Top Kiwi triathlete retires: prompted by the postponement of the Olympic Games

The postponement of the Olympic Games has prompted one of the New Zealand’s premier triathletes to retire.

With no guarantees the Tokyo Games will go ahead in 2021, Ryan Sissons has decided to hang up his shoes and end his pursuit for a maiden Olympic medal.

Sissons who had ambitions to retire after Tokyo 2020 said “…with the date pushed out another year, it really gave me a chance to figure out if it was something I could be committed to doing for another year. 

I understand and I know what it takes to be your very best in this sport and I know the commitment and the dedication and sacrifice that’s required to get what I wanted to get out of Tokyo.

I was going there for a result rather than an experience, it wasn’t in me anymore and it became pretty clear that if I wanted to do it I needed to do it properly, because I wanted to go there for a result, it was all about that, and there comes a time where you just have to move on, and now is the right time for me, I’m happy with that.”

This was not the way the 32-year old Sisson’s imagined his decade long triathlon career would end. Having competed in two Commonwealth and two Olympic Games and with two ITU World Cup wins and a Commonwealth Game bronze medal under his belt the only thing that eluded him was standing on top of an Olympic dais.

Sissons stated, “I would have loved to have won a gold medal, everyone wants to win a gold medal, but if medals were given out for experiences, then I’ve won gold. But it’s been a really awesome time obviously, its an experience I’ll never forget and never regret but yeah, this year has just given me time to process what I wanted to do outside of sport in the future.”

There are  plenty of achievements for Sissons to look back fondly at when he reflects on his more than decade long triathlon journey. Although Sissons retirement is a decision made on his own terms not because he was forced he is not completely stepping away from sport altogether as he stated ” I want to run a marathon…I want to do an Ironman” .  

I suspect this is not the last we have heard of Ryan Sissons as he makes his move onto the multi-sport circuit.