Vasco Vilaca

When the family moved to Sweden in 2013 due to the economic crisis in his home nation, Vilaca took the opportunity to step up his career and soon made the bold decision to move by himself, aged just 15, to Motala to study and train.

It was his link up here with coach Joachim Willen, the Swede who himself raced at the Olympics in triathlon, that has helped propel him from junior success to elite level stardom. The pair got off to a slightly uneasy start, with Joachim keen to ensure that Vasco worked harder to make the most of his talent. It soon paid off as results flooded in. Despite the swim being his weaker discipline, rapid progress in the water helped quickly move him through the ranks.

Vasco got a first chance to race the big guns of the sport at Super League Triathlon Malta in 2019, where he proved his class by finishing eighth in an impressive field.

In 2020 he raced the SLT Arena Games in Rotterdam and came second and used that result as a confidence booster to then place second in the ITU World Championship race in Hamburg. He was also runner-up in the Karlov Vary World Cup in only his third ever Olympic distance race.

Vera, Vasco’s sister, is also a triathlete, and alongside his training, he has been studying Computer Science Engineering at Linkoping University.