making him 27 years old.

Hayden Wilde’s career highlights

November 2016: World title number three for the teenager

A sign of Wilde’s great promise comes at the Snowy Mountains ITU Cross Triathlon world championships when the young New Zealander takes victory in the 18-19 age group category. This he adds to the two XTERRA U19 world titles already in his possession.

June 2018: Mixing it with the big boys

In Sardinia, Wilde’s second place at the Cagliari ITU World Cup race gives him his first podium placing in an ITU elite race.

May 2019: Makes himself at home in the WTS ranks

Barely two years after converting to road triathlon, Wilde lines up at his first-ever WTS elite race in Yokohama. Although his 22nd place is unremarkable, his progress during the season is swift.

The following month he finishes 13th in Leeds and, when the series rolls into Hamburg in early July, Wilde’s comfortable sixth place is his first top 10 in a WTS race.

August 2019: Third in Tokyo puts the world on alert

To make sure his new WTS rivals are taking notice and glancing nervously over their shoulders, Wilde finishes third at the Tokyo ITU World Triathlon Olympic qualification event. Such a performance on the Olympic course bodes well for the actual Games.

December 2019: Podiums in his first 70.3

Steps up distance at his home race in Taupo and is rewarded with a bronze medal.

August 2021: Third in Tokyo again, but it’s the real deal this time

The Tokyo Games might be delayed for a year because of the pandemic, but Wilde remembers the profile of the course well, replicating his third place from 24 months earlier. It’s just this time it earns the fist-pumping Kiwi an Olympic medal, behind Kristian Blummenfelt’s gold and Alex Yee’s silver.

September 2021: Top of the Super League podium in London

Wilde takes that Olympic form into the Super League Triathlon Championship Series, winning the first race in London. At the end of the month, he finishes second overall in the series, once again pipped by his great rival Yee.

December 2021: A title-winning return to the rough stuff

Wilde zips up his boots and goes back to his roots when he takes gold at the Xterra World Championships in Maui. It’s his third Xterra world crown, but his first as an elite athlete. It is, though, effectively a duathlon, with an additional run leg replacing the swim that’s cancelled due to dangerous conditions.

June 2022: Wins his first WTCS

In an action-packed sprint-distance Leeds WTCS, Wilde takes down Yee and Brownlee – by accident – on the bike and with it the first WTCS win of what promises to be a stellar career.

Two weeks later Yee gets revenge by outsprinting the Kiwi for gold in Montreal.

July 2022: Wins his second WTCS

Shows his true class by coming from 30secs down out of the swim to pick off his rivals one by one and take victory in Germany at WTCS Hamburg.

Three weeks later and he’s leading the 2022 Commonwealth Games… until Yee hunts him down on the 5km run and he has to serve a controversial 10sec penalty for a helmet infringement. A silver suffices, though.

September-October 2022: Storms the Super League Series

With his chief rival and defending champ Yee only racing the London leg of this year’s series, it’s Wilde’s to lose… which he doesn’t often.

And so it goes as he wins London, takes third in Munich then wins again in Malibu and Toulouse. One more race to go in Saudi Arabia and he takes third. It’s enough to win the overall title.

November 2022: Loses out in the Grand Final

The 2022 World Triathlon title was also Wilde’s to lose… but this one he did. In our pre-race predictions we wrote: “While unlikely, Leo Bergere (3,493pts) is best placed to overhaul both [Yee and Wilde] and claim a shock success. For that scenario to happen, the Frenchman would have to win his first WTCS race and see Yee finish fourth or lower, and Wilde sixth or lower.”

And so it transpired – Bergere took his first win, Yee finished fourth and Wilde sixth, leaving the Kiwi third overall in the standings. Sport can be cruel.

May 2023: Wins his first WTCS of 2023

After a mechanical sees him finish 46th in the first round in Abu Dhabi, in March, Wilde has a better run of luck in the second round in Yokohama. Coming down to a run race, he blasts the best of the rest to take gold.

July 2023: Finally beats Yee at the line

Wilde puts his Super League Series prowess on fine display in the Hamburg WTCS when he reigns victorious over the new-for-Hamburg eliminator format. More importantly, he finally beats Alex Yee in a race where they both finish (Yee crashed out in Leeds 2022); Yee takes bronze.

