On the one year anniversary of The Excellence Verse Podcast Brock Hoel joins the show in celebration and reflection of the past year. Brock Hoel was the the first guest on the podcast and now joins for a second time. During this episode Brock and I talk the highlights from the year of the podcast and some favourite moments. We also discuss Brock’s year and the ups and downs that an athlete has to deal with during a pandemic year with no racing. Brock talks his training practices and philosophies, and we bring back the much enjoyed rapid fire round to end the episode out. Make sure to listen to the end for some extremely exciting news about Brock’s racing plan for this season an Excellence Verse Exclusive.

On this weeks episode of The Excellence Verse Podcast I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with the voice of triathlon Barrie Shepley. Barrie is one of the most influential people in through the history of triathlon in Canada, helping to start Triathlon Canada, Triathlon Ontario, and he commentated on races for the International Triathlon Union for over a decade. Barrie started and the Kids of Steel race series in Canada which first introduced to triathlon and without it I may not be in this position today. Barrie has an incredible host of experiences, knowledge, and stories about triathlon and high-performance sport.

Olympian and host of the Greg Bennett show, Greg Bennett sat down with me for this week’s episode. I’ve been listening to Greg’s podcast for over a year now and have really enjoyed every episode and Greg was actually part of my inspiration for starting this podcast. In the beginning I stole quite a few questions from Greg a copied the flow of his interview style. In addition to being a successful podcast host Greg competed in triathlon at the 2004 Athens Olympic games and finished 4th. Greg’s career spanned over 3 decades as he became an incredibly successful triathlete spending many years ranked number 1 in the world. In this episode we talked podcasting and some of the struggles that go along with producing podcasts, the importance of confidence and self belief, and some mind blowing training stories.https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-greg-bennett-show/id1492933135

This week arguably one of the greatest triathlon coaches of all time joins The Excellence Verse Podcast, Joel Filliol. Joel started coaching in Canada and helped triathlon great Simon Whitfield win a silver medal at the Beijing Olympic games. He then moved on to become head coach of British triathlon and helped Alistair and Jonny Brownlee win gold and bronze at the 2012 Olympic games. Since then Joel has coached athletes to Over 30 World Triathlon Series wins and more than 90 wts podiums, in addition to 6 overall World Triathlon Championships Titles, and has just recently been announced as the head coach of Triathlon Australia. In this episode we talk Joel’s journey, how he has coached athletes to consecutive world championships, his views on athlete development and so much more. I have been fascinated by Joel’s coaching philosophy and success for numerous years and it was such an honour to get to spend nearly two hours with him, so a massive thank you to Joel.

Hungarian triathlete Csonger Lehmann joins the podcast for this weeks episode. He was the 2018 junior world champion and the 2019 u23 world silver medalist. Csonger also won the 2019 Hungarian sprint national championships and has many top 10 world cup finishes.

Kicking off season 2 of The Excellence Verse Podcast Canadian Olympian Tyler Mislawchuk joins the show. I first watched Tyler while Sitting in the rain and the freezing cold of Edmonton in 2015. Since then Tyler has gone on to win the Tokyo test event in 2019 and currently is ranked 5th in world. He has a really incredible story and provides some unique ideas when it comes to performance mindset and excellence.

Youth Olympic bronze medal winning gymnast Emma Spence Joined me this week. Emma is the bronze medalist in vault from 2020 Canadian elite championships, the 2018 youth olympic bronze medalist in vault and Szombathely World Cup bronze in Beam. Emma and I talked about visualization and performance state, and how as a gymnast competing in different events the manipulation of mental energy is huge. The cost of high performance sport and impact on ones body, and Emmas experience at the 2018 youth Olympic Games where she was the flag bearer for Canada in the closeing ceremonies. I have always had a great deal of respect for gymnast but after this conversation I was really in awe of the sport and what it takes from athletes to compete at a high level.

In this episode of The Excellence Verse Podcast, we go international with Spain’s Sergio Baxter Cabrera. Sergio was third at the 2019 Junior World Championships for triathlon.He was the 2019 junior Xterra world champion and the 2019 junior duathlon world champion and has numerous other podiums and high level results. Sergio had some really interesting insights and a way of thinking that is very different from what I have heard before. In the interview we talked about sacrifices in sport and managing that. Visualization and the importance of focus. His spectacular 2019 race season after a incredible hard 2018 race year, and so much more.

