Gustav Iden: I Am Not Motivated By The Online Haters

Gustav Iden insists he is not motivated by the online ‘haters’ who say he should stick to long distance triathlon.

The Norwegian superstar has secured two Ironman 70.3 world titles and an Ironman World Championship crown in a prolific yet young career.

Despite entering the sport via short course racing, he has enjoyed much less cruces and yet is opting to step back from the long stuff in a bid for glory at Paris Olympics next year.

Speaking to the Short Chute Show: Face-To-Face Podcast for Super League Triathlon, Iden admitted to reading online comments, but claimed most of them are ‘stupid’ and that he is not motivated by a desire to prove people wrong.

He said: “If I wanted an easy way out, I could just keep on doing Ironman and win every single world championship for the next 15 years. That’s a bit exaggerated, but I do enjoy the struggle to a certain degree.

“I haven’t won every single short course race I’ve ever done, but I feel like I have something that I haven’t shown yet and I really wanted to show it for myself. And I’m not like a guy who wants to prove the haters wrong, but I do of course read the forums and the comments that say like, ‘you should just take the long course racing’.

“But that’s not what I want to do. I want to prove to myself what I can do. So it’s more like an ego thing.

“I realise most people don’t understand anything. Most people online, they’re so stupid. They don’t understand triathlon, really. They might understand bits, but top performance triathlon is so different than just finishing an Ironman. And they don’t understand also the level of short course racing. The amount of talent and hard training it requires now to win the World Series or Olympic games is insane.

“SoI don’t pay too much attention to the comments. I just have to realise that they have a normal life and a normal job, and they cannot dedicate their life to triathlon as I do. So of course they don’t understand the sport at the same level as I do either.”