Reigning men’s WTCS World Champion Matt Hauser has mapped out his season’s plans – and it’s all about the build to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
The Aussie star had the perfect WTCS campaign in 2025, rounded off with that emphatic Grand Final success on home soil in Wollongong.
That came in a year where his two main rivals both ventured away from Olympic and sprint-distance racing as Hayden Wilde moved up to – and dominated – the T100 Triathlon World Tour while Alex Yee focussed on the marathon.
Jersey for Supertri showdown?
But in an entertaining chat with Bob Babbitt in the latest ‘Breakfast With Bob’ YouTube video, which is embedded below, Hauser revealed he has no immediate plans to mix things up himself.
He said: “Definitely 2028 focussed. I’ll probably look to do about six of the races out of the nine for the World Triathlon Championship Series.
“And then obviously finish in Pontevedra for the World Champs final.
“And then I’ll aim to do the Supertri final in Jersey. That would be a special race to come back to. They’re offering a lot more prizemoney for a one-day race now, that’s super exciting and hopefully we get a quality field – that’s going to be a great spectacle for everyone to come out and watch.”
That last point would appear to suggest that Jersey in the Channel Islands could be the venue for what is the largest single-day prize purse in triathlon of $800,000. It’s long been a favourite location since the early days of the innovative format but Supertri have told us that it’s yet to be confirmed for this year.
Hauser underlined: “The main goal this year is to try and go back-to-back [in terms of WTCS title]. But also to just refine my craft in the run-up to LA. Realistically, a back-to-back would be nice but it probably doesn’t mean as much as going on that two to three year journey to LA and really making sure I’m in it for the long run.”
‘Less is more for me’
And we could yet see the Aussie tackle a middle-distance event or at least a draft-legal one in the next year or two.
As he added: “And then maybe I’ll do Noosa at the end of the year and depending on how much battery is left in the tank I might do a 70.3 or something but we’ll see.
“I would have loved if the T100 Gold Coast [later in March] was males. The queen of Australian triathlon Ash Gentle has requested it be women so that’s fair enough, she has a real right to do so! I’ll actually be racing the 10k there the Sunday after the race so that will be good to be involved.
“The last time I tried a middle distance race [at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong in March 2025] I DNF’d. My bike broke, I had some technical issues so maybe it’s a bad omen, maybe I should stick to short short course for a little longer.
“Less is more for me and maybe more is more for some of them I think. I definitely respect the distance. I did put in a bit of work for that 70.3 Geelong last year which I attempted to finish and it might be something I would want to revisit after 2028 but I think for now that while the body is firing on all cylinders, I’ll stick to going faster for shorter.”
And that sets up a fascinating 2026 WTCS season, with both Yee and Wilde returning much more to the fray this year, starting with Abu Dhabi on March 27th.
