. Simon Says Silver

Canadian hopeful Simon Whitfield finished second in a thrilling final push in the men's triathlon Tuesday.  Eight years removed from his gold medal performance in Sydney Whitfield showed tremendous poise and endurance in a silver medal performance.  The man who set the bar for Triathlon, becoming the first ever Olympic champion in Triathlon in 2000 showed that you only get better with age. 
With the hopes of a podium finish resting on his shoulders it looked in the late stages as if Whitfield would come up short of Triathlon Canada's goal of getting him on the podium.  Into the last home stretch with not more than a few hundred metres to go he stood in fourth place seemingly out of gas and out of a podium finish?  But once again as he's done throughout his career he found a sudden burst of energy out of nowhere and powered momentarily into first before being overtaken by German Jan Frodeno with 30 metres to go for gold. His incredible performance at age 33 proved the saying that the last thing to age on somebody is they're heart. 
For Whitfield just getting back to the Olympic podium was a feat in itself, "To be able to fight my way back to the podium, that was hard, that was so hard - this was a harder race than Sydney was," Whitfield said.  After a disapointing Olympics in Athens finishing 11th there was some sweet vindication to be able to fight his way back on the podium at age 33. 

A big credit to this silver medal can go to the incredible Triathlon team that Canada put together at these Olympics.  Colin Jenkins who was chosen to the team as Whitfield's domestique was invaluable to Simon on the swim and bike portions of the race, "Our communication was spectacular," Whitfield said. "There's a Tragically Hip song `Courage,' and we had the courage to put it out there that this is what we wanted to do and Triathlon Canada had the courage to support that."  The other man who deserves huge credit is Whitfield's teamate Paul Tichelaar, who had an incredible season and pushed Whitfield all year to elevate his game.  They're friendly competition was no doubt a huge motivator and a huge factor in the incredibly determined performance Whitfield put in on race day in Beijing. 
So Triathlon Canada goes home happy knowing they acomplished they're goal and knowing they're will now be more funding for the Triathlon program in Canada.  Canada has alot to be proud of with these three Triathletes who all put in the performance of a lifetime.