In this weeks episode I talked with 4 time world champion and Paralympic silver medalist Stefan Daniel. In terms of dominance in a sport Stefan is close to untouchable with a list of pretty amazing results. He is unbeaten on the paratriathlon series since June of 2018 where he was second, and since 2013 since he started competing on the paratriathlon circuit he has not been off the podium. He also won the Tokyo test event for the PTs5 men last year. Even with all of these tremendous accomplishments Stefan is still one of the most humble and down to earth people I have met. In this episode we talked about his journey to the 2016 rio Paralympics, his tagerting of Tokyo 2021. Injuries, balancing training and life, and so much more.

This weeks podcast is with a Canadian Junior Elite triathlete, Alexe Coursol, . Alexe was the 2019 Canadian junior champion, competed at the 2019 world championships in Lausanne Switzerland and has numerous continental cup top 10 finishes. The first time I met Alexe was the week before racing at the youth Olympic qualifying race is Salinas Ecuador. What happened that week I think really epitomizes Alexe and what she talks about in the interview. 2 days out from racing Alexe got food poisoning and obviously, very sick. However, no excuses were made and she put together an impressive race. During this episode Alexe had some really interesting insights and athlete or not there is something to take aways and apply to your everyday life. The focus and view on long-term development and successes Alexe has is something that I really appreciated.

This week Rock Climber Cat Carkner joins the show. Cat competed at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was 6th and 8th in combined format and lead lining respectively at the 2017 Youth Pan-American Championships, and has numerous provincial titles across different formats. We talked about self doubt and imposter syndrome, which is all too common young athletes. The impact of the youth Olympic Games on her life, as well as her process of visualization before a climb.

In this weeks episode I sat down with Ellen Pennock. We discussed Ellen’s journey through the sport of triathlon and life, how she managed burnout, and how Ellen is using lessons and skills learned from sport and applying them into a business career.

Katie Zaferes joins the Excellence Verse Podcast this week. She is the measure of excellence in triathlon and certainly a measure for anyone striving to be great or to find excellence. She is current world number 1 in Itu word rankings, wts series rankings, continental ranking and olympic ranking. In 56 starts she has 30 podiums and 12 wins and in 2019 won Abu Dhabi Bermuda, Yokohama, Montreal, Grand Final Lausanne securing her title as world champion after finishing an impossibly close second the year before. Yes I somehow managed to get the arguably the most dominant triathlete over the past years and the favourite for the Tokyo olympics next year Katie Zaferes. While she has an oustanding list go achievements you wouldn’t know it when speaking to her. In the time I had talking with Katie what I saw was an incredibly kind and down to earth person. We talked about her race preparations and visualization, training group and coaching, as well as how she bounced back from some tough defeats in 2018 and come back to win the 2019 world championships.

In this weeks interview I had the opportunity to speak with Olympic Swimmer Rachel Nicol. Over the years Rachel has been a true measure of excellence for myself and any other swimmer around her. I have always appreciative of the times I got to swim with her and see how she handled herself during and before a workout. Rachel has no shortage of race results but as you will hear in the interview they are not what makes her excellent. Some of those results however, are winning three medals at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games: A gold and two Bronze. She won bronze silver at the 2015 Pan American games and qualified for the 2018 Commonwealth games being named co-captain of the team before an unfortunate shoulder injury forced he to pull out of competition. Rachel was 5th in the 100m breaststroke and medley relay at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and has competed in multiple swimming world championships. Even though she is a tremendously successful athlete Rachel is one of the kindest and most genuine people that I have ever met. No matter what the situation or time, even some very early, morning practices she always is friendly and smiling. Rachel and I talked about her journey and how she has copped with injury, post olympic blues, nerves and more.

Joining me this week is Martin Sobey. A triathlete from Prince Edward Island. Over the last six months It has been a massive privilege and honour to not only work and train beside Martin, but also have the opportunity to talk with, and simply observe his behaviour around life and sport. He is one of, if not the most focused and driven individuals I have met. From an accomplishments standpoint Marty has had numerous podiums and top 5s at the continental cup level, he has some impressive World Cup results and was the 2019 Richmond Camtri champion. However, of all his accomplishments the one stands out the most to me was his top 10 finish at last years Canadian elite championships. While this is an impressive result on its own, what truly makes it spectacular is that Martin fractured his foot coming off the bike and yet still ran the 5 kilometres required eventually placing 6th. In this episode we talk in depth about behaviours, diet, and mental strategies and how they can be beneficial or detrimental to achieving excellence.

In the very first episode of The Excellence Verse Podcast I chat with Brock Hoel, a Canadian Junior Elite Triathlete striving for excellence. We discuss what excellence means to him and his story of finding his way in the world of elite sport.