September 2023: Finishes second in the world

After a run of ‘disappointing-for-him’ results (3rd in Sunderland; DNF at the Paris Test Event – after crashing en route to the course pre-race; and a 10th at the Grand Final – a shocking swim left him chasing all day), Wilde’s still done enough to take the runner-up spot in the overall series behind surprise champion Dorian Conninx.

A week later he wins the third round of the Super League Series in Malibu, USA.

October 2023: Second in Saudi, second in the SLT Series

Takes silver in the final round of the Super League Series and second place overall for 2023.

November 2023: Wins his first Noosa title

Wilde becomes the first international male athlete to win the Noosa Triathlon since Joe Malloy (USA) in 2015. He also sets a new course record with his winning time of 1:41:56. Matt Hauser finishes second and Henri Schoeman in third.

November 2023: Wins his first 70.3 in Melbourne

Wilde dominates from start to finish to win by almost eight minutes, securing his 2024 70.3 World Champs’ place – which will be held in his birth town of Taupo, New Zealand – in the process.

May 2024: Silver in Yee’s shadow

That pesky Brit outsprints Wilde once again (just 2secs separates them at the line), this time at the WTCS Cagliari race. It’s their one and only battle before the big one in Paris at the end of July, but the pair finish a whopping 43secs ahead of third-place finisher Csongor Lehmann.

July 2024: Settles for silver in Paris as Yee once again betters him

Reporters worldwide scramble to change their pre-written headlines on 31 July as Wilde’s seemingly unsurmountable 18sec lead over Yee at the Paris Olympic Games is evaporated in mere seconds in the closing stages of the 10k.

Wilde creates the photo of the Games, however, when he joins Yee on the floor and puts his arm around him.

October 2024: An epic finale

Has one of the best races of his career – “ticked all the boxes I wanted to achieve in a race” – in Torremolinos to take the win and finish third overall in the series.

November 2024: Reclaims the supertri title

After a 2nd in Boston, wins in Chicago and London and a third in Toulouse, it was Wilde’s supertri series to lose in NEOM. And a second place to Yee at the final round in the desert is more than enough to take back the title he lost in 2023.

Two weeks later he wins the Laguna Phuket Triathlon as part of his prep for his first 70.3 Worlds, in Taupo (he finished third on the course in 2019).

December 2024: An agonising silver at the Taupe 70.3 Worlds

Looked like a convincing champion-elect for the first two-thirds of the run, but barely had the energy to acknowledge the crowd’s cheers as he crossed the line in second place behind Jelle Geens.

Wilde had predicted before the race that he was in 1:05 half-marathon shape, but later admitting to misjudging the early pace, he ultimately faded badly towards the end and ran a 1:09:05.

Hayden Wilde quotes

On his World Triathlon Series debut: “I knew the household names, but going to my first World Series was like, ‘Woah, these are the guys you watch on the TV…’”

On winning Olympic bronze in Tokyo: “It’s pretty unreal. That was definitely for my family – and my dad as well. He passed away 12 years ago and never got to see me race.”

On his XTERRA world title win in a recalibrated race that becomes a duathlon: “It’s awesome to come here and win it, but I still have unfinished business because I want to race here when it’s a triathlon. That gives me extra incentive to come back.”

On his first WTCS win in Leeds: “One side was absolutely pumped to have won my first world series event the other was gutted for my friends and competitors. As I’ve said I’m truly sorry for being a part of the high-speed crash with @lixsanyee@dylanmccullough_ and @jonnybrownleetri I wish you all a very speedy recovery.”

On taking silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games: “It is what it is and I’m super happy I did everything I could have done in the race. I’m proud of what I did, I didn’t leave anything to chance and yeah, it was a ripper!”

On losing out on his first world title in the 2022 Grand Final in Abu Dhabi: “Yep, that one definitely hurt the soul but it’s made me so much hungrier for next year!!”

On losing the 2024 70.3 world title in New Zealand: “I put a big ambition out there and was naive, but I did the training and felt like I rode appropriately. I know these roads like the back of my hand, and I got a gap and felt confident. It’s really hard to slow yourself down in that first 10km and I just couldn’t do it, I was too excited and I went out probably too hard.”

What’s next for Hayden Wilde?

He’s already said he’s taking a year out of short-course racing to try his hand over 70.3. And then expect (hope) to see Wilde in LA 2024 to try and complete his medal set.