Canadian elite Mathis Beaulieu is rising through the ranks in short-course racing and proving he’s one-to-watch as another Olympic cycle gets underway ahead of Los Angeles 2028. One of the country’s brightest up-and-coming talents, he was one of four standout athletes chosen to participate in the ON Triathlon Academy. The twenty-year-old is not taking anything for granted, and has capitalized on some extraordinary opportunities so far this season.
Starting with a training camp in the cycling haven, Mallorca, Spain, the Academy hosted training sessions and talks with some of the biggest legends in triathlon. For 10 action-packed days, Beaulieu trained hard but also played hard, beating the drums with Swiss legend Nicola Spirig, and chasing Spanish icon Javier Gomez in a game of laser tag.
“It’s been absolutely insane. Like a dream,” said Beaulieu. “It was all about developing us. Not just for now, but for the future.”
On a winning path with Project Podium
With more camps planned and initiatives like Athlete Compass, which is a mental and media training program led by Spirig, the Academy is proving to be a holistic powerhouse of athlete development.
With a packed racing schedule this year, his experience with the Academy is fuelling the fire as he trains alongside some of the fastest U23 talent in the world, under Project Podium, a US men’s elite development program based in Arizona where Beaulieu now lives. Fellow Project Podium athlete and training partner, Reese Vannerson, won his first World Cup at Chengdu. Seeing how Beaulieu can keep pace with Vannerson in training has given him the belief that he can aim high this season.
“Training with him gives me confidence. I know I can run for the podium. Now it’s about staying smart and making it count.”
The Quebec City native has come a long way from winning gold in the sprint distance at the 2022 Canada Summer Games. A standout talent at the Games, it was no surprise he went on to achieve an impressive five straight wins at the junior level that same year. He followed that up with a National Championship title in Montreal, and a bronze medal at the World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships in Hamburg, Germany in 2023. He was then onto another bronze performance at the Americas Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships in Huatulco, and silver at the Americas Triathlon Cup in Ixtapa.
Chasing World Cup glory
Fresh off of racing in China at the Chengdu World Cup where he finished 11th, Beaulieu heads into the weekend racing the Samarkand World Cup in Uzbekistan. He admits his season goals may be a bit ambitious, but he’s determined to chase the U23 World Cup podium.
“I know I’ve got the run to be able to be on the U23 podium.”
Fans will get to see how he stacks up on the Supertri circuit as well, as he plans to do four of the races this season. Though it hasn’t been confirmed which ones, it will likely be London, Chicago, Toulouse, and a fourth location that is still under wraps, which Supertri is announcing next Tuesday.
So early in his career, Beaulieu is quickly learning what it takes to transition from his previously youthful mindset when he was mostly focused on having fun. Although fun is still a huge part of his training now, he made a mindset shift when things got serious in 2022 after a string of wins.
“If you want to be successful, I think you’ve got to be selfish and really want to win. You’ve got to want to win more than any other person on this tour,” he explained. “I think for me, it’s the two most important things. Oh, and have fun, for sure. Have fun. If you don’t have fun, you’re going to hate your life. So that’s why I moved to the USA. I have a lot of fun there. It makes it so much easier.”
Playing the long game
Ultimately, his eye is on the prize in Los Angeles 2028 at the next Olympics. His approach to the biggest stage in sport is to take it one year at a time. Currently, his goal is to stay healthy and climb to the top 15 in the rankings. He has learned from his early mistakes of training through injury that he has to balance his ambitions with a healthy body.
He recently came off of an eight-month journey rehabbing a knee injury he sustained playing soccer, which was exacerbated when his then-coach in Spain told him to “run through it.” As he gets back to full health and racing, he goes into this weekend’s race with a game plan built on the mistakes he feels he made in Chengdu recently.
“I definitely went way too much on the start to the front. On my first lap my watts were very really higher than what they should have been. And after that, I tried to breakaway with one of my teammates on the last lap. It just cost me a lot of energy on the run,” he said.
“I think I was a little too excited for the first real race of the year.”
It will be exciting for all of us as we watch the young star conquer his ambitions this year, and continue his promising career and potential path to the podium in Los Angeles.
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