Alec Wilimovsky closed his professional triathlon season with an impressive performance at his home beach a few weeks ago. Then, the Malibuite, after spending half a year competing abroad, played visitor along a familiar portion of the California coastline.
“I spent a lot of time at the beach, a lot of time surfing with friends,” said the 2015 Malibu High graduate. “I’ve been out of the country for six, seven months this year, so I wanted to do a lot of fun California things like hang out in Santa Monica doing some touristy stuff.”
Wilimovsky took a two-week break from swimming, biking and running after finishing second in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon on Sept. 17 with a time of 1:12:45. Competing in the hometown endurance event bookended a sophomore triathlon season spent competing on land and sea all over the globe.
The 20-year-old participated in just under 15 races in the Czech Republic, Bermuda, Italy, Spain, Hungary and the U.S. Wilimovsky participated in a training camp in France.
The ORGIN Performance Triathlon team member has also raced in Austria, Costa Rica and Barbados. Wilimovsky said globetrotting as a triathlete is a great experience.
“I’m 20 years old and I’ve been around the world three times and met some amazing people,” he said. “I’m great friends with a lot of people I would have never met.”
But, he added, the competing all over the globe has led to him appreciating the opportunity to participate in the Malibu Triathlon.
“It’s really rare that you get to sleep in your own bed the night before a race and drive your own car,” Wilimovsky said. “I’ve been running the same run course for years and surfing that beach and riding those roads. It’s really awesome to race on them.”
Wilimovsky’s results in his second pro triathlon season include placing 16th out of 40 racers with a time of 52:57 in the Sarasota CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon, 10th with a time of 57:08 in the Hamilton CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon American Cup, 13th with a time of 59:18 in the West Des Moines CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon American Cup and 14th with a time of 56:01 in the Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon Word Cup.
Before competing in Malibu, Wilimovsky placed 40th with a time of 1:55:39 in the 60-individual field Karlovy Vary ITU Triathlon World Cup in the Czech Republic on Sept. 3.
The former Malibu High athlete said he would rather finish 10th in a race that features quality competition than win a race that has a smaller field.
“At the end of the day, you must race who is going to be at the Olympics, the top guys in the world,” Wilimovsky said. “At my age, when you are racing gold medalists or champions you have to be able to find success in the top-10 finishes.”
With two years of professional triathlon experience under his belt, Wilimovsky said his biggest challenge and accomplishment has been learning how to compete against other pros instead of junior level endurance athletes.
“It’s a big change from racing juniors,” he said. “Professionals are a lot stronger and faster. Adapting to racing guys 10, 15 years older than me has been a big challenge, but it has also been a lot of fun.”
The triathlete said this offseason he wants to become a better triathlete before the 2018 season begins in March by improving his biking and running.
Wilimovsky, a strong swimmer, said he is already in good position when races start since the swim is the first event of the three activity races, but the key to more wins is building his speed and endurance in the two land events, especially running.
“I want to be strong across the board,” he said. “Every time I step off the bike I want to be competing to win the race.”
Wilimovsky plans to spend his offseason training 20 to 30 hours per week alone and with his teammates. He said he focuses on small goals each day, but his ultimate goal is to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
“A lot of things have to go right for me to make the Olympics,” Wilimovsky said. “That is what I am training for every day. I’m just trying to do everything possible to give me the best chance possible to qualify.”
The triathlete’s older brother, open water swimmer Jordan Wilimovsky, 23, a world championship winner, competed in the 1,500-meter and 10K events at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.
The younger Wilimovsky said his older brother’s Olympic bid shows him that hard work can pay off.
“I watched him get up before the sunrise every single morning throughout high school and come back at eight o’clock at night,” Alec said.
Wilimovsky said competing in the sport he loves is everything to him.
“It has the things I like from swimming, biking and running,” he said of triathlons. “The sport combines all. If I did just one I wouldn’t like it as much.”
