Joe Skipper has revealed he contemplated RETIRING from triathlon after a horrendous 2024 when he hit the lowest point of his whole career.
A seven-time IRONMAN winner, “No average Joe” had a torrid time last year with things coming to a head in July after two sub-par performances in a row.
Skipper finished fourth at Ironman 70.3 Swansea on July 14 and followed that up seven days later with a DNF at IRONMAN Lake Placid – a result which left him contemplating his future in the sport.
“The lowest I’d been”
The 36-year-old told his YouTube channel: “After Swansea, I was really down. Really disappointed. Lake Placid was the next weekend and that was probably the biggest low.
“When you have one low, and then you go to the next one and that goes even worse, that was the lowest I’d been since I’d been doing triathlon.
“I did feel like retiring. I knew deep down I wasn’t going to. But I really felt like: ‘Maybe it’s time, can I get back to good form?’ I was training well but not doing it in the races. It was a horrible time.”
Skipper bounced back to kick off his 2025 season in style this month, recording his first podium finish since 2023 at IRONMAN New Zealand, where he came second.
And as he gears up for a big year, he revealed that he achieved it despite managing less than three weeks of full swim training due to a long-running injury.
Skipper said: “I’m pleased to just turn things around, and New Zealand was a massive step in the right direction. Just to show that things are going well. And to do the race seven minutes faster than the last time (in 2020), when I won it, was a big confidence booster. Really pleased with that.
“Getting worse and worse”
“And also with my swim to be fair because a lot of people don’t know but I had six weeks out of the water from the end of November to the 12th of January where I didn’t swim at all. I had an injury which was getting worse and worse.
“Maybe that’s why I wasn’t swimming well in the summer. I had to rehab it and then when I started back I was only doing 2k in the pool. It wasn’t until I got out to New Zealand on the sixth of February that I swam over 3k and started actually doing proper sessions. I only had two and a half weeks of swim training going into the race.”
Skipper has chosen not to focus on the IRONMAN Pro Series this year but will be competing for the IRONMAN World Championships in Nice in September.
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