Hayden Wilde (born 1 September 1997) is a New Zealand professional triathlete. He was the silver medalist at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and the bronze medallist at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the silver medalist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the winner of the 2021 XTERRA World Championships.[2][3] He finished second in the 2021 Super League Triathlon Championship Series, having taken the win at the SLT London race.[4][5] Wilde won the 2022 Super League Triathlon Championship Series, having been victorious in 3 of the 5 series races.[6]
Wilde has been coached by Craig Kirkwood since 2016 after he beat Kirkwood in a local half marathon[11] and currently trains in Tauranga, New Zealand.[12] Wilde only took up triathlon after watching the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.[13]
Wilde comes from a long-distance off-road background and has previously been the ITU Cross Tri U23 World Champion.[12]
Career Highlights include:
3rd place at the 2019 Tokyo ITU World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Event[14]
4th place at the 2019 ITU World Triathlon Edmonton[15]
6th place at the 2019 Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon[16]
10th place at the 2019 Daman World Triathlon Abu Dhabi[17]
1st place at the 2019 Devonport OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Championships[12]
Wilde won the Arena Games Triathlon 2022 Series finale, held at Marina Bay, Singapore. It was his debut racing at Arena Games Triathlon format.[23] This result was also good enough to see Wilde finish fifth in the inaugural Esport Triathlon World Championship.
He won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[24] This was, however, met with controversy when he was penalized for not racking his bike correctly, costing him a ten-second penalty, ultimately losing out on the gold to England's Alex Yee.[25] Despite this, Wilde's sportsmanship was praised by the press and on social media.[26]
Wilde made a strong start to the 2022 Super League Triathlon (SLT) season. He defended his SLT London title, with his second win in the British capital in as many years,[27] and then finished third in SLT Munich the following week.[28] Wilde followed up his early season success with further victories at SLT Malibu[29] and SLT Toulouse,[30] Super League's first event to be held in France.[31] Wilde finished third at the 2022 SLT series finale in NEOM, this was enough for him to secure the overall series victory.[32]
