Katie Zaferes talks toxicity, keeping it simple and going from World Champion to coach

Katie Zaferes is a former World Champion and double Olympic medallist. But now she’s trying to help produce the next generation of elite triathletes.

When the 35-year-old retired she wanted to give something back to the sport and spotted a gap in the market, launching the AUXO Collective in collaboration with the University in North Carolina.

And she says the biggest lesson she has learned came from her own long-term coach Joel Filliol and boils down to one key philosophy – keeping it simple.

“Nothing I’m saying sounds that sexy”

Zaferes told the Real Coaching Podcast: “Most of my coaches have had similar philosophies. Based on keeping things simple, not over-complicating. Having consistency. But as I’m coming into coaching, it’s actually really hard to stay simple.

“I realised very quickly that nothing I’m saying sounds that sexy or creative, but it’s what I believe in. And it’s the most sustainable way to be an athlete. I can’t even imagine trying to fancy this up and have it sustainable for me or the athletes.”

Zaferes is a big believer in Daily Training Environments (DTE) and believes there is a gap in the market in the USA that she wanted to fill.

She said: “Before last year I wouldn’t say I knew what my next step was. But an opportunity arose through a partnership that USA Triathlon has with University of North Carolina.

“It’s a US performance centre and we could do a DTE here. I know how valuable the DTE is. It really accelerated my growth as an athlete at the beginning.

“It made me want to provide that for more athletes. There are so few options for DTE in the US that are high performance. My experience was so good and I wanted other people to have that accessibility to it.

“There was a bit of panic”

“There are so many more opportunities for this outside the US than there are here. There’s this gap. We don’t really have this pipeline. But it’s changing.

“AUXO means growth. It’s a starter programme. We didn’t expect athletes to be here long term and the idea is that they grow out of it and move on to the next DTE.”

Her programme is geared mostly for athletes coming out of college, and she admits that when she first started out, “there was a bit of panic… I thought: ‘Am I in over my head?'”

But while she also admits she never considered coaching during her career, she always enjoyed observing the process other athletes went through and was always interested in sharing what she had learned.

She said: “It wasn’t a secret I wanted to hold on to because I’ve been successful. And it was kind of the spark at the right time. I saw this gap in the US and I thought that someone needs to do it.”

“Crummy weather”

Zaferes, who is married to fellow triathlete and photographer Tommy Zaferes and had a son called Kimble in 2022, has also worked out what she thinks she will find most challenging about coaching other athletes.

She said: “Something that will be hard for me is to recognise if an athlete is being toxic. Like, if you feel this way and you’re bringing these vibes, this isn’t the place for you. If you want to change my whole coaching style or not buy into it, this isn’t the place for you.

“There are so many nuances to coaching that I’m learning. I considered myself a coachable athlete. Now I have even more gratitude for the things that weren’t obvious to me before.

“The standing around in crummy weather and not having it reflect how miserable you are being in that condition – not communicating that to the athletes – I appreciate that a lot more!”