Australia’s McCormack Is Making All the Right Moves

Australian native Chris McCormack is planning to stay in Southern California, maybe even spend 10 years here.

If so, that’s bad news for the rest of the triathletes on the West Coast, many of whom spent Sunday following McCormack to the finish line in the Pacific Coast Triathlon at Crystal Cove State Park near Laguna Beach.

McCormack, the 1997 and ’98 world champion, came out of the half-mile swim alongside Spencer Smith, then pulled away midway through the 12-mile bike ride. McCormack began the three-mile run with a 30-second lead over Erik Burgan and finished the race in 56 minutes 30 seconds, about 40 seconds ahead of Burgan.

“He’s in great shape right now,” Burgan said. “He’s going off.”

It was McCormack’s sixth consecutive victory since moving to Carlsbad two months ago. During that span, he also won the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco, as well as triathlons of various distances in Arizona, Oceanside, San Diego and Carlsbad.

“I’m undefeated in the states,” McCormack said. “When I came out to America, my aim was to do nine races [this year]. I put nine down and I don’t want to be beaten once.”

McCormack won his world titles shortly after turning pro in 1996, then accepted a professional contract in France.

“To be honest, I hated it,” McCormack said. “I really hated it.”

So when McCormack’s contract expired, he immediately bolted for the U.S. and a place he had heard stories about.

“We don’t tend to dominate the world in many things, but the sports that we do tend to get a lot of publicity,” McCormack said. “And the two stars in Australia are [triathletes] Michellie Jones and Greg Welch and they live in Carlsbad. So as a kid, I knew all about Carlsbad and I’m sure all the young Australians still do. When I turned pro it was the only place I needed to come.”

McCormack not only likes the strong foundation of triathletes in Southern California, but the USTA rules on drafting during the bike portion also favor his style.

“A lot of the World Cup events allow drafting,” McCormack said. “The USTA is good because they have the non-drafting rule and the strong guys can come out and show their stuff. When you’ve got to do your own work on the bike, it makes things pretty hard. I think that’s why I’ve been so successful here.”

McCormack plans to compete in world cup races in Hungary and Switzerland over the next month, before returning for triathlons in Chicago and Los Angeles later this year. One event that isn’t on McCormack’s schedule is the Olympic Games in Sydney, his hometown.

“I was on the Olympic team and I got pulled off by an appeal by an athlete who made the team,” McCormack said. “He appealed my selection and I got booted. It was a really funny clause in our selection policy that said the team would be at the discretion of the selectors, so even though I was the second Australian in both selection races, they selected the other guy and I had no say.”

Jones, a contender for a gold medal in Sydney, won the women’s competition for the second consecutive year in 1:02.