'Don't give up. Keep fighting': Manitoba triathlete breaks into Top 10 at 3rd Olympic Games

A Manitoba Olympian hopes his performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will inspire young athletes in the province and across the country. 

On Wednesday, Tyler Mislawchuk of Oak Bluff, a small community just southwest of Winnipeg, became the first Canadian Olympian to finish in the Top 10 of the men's triathlon since 2008, when Simon Whitfield won silver in Beijing.

The 29-year-old secured a ninth-place result in the event, after finishing 15th at both the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the 2020 Tokyo Games.

"I'm from Oak Bluff, Manitoba. It's –55 in the winter — school closed, [you] climb through snow banks to get to school," he told CBC Sports after the event, which features a 1.5-kilometre swim, a 40-kilometre bike ride and a 10-kilometre run.

"I'm here at the Summer Olympics, the biggest sporting stage in the world, and … I started at [the] Manitoba Games. I didn't even get on the podium at Manitoba Games, and I [fought] for a medal at the Olympics. 

"No matter where you are at your level … don't give up. Keep fighting."

Mislawchuk posted on Instagram prior to the Olympics that he hoped the third time would be the charm, after his previous appearances at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where his hopes for a podium finish were dashed when he was injured during the race, and in Rio.

"I'm proud of the effort," he said. 

Mislawchuk has had supporters back home cheering him on.

Members of the province's triathlon community gathered along a service road in Oak Bluff, where Mislawchuk trained, on Monday, when the triathlon event was originally scheduled to take place. It was postponed to Wednesday over concerns about water quality in the Seine River, where the swimming portion of the race took place.

"We're so lucky with Tyler as an ambassador for our sport and … for our province," Triathlon Manitoba executive director Jared Spier said on Monday.

"He's exactly who you want to cheer for. He's hard-working, he's well-spoken. He's got no ego about him.… It's great to have everybody behind him, because it's so easy to get behind him."

Meanwhile, Mislawchuk — who said he always races until "the wheels come off" — said he's grateful for the people who never stopped believing in him along the way, and hopes it may help inspire others.

"If some kid in Oak Bluff, Man., or Quebec or B.C. can take a little bit of inspiration of how I fought out there, then job done."