Sam Long opens up on US triathlon stars struggling in Europe after big move brought ‘complete mental breakdown’

Having experienced the trials and tribulations of uprooting his family from their Arizona home and moving across to Italy in preparation for the IRONMAN World Championship, Sam Long is seriously questioning whether American athletes are at a disadvantage when it comes to European competition.

Describing the transition as an ‘extremely stressful’ time, the Colorado-born athlete admits his preparations for the Nice showdown have been impacted by a culture shock which very nearly left him packing up and going back home.

As reported on Tri247 last week, the 29-year-old has been faced with a perfect storm of frustration ever since arriving in the Julian Alps with pregnant wife Lara and their two-year-old son Leon – events which culminated in him suffering a crash that wrecked his brand new bike.

In his latest YouTube video (watch the full version at the bottom of this article) charting his training build-up to Nice, Long admits to having a ‘complete mental breakdown’ as he first had to wait for his delayed bike to arrive from America and then had to battle with his patience as he got to grips with the far slower pace of life in the Italian countryside.

While he accepts now that the whole idea of going out to Italy so early was to prepare for September’s World Championship race on the French Riviera, and by doing it, he has given himself more time to recover from such annoyances… his experience has left him wondering just how much of a handicap it is for Americans to compete across the Atlantic.

‘Extremely stressful’ for ‘Big Unit’

“It was extremely stressful,” he said.

“Which is why I want to ask you guys this question. Do you think it’s easier for a European to go to America and race, or for an American to come to Europe and race?

“As I was sitting on the plane with Leo on my lap, we’re looking out the window, and the guy who’s seeing us do this says, ‘you know, everything is bigger in America’, and isn’t that true? Getting your bike from the airport is easier because you can get a big rental truck or rent a big Uber, the beds are bigger, there’s no air conditioning here, you don’t have the same type of convenience stores, things are closed for three hours at lunch, nothing’s open on a Sunday, and  Amazon doesn’t work.

“We were honestly hit by a bit of culture shock. As you spend more time at home, it gets harder to leave because you get used to all the comforts. I am so used to all of that, and it gets harder and harder for me to leave, but hey, I have to leave. I have to be more adaptable, and then I remember, this is the whole reason I came out here in the first place, because Americans often struggle to race while over here in Europe.”

Results of both IRONMAN and the 70.3 races for 2024 and 2025 seem to back up Long’s suggestion that Americans find it harder to travel, with no US athletes winning in Europe across that period.

In contrast, there were two wins for Germany’s Patrick Lange in the US last year – in Texas and at the World Championship in Kona – while Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt has also tasted success in Texas this season.

So are American athletes at a disadvantage when they come over to Europe? One thing is for sure: there will be a few trying to disprove such a theory when September 14 rolls around in Nice.