How the 'world champion persona' didn't come overnight for Matt Hauser

Matt Hauser building for success at LA Olympic Games in ever-changing sport of triathlon In short: Australia's world champion triathlete Matt Hauser says it feels 'quite surreal' to be the best triathlete in the world. Hauser says he has been honing his craft with an eye to win an elusive men's Olympic medal for Australia in LA. What's next? Hauser is set to compete in the World Triathlon Championship Series in Weihai, China on August 29. Matt Hauser has delivered Australia back to the top of world triathlon. His sensational victory on home soil at Wollongong ended a 15-year title drought for Australia. But he knows that the race that matters is not for another two years, when he takes to the start line in Los Angeles at the 2028 Olympic Games. Heading into the next leg of the World Triathlon Championship Series in Weihai on August 29, Hauser sits in third place in the standings. Only Brazil's Miguel Hidalgo and Portugal's Vasco Vilaça are ahead of him, having completed four races to the Australian's three. But Hauser has won each of those three events, recording race victories in Yokohama, Hamburg and London. His current success makes him the number one target for the entire field, something that still takes some getting used to. "It's a bit of a pinch me moment, honestly," Hauser told ABC Sport at the AusTriathlon Performance Hub at Miami on Queensland's Gold Coast. "It just feels quite surreal to now be at the top of my game and I keep kind of pinching myself, knowing that this won't last forever, so I really need to take a step back and realise that I'm one of the best, if not the best in the world at the moment in my sport, and I need to try and capitalise on that and make sure the opportunities that I have I made the most of." Hauser's climb to the top of the world is far from an overnight success story though — the ascendancy to the summit in sport's as gruelling as triathlon are rarely straightforward. "It doesn't feel like a big sudden jump though, to be honest," Hauser says. "It feels like a lot of smaller goals and processes have added up to accumulate to this world champion persona, I guess. "For me to be in this position now is just a credit to the support I've had around me, to Dan Atkins, who I've been coached under for 10 years now. "The relationship that we've kind of developed and the systems we've put in place to create daily performance environments right here on the Gold Coast has been super important." Hauser has taken charge of the triathlon scene in the time immediately after the Paris Olympics. And it's been of huge inspiration to the next crop of Australia's triathlon talent that is coming through. "Looking back at Australia's history in triathlon, it's so rich, and now we're definitely stepping up our game," 19-year-old rising star Aspen Anderson told ABC Sport. "Matt's definitely led the way in that aspect. And I think it's really cool to see him paving the way for some of us. "It's really exciting. You can kind of look at them and say, well, yeah, if they can do it, then I can do it too." While gold medallist Alex Yee has been off running marathons (Yee set the second fastest time ever by a British man after Mo Farah with a 2:06:38) and silver medallist Hayden Wilde has dabbled in longer-distance triathlons as part of the T100 series, Hauser has been honing his race craft on the world series. On the women's side, Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand has shown her running prowess by setting French records in the 3,000m and 5,000m on the track and in a 10km road race, also competing at athletics' highest level, the Diamond League. "It's very inspiring to see those guys go off and do what they do outside of the sport," Hauser said. "Ultimately, it props the sport up to a new level as well, getting that recognition that we are world-class athletes in most of the three disciplines. "For me, I guess it's just about making sure that I'm perfecting my skills in triathlon. I think the sport has grown and developed so much even in the past two years since those guys have gone off and done other things … the sport has always changed and is developing." Balancing three very different sports is a challenge that triathletes have to juggle with every year. Go too hard on the upper-body dominant swimming training and the extra weight will hurt on the bike and run legs. Become too strong on the run and swim speed can be sacrificed — the old adage that you can't win the race in the swim but you can definitely lose it is drummed into triathletes from the first moment they pull on a pair of goggles. Finding the right balance is tough, but it is crucial to how Hauser has developed his craft as an elite triathlete. For a while, it felt like triathlon was developing into a sport for runners, where races would largely be contested as a pack through the swim and bike before the runners blew the legs off the rest to claim victory. That has, however, been changing somewhat in recent years, with Hauser taking the charge right from the gun, powering into a lead through the swim and bike to erase the advantages of the runners in the back end of the race. It's not dissimilar to how British two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee and his three-time Olympic medallist brother Jonathan would race at their peak. "The dynamics change from year to year," Hauser explained. "The Brownlees coined their swim-bike breakaways and were able to produce amazing runs off the back of that and split the race apart from the start. "Then you had the likes of [three time World Series champion Spaniard] Mario Mola and [Australia's Tokyo Olympian] Jake Burtwistle and those stronger runners coming from behind and those packs really being quite large and condensed. "Now we're kind of seeing the front pack and the breakaways kind of come to fruition again, so I think it all comes and goes in waves. "The way the races have kind of panned out the last couple of years … for me to drive at the front pack and maybe limit the strengths of those stronger runners and the pack behind has been really crucial to me succeeding. "There's a lot of momentum now and there's a lot of belief that you don't have to be like one of the best runners to win a race now." Hauser will be hoping that his brand of racing will take him to success in LA. Australia has only ever won a single gold in triathlon at the Olympics, when Emma Snowsill triumphed in Beijing. Michellie Jones, Loretta Harrop, Emma Moffatt and Erin Densham have all won medals for Australia at the Games. However, no Australian man has ever stood on the podium at the Olympics. "I think the Olympics is always in the back of my mind," Hauser said. "When I'm executing at world championship races, other races, training day to day, I think it's always in the back of my mind and I know that the process for me to be at a peak in two years time is gaining experience in these few years leading up. "Only a few years ago I was able to perform but not consistently enough to call myself a front runner. "So now, to be at the stage where I'm performing consistently, I'm at the top end of races. "I need to make that normal in my own mind and so when it comes to two years time and executing in LA, I just have to execute what I've been doing the last few years. "So definitely it is in the back of my mind always, trying to peak for one race every four years. "But I know the process along the way is just as important, to make sure I've got enough notches in the belt to when that day comes, I can execute on the day, whether it be an excellent performance or an average performance, I know that I'm still going to perform in a high quality." The World Triathlon Championship Series is set to take place in Weihai, China, on August 29, with the series final in Pontevedra, Spain, on September 23. [Image text:] HA WA RG ZUKI SUZU EV SROD HA'SER NT SUZU