2012 Olympic silver medalist Thiago Pereira has ventured out into the world of triathlon, competing in an Olympic distance race in his native country of Brazil. The 32-year-old announced his retirement from swimming just over a year ago.
Pereira competed in the Brazil Trophy in Santos on April 8th, placing 41st overall and 10th in the 30-34 age group in a time of 2:48:06. An Olympic distance triathlon consists of a 1500m swim, 40K bike and 10K run. His split times, including transitions, were 24:41 for the swim, 1:40:46 for the bike, and 42:39 on the run. As expected, he was first out of the water.
Per Globo.com, Pereira eventually plans to race an Ironman. He will continue his journey there on April 22, as he’ll race an Ironman 70.3 (half Ironman) in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
Pereira won the 2012 Olympic silver medal in the 400 IM, and also placed 4th in the 200 IM that year. Additionally, he was 4th in the 200 IM and 8th in the 400 IM in Beijing, and 5th in the 200 in Athens. In 2016, competing in his home Olympics, he was 7th in the 200. He also has three LC World Championship medals, and a staggering 15 gold, 23 total medals from the Pan American Games.
No way those times are accurate. Maybe the distances weren’t accurate either? Something doesn’t seem right for a swimmer of his caliber. Anyways, kudos to him for trying something new and out of his comfort zone. Great job!
All these weekend warriors criticizing a guy who won a medal at the freak’n medal at the Olympics for not having some phenomenal time in a different sport. Who knows how much time he really put into training…
140:46 for the bike? Was he riding a mountain bike and have 5 flats? Jeezus.
Can’t a man just do a triathlon without people predicting his career outlooks and conducting a performance analysis? For all we know he’s just doing this to say in shape and have fun.
OMG Thank you!!! I thought I was the only one thinking all these other comments were absurd…
BTW… Great job Thiago on staying active and for being a great ambassador for sports.
Coming from a retired swimmer -> triathlete….24:41 for the swim I can totally see, even for a former elite swimmer 1500m open water is a different animal. Who knows where the “time checkpoints” were in relation to the water and transition area and what the conditions were like. 42:39 on the run is also solid for someone without a running background, not many swimmers could lay down six sub-7 minute miles in a row. 1:40:46 for the bike is awful given his other times though. He wasn’t going much faster than 15mph which is a speed you could see out of a casual weekender using a mountain bike over 40k. Even an extremely hilly course with a road bike should… Read more »
Well below average for an athlete of Pereira’s abilities. That being said it was his first one so I an excited to see what the future holds for him
It all comes down to the run……….Ever see a swammer run a 10k in the low 30’s
There’s this guy named Andy Potts….
Gwen Jorgensen too.
Look at Lucy Charles. Probably the best in women’s Iron Man right now but was originally a GB distance swimmer!
super recreational time , I hope he doesn’t take this serious
Why not? Maybe he really likes it or has a real talent if he were to train hard.