🇧🇷 Dylan McCullough feared his triathlon career might be done as he struggled to battle back from serious spine and associated Achilles injuries in the 18 months post his selfless heroics at the Paris Olympic Games in mid 2024.
Thankfully that unthinkable possibility now looks to have been left firmly in the rear view mirror with the 25-year-old Aucklander celebrating silver at World Triathlon Cup Rio de Janeiro overnight after Kiwi team-mate Ainsley Thorpe had run to a creditable 8th in the women’s race.
It was McCullough’s first World Cup podium since his breakthrough victory at World Triathlon’s second tier in Tongyeong in late October 2024, that win ample delayed reward for his country-before-self effort to drag team-mate Hayden Wilde into gold medal contention in Paris while abandoning his own individual ambitions.
But the year and a half post South Korea proved a serious test of McCullough’s internal resolve as he suffered setback after setback in his bid to return to triathlon’s short course promised land. The comeback was initially under the guidance of Greg Fraine but since June, McCullough has returned to the tutorship of long-time coach John Hellemans who didn’t need much arm-twisting to come out of retirement.
The results since have been mightily impressive: back-to-back Asia Triathlon Cup wins in Lianyungang and Osaka, 23rd with a nearly-but-not-quite caveat at last weekend’s World Cup Edmonton and now 2nd at Rio.
McCullough finished just a second behind Braxton Legg (50:56) on the pancake flat Rio 2016 Olympic Games course at Copacabana Beach, the American using his breakout 21st place at WTCS London the previous weekend as confidence-boosting fuel for his maiden World Cup win. Dutchman Mitch Kolkman (51:04) had broken away with Legg on the run but was powerless to stop the second coming of McCullough who ramped up the pace on the second half of the 5km to pip Kolkman for the silver medal.
“Yeah, it feels amazing. I’m back in one piece, finally,” McCullough told Triathlonlive.tv afterwards.
“Last year was a really tough year, and you know, I wasn’t even sure I’d come back to the sport. I think it’s been almost two years since my last World Cup win, and to have a really close second today was super special.
“I just want to say a big thank you to my family and friends, and coach John Hellemans. He retired after Paris, but he’s come back to coaching me recently. And yeah, we’re all a great team, and I’ve got such a big support team behind me, so I’m really grateful for all of them.”
McCullough led out of the water and was a beast on the bike as Legg admitted in his winner’s interview.
“Huge thanks to Dylan McCullough. He was hammering the bike the whole time and killing us all but it was perfect,” Legg said.
McCullough admitted Edmonton had played a role in his Rio success, built on 46.7km/h pace on the bike.
“It was a frustrating race in Edmonton last week. Like, we tried to get a break going, but it was a shame we just couldn’t quite get it working. But today it was 50-50 on whether the course would be a breakaway day, and I just— I swam really hard, pushed it, just got on the bike, and prayed that we had a group of us, a breakaway, and we did. And everyone worked really well together.
“And then I just went out quite conservatively on the run, paced it, and, yeah, worked my way into it and then found my legs maybe halfway through, and just backed myself for a strong sprint. And yeah, close for second. Hopefully we get back to the top one day, but I’m just really, really happy to be back on the podium again.”
The result has seen McCullough soar 76 places up to 60th in the official World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Rankings. He’s now the top Kiwi male ahead of Saxon Morgan (80th), Tayler Reid (84th), Hayden Wilde (132nd) and Henry McMecking (146th). Team NZL can be represented by up to three males and three females in the individual races at LA28 but all three would need to be ranked inside the top 30, and met NZOC selection criteria, for that to become reality.
Thorpe has jumped 46 places to 66th in the women’s Olympic rankings after her gritty performance in Rio, her 8th a high water mark after her injury struggles, an old stress reaction in a leg that flared up after the Oceania Sprint Championships in Napier on March 1.
She’s now the 4th ranked Kiwi in the Olympic rankings behind Nicole van der Kaay (44th), Eva Goodisson (59th) and Brea Roderick (63rd) with Phoebe Carter (163rd) fifth in the Team NZL pecking order.
World Triathlon Cup Rio de Janeiro – Select Results
MEN
🥇 Braxton Legg (USA) – 50:56
🥈 Dylan McCullough (NZL) – 50:57 (+0:01)
🥉 Mitch Kolkman (NED) 51:04 (+0:08)
WOMEN
🥇 Zuzana Michalickova (SVK) – 58:13
🥈 Kelly Wetteland (USA) – 58:14 (+0:01)
🥉 Beatrice Mallozzi (ITA) – 58:16 (+0:03)
Also NZL
8. Ainsley Thorpe (NZL) 00:58:43 (+0:30)
