Sam Laidlow on rediscovering his ‘why’ after IRONMAN World Championship win highs and lows

For recently-crowned IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow, the magnitude of achieving a dream he had been chasing since infancy has left him with more questions than answers, as the Frenchman grapples with what comes next.

One of the most common themes in elite sports, including professional triathlon, is that the period following a career-best performance can often be filled with as much confusion and hopelessness as happiness and joy.

In a recent YouTube video, PTO World #13 Laidlow tackled the issue head-on in a candid section of dialogue with a friend, as he expressed the emotions which have come with reaching the pinnacle of the sport at just 24 years of age.

Laidlow on a journey of self-discovery

For Laidlow, achieving what he set out to do so many years ago has led him on a journey of self-discovery to find what motivates him, with the main driving factor that inspired him to take on the best in the world, his family, now in a much better position than when he started out.

“I had a little breakdown for the first time in my life as I’m a bit lost. Since I was four years old I have known where I want to go and now I don’t know where I want to go, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life. I think I’ve cried more than once, because I was completely lost. For a long time, not only did I know where I wanted to go, but I also had a really strong reason.

“My family, when they came to France, they had a bit of a hard time and I knew if I was world champion, the family business [triathlon training camps] would be fine, and in fact it’s that ‘why’ that I don’t have any more, it’s done, and now I know I still want to win, I want to win more titles than anyone else, but I don’t have the reason why.” 

The French star also said that the demands on his time after winning the World Championship to fulfil sponsor engagements and other events has left him out of shape, with the road back to where he was in Nice looking like a long and arduous one.

“On top of that, I’ve got so many requests and everything, I’m moving around so much that I’m in such poor health compared to where I was on September 10th, and as a result you feel really bad about yourself and you feel like you’re years away. You ask yourself if you’re really capable of doing that again, which is stupid, because of course you’re capable.” 

“I need to know what I’m going to do next”

For Laidlow, figuring out what the next period of his life will look like has taken a lot of thinking, with a move away from setting outcome goals to more lifestyle-orientated ambitions part of what he believes is the best next step.

“It has been two months since Nice and I still haven’t recovered. I don’t feel like [training] as much, it’s starting to come back, but there are plenty of sessions when I feel like I have zero mental strength and I’ll get five minutes into a session and I’m bored.

“That’s just one thing. Another reason why I was lost was that I was actually that I was starting to doubt everything. My deepest motivation was to do it for my family, the thousands of trainees we have had, who have been telling me since I was little that I’d be the next IRONMAN World Champion, and known have just been asking myself if this is really what I have wanted.

“The project to win Hawaii is viable, but for that I need to know what I’m going to do next. If I set myself a deadline of Hawaii, afterwards I wouldn’t be doing well. Nice made me realise that I need to know where I want to be in 10 years.

“I think the mistake I made was setting myself a goal that was obtainable rather than setting myself a lifestyle goal. If you have more of a lifestyle goal, it’s something that evolves. It shouldn’t be centred around winning a race because that’s just so black and white.”