Tichelaar follows his heart to Olympics

Tichelaar follows his heart to Olympics
Beaumont native combines 'average' swimming, cycling and running abilities to become triathlon medal threat

The Edmonton Journal
Published: 7:11 am

VICTORIA - The story of Paul Tichelaar's Olympic journey begins with a teenage crush on a girl down the street in Beaumont.

Some may call it unrequited love.

"Her dad was big into cycling, so I decided to give it a try," the Beijing-bound triathlete said recently over coffee at a quaint café in downtown Victoria. "I wanted to impress her."

"I never got the girl. We went out for about three weeks. But nope. Didn't work out."

So Tichelaar rode off into the sunset and pedalled away his disappointment over dusty back roads between Leduc and Beaumont and through Edmonton's lush river valley.

Somewhere along the trail, he heard about a triathlon in nearby St. Albert.

Tichelaar was a decent runner, but not about to break any records. The same applied to swimming and cycling -- better than mediocre, but decidedly short of dazzling.

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