Schoeman fulfils Olympic goal
BOLSTERED by his bronze medal, Henri Schoeman believes he could become a dominant force in the triathlon in years to come.
Although swimming is his métier, Schoeman showed in Thursday’s race around Forte Copacabana he is an all-round triathlete who can hold his own among the best in the world.
“Having a strong swim you will always have that advantage, getting out of the water in the front of the race,” Schoeman said. “You never have to work from the back, working yourself forward, and that is where I can focus on my running and improve that to the best in the world.”
Starting out as a swimmer with Olympic aspirations, Schoeman had to kiss this dream goodbye when he stagnated in the pool and stopped growing.
A talented triathlete, he made the decision to pursue his goal of reaching the Games in the swim, bike, run event instead.
The transition from focusing purely on swimming to running and cycling came with its share of issues as he developed stress fractures in both legs.
“I started transitioning over into triathlon, but when I focused on running I ended up with shin fractures, which put me out of running for a few years,” he said. “I struggled to get going and in 2011 I shattered my collar bone, which was kind of a blessing in disguise.”
Schoeman used this time to strengthen his legs and feet, which has led to marked improvements in his running.
“That is where I am very fortunate. It takes the overall allround athlete to win the race; sometimes you can have a weak swim, then everything comes together and it is the fastest runner that wins,” Schoeman said.
“But we saw on Thursday that a strong swim can definitely set you up for a good race, and a bad race can lose it for you.”
The diminutive triathlete was out of the water in 15th place, only 11 seconds off the pace, joining a breakaway of 10 riders on the bike leg.
He tenaciously stuck to them as he went into the 10km run in sixth place, moving into medal territory over the first lap.
When Schoeman moved into third place after a lap-and-ahalf, he knew he had to hold on for dear life for a medal at his maiden Olympic Games.
He crossed the line in 1:45:43, behind Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee, who became the first Olympian to successfully defend his triathlon title, winning in a time of 1:45:01, with his brother Jonathan finishing behind him in 1:45:07.
“I was the underdog, but now after this I am not the underdog any more. I knew I had a good shot,” he said.
Schoeman had a nightmarish build-up to the Games, developing a chest infection two weeks ago, and suffering high fever only a few days before the start.
As debilitating as it was at the time, Schoeman believes the fever was a blessing in disguise as it kept his mind off the race.
“The Olympics is everything to me and I wanted to be on the start line, just to try and finish, but the final few days leading up to the race was actually very emotional,” he said.
“Some sessions I called off as I was just too sick to train. When that happened I was in tears, and I was very emotional.”
Though the fever had dissipated, it was decided to take chest, ear and sinus scans the day before.
Schoeman was given the all clear to race the next day, which proved he could race without anything weighing him down.
“It was good to see that, so that I didn’t have any doubts in my mind to push myself to the limit. That was a point where I was getting excited again,” he said. “Maybe it hindered my performance a little, maybe I could have had a silver, but for a first Olympics as a youngster in the field, I’ll take the bronze happily.”