Paris triathlon: Was Sam Dickinson right to DNF in the Olympics?

When Pierre de Coubertin suggested Citius, Altius, Fortius as the motto for the modern Olympic Games, he didn’t include the Latin for deliberately DNFing.

It’s unlikely that the French co-founder of the International Olympic Committee would have taken too kindly to Great Britain’s Sam Dickinson stepping off the triathlon course at midday on Monday at the start of the final 10km.

But then, like it or not, sport has come a long way since the turn of the last century, and while completing the event while giving maximum effort is enough for many here in Paris, the athletes and teams in the medal hunt aren’t in any mood to take chances.

Dickinson’s core role isn’t in the individual race, but he did have a job to do. As a pilot athlete for Alex Yee, he helped provide safe passage through the bike leg so Yee could arrive at the final transition as fresh as possible and in the best possible position to run for gold. It worked a treat. Just.

“He had us on the edge of our seats,” Dickinson said afterwards. In his case that seat on the turbo trainer as he started his recovery routine before the men’s race had even finished.

Dickinson’s role mirrored that of Stuart Hayes in London 2012, when Hayes was handpicked to play the then-called domestique role for the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonny.

There were similarities in how the race played out too, with both support athletes initially sitting up in the chasing pack with their respective team-mates in the break before working at the front to keep the pace high when the bike packs came back together.

Where it differed was that Hayes completed all four laps of the run in Hyde Park lapping up the adulation of the crowd, whereas Dickinson – after a few waves to the crowd – stepped off the course at the first corner on team orders.

But should he have done it? The 27-year-old admitted afterwards it was the toughest thing he’d had to do in sport, but had known it would be the case for weeks once he received the nod over Jonny Brownlee in a close-run selection decision.

The difference 12 years on from Hayes’ appearance, is there is a mixed team relay to follow on Monday for which Dickinson – with only two men on the squad – lines up alongside Yee.

Is that enough of a reason? It’s a compelling argument that an elite triathlete should have little trouble completing a 10km run to honour the event, and also it’s the thin end of the wedge if triathletes stop giving best effort in any part of the three disciplines.

There were already fears from organizers that with uncertainty over the water quality and realising individual medal chances were remote, countries might pull athletes from the start – saving all their matches for the mixed relay. Thankfully, and commendably to all nations involved, every bike was racked by the start of the race and every athlete on the pontoon.

But the other angle is that Dickinson was not just taking a professional option, but a sensible one. Triathlon is already an unpredictable beast and in a competition plagued with as much uncertainty as the Paris event, he wanted to mitigate any risk at all.

Until this year, one of his biggest challenges has been staying clear of injury, and why take the chance of going over on the cobbles? The run course was already adapted to reduce a section on pavé, as the French call it. 

Furthermore, he knows that he is under scrutiny as the potentially weakest link of the defending gold medal winners, and even just a tiny percentage gained by not continuing in the blazing midday sun on Wednesday might help his and the team cause come Monday morning.

Many triathlon fans still won’t like the DNF, claiming it goes against the ethos of the sport as an individual pursuit. Their point is valid, but the high stakes arena has changed – and not just at the Olympics.

Even on Saturday, Lucy Charles-Barclay, whose own motto has long been ‘death before DNF’ took the decision to stop in the London T100 race in front of a home crowd to avoid further damage to her calf. It was her first DNF in 10 years of racing as a professional, and she lamented how difficult the decision was.

But Charles-Barclay undoubtedly made the right call, and with all the mitigating factors, Dickinson did too. As he put so eloquently post-race: “Today wasn’t about me, it was about helping one of my best mates achieve his dream.” So it proved. Ultimately, Yee’s surge to gold will be what this race is remembered for. With single-minded focus, the other three Brits, including Dickinson, will be hoping they’re joining him on the top step on Monday.