Max Neumann: Background, career highlights, quotes

Max Neumann’s early career might have been slow-burning, but the Australian is currently enjoying a blaze of long-course glory. Let’s meet him…

Who is Max Neumann?

Unlike plenty of his contemporaries, Max Neumann wasn’t a stellar performer through triathlon’s age ranks. As someone who spread himself across a range of sports in his teens, there was no avalanche of medals at junior and U23 level – just the odd top-10 finish in events across Asia and Oceania.

After several seasons as an unremarkable Olympic-distance triathlete, Brisbane-born and raised Max Neumann has become spectacularly successful since he diverted his career towards Ironman 70.3 racing in 2018 at the age of 22.

At first, he kept his hand in at shorter distances too; he was Australia’s national champion at both sprint and Olympic distance in 2019. But it was a string of victories at both Ironman 70.3 and in the Challenge series of races that truly defined him.

Before long, he was tempted to go full Ironman, despite his comparatively tender age for long-course racing. And success was instant, notching up the first of three Ironman Cairns titles on his full-distance debut.

The two most notable performances of Neumann’s career have come in the last 12 months. In October last year, his first taste of Kona resulted in an impressive fourth place.

Little more than six months later, the Australian raised plenty of eyebrows when he saw off a star-studded field to become the first-ever winner of the PTO European Open.

His medal haul continues to grow and grow, but there’s undeniably plenty still to come from the boy from Brisbane.

How old is Max Neumann?

Max Neumann was born on 30 May 1995, making him 28 years old.

Max Neumann’s career highlights

November 2016: World champs silver medallist

After an unremarkable triathlon life to this point, Neumann draws on his cross-country heritage when he takes silver at the ITU Cross World Championships in Australia’s Snowy Mountains.

Boasting the fastest swim and run splits, it was only the bike leg (traditionally his weakest discipline) that denied Neumann gold. At the age of 21, the first podium of his career is a world championships podium.

April 2018: Neumann goes long

After another non-descript season, largely spent racing in Oceania Cup and World Cup events, Neumann decides to reboot his career by entering half-distance races. The rewards are instant; his first such competition yields a bronze at Challenge Melbourne.

July 2018: The medals start to flow

After finishing fifth in his first Ironman 70.3 race in Elsinore in Denmark, Neumann scores further success with a bronze at Ironman 70.3 Sweden. Before the season ends, he also picks up silvers at both the Noosa Triathlon and Challenge Taiwan Half.

March 2019: Double national champion

2019 will truly prove to be Neumann’s breakthrough year. In March, in Mooloolaba in his native Queensland, he’s crowned national champion. The following month, he repeats the trick on the Gold Coast, this time taking the national sprint title.

September 2019: Another golden month

Despite further success at shorter distances (silvers in both an Oceania Cup sprint race on the Gold Coast and a European Cup event at Holten in the Netherlands), by the autumn of 2019 it’s clear that half-distance races are Neumann’s forte.

This is borne out when he takes gold at both Gérardmer XL in France and Ironman 70.3 Xi’an in China. Another title, this time at Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney, arrives in November.

September 2020: A glorious long-distance debut

Neumann’s momentum is curtailed by the race calendar-decimating effects of the pandemic, but when racing resumes, so does his form. He earns a silver at Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast before, a fortnight later, impressively winning at Ironman Cairns on his full-distance debut.

June 2021: Retention of Cairns crown

Having warmed up nicely earlier in the spring with victory at the half-distance Challenge Shepparton in the Australian state of Victoria, Neumann returns to Queensland to successfully defend his Ironman Cairns title, shaving almost 10 minutes of his winning time from 2020.

June 2022: Neumann’s Cairns hat-trick

Despite failing to finish at the rescheduled 2021 Ironman world champs in St George, Utah the previous month, Neumann gets back to winning ways with his third successive Ironman Cairns triumph, further reducing his winning time by another four minutes.

October 2022: Just outside the medals on Kona debut

After topping up his form with victory at Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast, Neumann heads to Hawaii for his first taste of a Kona Ironman world champs. He fares much better than he did earlier in the year in Utah, finishing fourth behind Gustav Iden, Sam Laidlow and Kristian Blummenfelt.

December 2022: More gold out west

Neumann caps an impressive season with a dominant winning performance at Ironman Western Australia in his first appearance at the event.

May 2023: Neumann’s greatest career win

It’s a bountiful spring for Neumann. After winning the Hell of the West race on his Queensland home turf, he makes a rare appearance in Europe at another half-distance event. On the island of Ibiza, at the first-ever PTO European Open, Neumann surprises everyone when he records the most impressive victory of his career to date.

His scalps include former Olympic champions Jan Frodeno and Alistair Brownlee, while he also survives having another golden Olympian, the formidable Blummenfelt, closing in on him towards the end of the run.

Max Neumann in quotes

On beating the likes of Frodeno, Brownlee and Blummenfelt at the inaugural PTO European Open earlier this year: “You don’t get many chances to race these guys. It’s just a privilege to go up against Jan, Ali and Kristian. They made the sport for us guys. It’s quite emotional.”

On his stripped-down approach to the sport: “No bull**** science. Just a power meter and bloody hard work – and being smart. None of the crap. Just the basics.”

• Max Neumann’s candid post-race interview pulled no punches

On the motto underpinning his career: “Pain is temporary, but quitting lasts forever.”

What’s next for Max Neumann?

At 28, Neumann is one of the younger diners at the top table of long-distance racing, allowing him to forge plenty of ambitions for the coming years.

Further success at future PTO events will definitely be on the agenda, but surely the most significant item on that to-do list will be to become Ironman world champion. After his impressive fourth on his Kona debut last year, do not bet against it.

Top image credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images