Olympic triathlon star Hayden Wilde has confirmed he’s set to race in the T100 London this weekend, three months after a horror crash saw him break a shoulder blade, six ribs and suffer a punctured lung.
The 27-year-old has admitted to Breakfast that he was fortunate to avoid a career-threatening scenario.
“When I was stuck in Japan, there were some scary moments where I knew if I didn’t get operated on in 10 days, it could potentially have been a career-threatening injury, just due to where the fracture was within the scapula and rotator cuff,” he said.
“If the healing process would’ve begun, I essentially wouldn’t have been able to lift my arm above 90 degrees. I was able to get onto a medical emergency flight and had the Tri NZ team doctor fly over and help with all of that.”
He’s now at the point where his left shoulder is “probably better” than before.
“I don’t know if it’s sadistic to say, but it was my first ever big injury, right?
“It was kind of weird, but oddly satisfying to wake up every day and have a new target in mind. We’re professional athletes, and we always look for those one percenters. It’s so hard to find when you’re at the top of the game.
“To see that every day was kind of a cool experience.”
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He lines up in London confident of being fully competitive.
“My numbers on the bike are probably better than they were before the crash.
“My running is nearly where it was before the crash as well, I was super fortunate I didn’t have lower limb damage so I could kind of get back into it relatively quickly.”
While his swimming form has taken longer to regain, Wilde dismisses any suggestion that there could be some lingering psychological scars from his bike accident.
“I’ve actually been pretty good, especially being in Andorra, we’re in the Pyrenees, so the mountains are relatively steep, so you’ve kind of just got to send it a little bit and take the demons in the back of the mind and just go for it.
“I’ve never had too much of an issue with putting the fear in the back of the head and giving it a good punch down a hill. I’d never got that PTSD going past a rubbish truck or a big truck, feel like I’m relatively secure at the moment.”
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