Do Role Models Matter ? - Of course they Do!

Conrad Stoltz finishing at Xterra South Africa and coach Libby Burrell

Mari Rabie (current SA and African Triathlon Champion) wrote this in her blog after once again being inspried byher childhood hero - CONRAD STOLTZ (http://marirabie.com/)

I want to be able to do that...

It is not everyday that you get the opportunity to meet, never mind race against the hero that inspired you as a kid. I was in the fortunate position to do exactly that this weekend at the South African Xterra held in Eligin, Grabouw.

Conrad Stoltz............

I have memories of me as a little aspiring triathlete sitting at our dinner table staring at this lean, mean triathlete absolutely captivated by the stories he was telling of his racing in Europe. I must have been 10 years old. I can't exactly remember and Conrad was back from Europe (I think France?)and having dinner at our house. I always knew of some awesome South African triathlete racing somewhere else, but to finally meet him was a mayor wow. I was inspired...later that year I wrote down in my yearbook that mum made us fill in each year that I wantto be a Professional Triathlete when I grow up.I think that was the first time Conrad made me think "I want to be able to do that".

Another memory is of a 13 year old me sitting on our living room floor, at 2am during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. It was the first time triathlon would feature in the Olympics and there was no chance in the World I would miss it, even thoughI had swim training the next morning at 5.15am. I remember the streets of Sydney looking absolutely packed. I kept asking my Mum during the men's swim "Where is Conrad?Where is Conrad?". A tough question to answer during a wetsuit swim. My question was soon answered on the bike though...Conrad and Oliver Marceau had a successful breakawayon the bike....IN THE OLYMPICS!!!!! My parents had invited most of the local triathlon crowd over and Conrad's break caused so much excitement in our house that we woke up my poor sister who was writing her final High School exams duringthat time.I remember thinking "One day I would like to be able to do that..."

I guess that even now (a good 8 years later and knowing Conrad a lot better)I still think "Wow" every time I see him and still follow his now extremely successful Xterra career closely...I was on a sailing holiday last year in the Seychelles while he was racing World Xterra champs and was bugging Libby every ten minutes to tell me what was going on in the race.My whole family was delighted when we heard he ran away from Oliver Marceau to take his third World Xterra title.

So I guess I had this same wow feeling on Saturday when I was doing the swim leg of the Xterra in Grabouw and realisingat the first bouy that this person next to me that I kept on hitting over the head, is actually Conrad.Oeps. So I decided to swim a little faster to get away. I exited the water 3rd, behind Heinrich Dahms and Dan Hugo. I headed to the VIP tent then, to have coffee and chill with Libby while we waited for the guys to come in from the bike leg. When we got the update from the halfway mark and realised Conrad was not in the Top 5, we knew something had happened...Conrad slit open his tyre on the one of the technical sections. I suppose most athletes would have done the "Just my luck/chuck my bike into the forest thing", but not Conrad. He fixed his puncture, held his head high and came into T2 more than 12 min off Dan Hugo who was leading the race.

The most amazing thing to me was Conrad's composure when he came up to the finish, he had a smile on his face, obviously disappointed, but not showing any glimpse of it what so ever.Once again I thought..."I want to be able to do that"

Respect Conrad and thanks for inspiring us, the "younger" ones.

From website of Mari Rabie http://marirabie.com/content/view/54/43/