Findlay Ready To Race Again

Olympic medalist favorite Paula Findlay will kick off her season in Mooloolaba at the end of the month.

Paula Findlay says she’s “looking forward to hurting again,” by which she means the sort of temporary suffering any elite athlete experiences in high-performance competition.

She wants nothing to do with the physical pain and emotional anguish she endured on the triathlon circuit in 2011, when a hip injury derailed a season that began with her winning three straight World Triathlon Series races in Sydney, Madrid and Kitzbuehel.

The Edmonton native, who lives and trains in Victoria, B.C., will compete in a five-kilometre race on Sunday in Sydney, B.C., against the likes of elite Canadian distance runners Malindi Elmore and Hillary Stellingwerf, just to get the competitive juices flowing.

She leaves next Thursday for Australia, to fine-tune her training for a triathlon World Cup race in Mooloolaba on March 25, and the first World Triathlon Series race of the season in Sydney on April 14.

The Mooloolaba race will include most of the top elite women in the world, some of whom will be trying to gain points to qualify for the Summer Olympics.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Findlay said Mooloolaba will be about “just getting cobwebs out and getting into racing. It’s not a key race for me.

“I’m really looking forward to just hurting again and feeling what it’s like to race, because it has been since last August since I last finished a race.”

Read more: Canada.com