Siri Lindley is one of triathlon’s true legends. A two-time world champion turned master coach, she has shaped the careers of some of the sport’s most iconic athletes, including multiple-time world champions Leanda Cave and Mirinda Carfrae. Across her own racing career and decades of mentorship, Lindley developed a rare mental skillset – one built not just to perform under pressure, but to guide others through it.
In 2019, that mindset was tested far beyond sport. Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and given survival odds of less than five percent, Lindley faced the greatest challenge of her life. But rather than retreat, she made a deliberate choice about how she would show up – an extraordinary journey captured in the forthcoming documentary Tri Me, set for release this spring. (For the full story, see our previous feature.)
It was away from any podium, in the most uncertain and demanding moments of her life, that Lindley’s approach to mindset, resilience, and self-belief crystallized into what she now calls the ChampionMind framework.
As we step into 2026, Lindley is generously partnering with Triathlon Magazine to share the principles that changed her own life, offering others the tools to approach the new year not just as a fresh start, but as an opportunity to train, think, and live like a champion.
Note: There are five ChampionMind principles in total; this article explores the first two, with a companion piece to follow.
Own Your Energy
“One of the first things I share with people is that the power to transform your life starts with owning your energy – what you focus on, the meaning you give it, and what you choose to do next,” Lindley says.
“This can show up in big, life-changing ways, like when I was diagnosed with AML,” she continues. “But honestly, looking back, what equipped me to face this challenge in the way I did was a mental skill set I’d started building long before…and it began in triathlon.”
Lindley takes us back to the 1999 Olympic Trials race in Sydney, Australia.
“This was my dream – my literal dream – be on the Olympic team!” she shares. “I had placed fourth on this course the year before, so I felt great about my odds going in. I had visualized the perfect race for 365 days, and I was in the shape of my life.”
The gun went off, and this was Lindley’s moment – a chance to go from having started the sport just six years prior (dead last in her first race, not even knowing how to swim) to becoming an Olympian.
Impressively, despite her lack of swim pedigree, she had become just strong enough in the water to stay with the lead chase pack, IF she could execute a clean start. But on this particular day, chaos in the opening metres disrupted her plan.
“Yes, I had visualized the perfect race,” Lindley says, “but mentally, I hadn’t equipped myself to handle anything unexpected.”
She found herself in the second pack, about 10m back, watching the gap slowly grow. The vision she had held so tightly began to unravel – and with it, her energy.
“There were 70 people watching me from home,” she recalls. “This was the race. And I was going backwards in the swim.”
When Lindley reached the bike, and later the run, the unraveling continued.
“I quit,” she says plainly. “I quit. I was so ashamed.”
“The meaning I assigned to that bad swim was that my race was over,” she adds. “And because I believed that, it was.”
Edmonton 2001
Two years later, at the World Championships in Edmonton, Lindley found herself in a strikingly familiar position – but this time, with a very different relationship to the moment in front of her.
“I had the same terrible swim in 2001, again at the most important race of the year,” she reflects. “It would have been so easy to fall back into the same story.”
“But this time, I chose something different. I went to a place of ‘what if’ – of possibility,” Lindley explains. “What if I decided this was an opportunity to dig deeper than I ever had before, and just see how close I could get?”
That shift showed up immediately.
“I started moving through the field one bike pack at a time,” she recalls. “I kept asking myself, ‘Can I bridge this next gap?’”
By the end of the ride, to her surprise, she found herself back with the leaders, rolling into T2 alongside the best in the world, including Michellie Jones.
“Michellie turned to me and said, ‘Well, that was stupid,’” Lindley laughs, implying there was no way she could run well after biking that hard. “But I looked back at her and said: ‘Are you ready to run, Michellie?’”
“I ran my way to a world title that day,” Lindley says. “And it all started by choosing a different meaning. That shift became the difference between a DNF and becoming a world champion.”
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Rinny’s 2014 Kona Victory
The lesson Lindley learned in 2001 didn’t stay confined to her own racing career. Instead, it became something she returned to, again and again, in the highest-pressure moments of the sport.
One of the clearest examples comes from her work with four-time world champion Mirinda Carfrae.
“I remember the 2014 race when Rinny got off the bike 14 minutes down,” Lindley recalls. “She looked deflated. She had swum and biked to plan, but on that day, it didn’t seem to be enough. She didn’t look like she was in contention.”
“But I yelled at her: ‘You are in perfect position!’”
At the time, Carfrae may have wondered if her coach was watching the same race!
Importantly, Lindley’s comment was not meant to dismiss the moment, nor to deny the deficit…rather, it was intended to plant a seed of possibility in a moment where doubt and defeat could easily have taken over.
Carfrae’s swim and bike had been solid. Her legs felt good. And the run, her greatest strength, still lay ahead. What if this were an opportunity to just see what was possible?
Whether sparked by that mindset shift or fueled by her own remarkable resilience, Carfrae began to move through the field. She picked off competitors one by one, building momentum with every kilometre. By the time she surged past race leader Daniela Ryf in the closing stages, she had erased the largest deficit ever overcome in Kona history – and went on to claim her third title on the iconic Ali’i Drive with a margin of over two minutes, setting a new run course record.
“Siri is a force of nature; I’ve never met anyone like her,” Carfrae reflects. “It’s her energy and how she uses it to lift those around her that’s most admirable.” “I’m forever grateful for the impact she’s had on my life, taking me from an average professional triathlete to a multiple world champion achieving every dream along the way.”
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Be Fearlessly Authentic
This brings us to principle two of the ChampionMind five. As Lindley shares, “A second, powerful way to transform your life is to ensure your efforts are advancing the truest and most authentic version of yourself – which, in turn, is energy-giving and builds its own kind of momentum.”
For Lindley, this realization came vividly into focus in the early years of her coaching career.
“When I first started coaching,” Lindley shares, “I tried to mirror the approach of my former coach, Brett Sutton. He’s long been known as one of the best in the business, has coached multiple world champions, and helped me reach the top in my own career.”
But it didn’t take long for Lindley to sense that something felt off.
It wasn’t until she gave herself permission to redefine what great coaching looked like, on her own terms, that everything began to shift.
She began crafting an approach rooted in connection, empowerment, and an unrelenting belief in her athletes’ potential, alongside belief in her own ability to guide them there. As Carfrae once shared, “Siri is an extremely passionate person – that is what I love so much about her. She loves her athletes like they [are] her own family and will do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true.”
And athletes consistently describe that environment as transformative. Rebekah Keat, who first worked with Lindley as one of the world’s top long-course athletes before later becoming her wife, describes the experience as unlike anything she had known before:
“Working with Siri felt different right away. There was an energy about her that was contagious and deeply empowering,” Keat says. “With her, I gave myself permission to believe in a version of myself that had never existed before. And Siri didn’t hide her challenges or vulnerabilities…she shared them, using her own journey as living proof of what becomes possible when you’re willing to believe in yourself.”
Lindley’s own words illuminate the depth of her commitment: “When an athlete asks me to coach them, they’re trusting me with their dream… It gives me goosebumps. I feel so honoured.”
By trusting herself to lead in a way that felt authentic and true to herself, Lindley helped guide her athletes to 11 world titles and two Olympic medals – and, beyond historic finish-line moments, to personal transformations that extended well beyond sport.
It is a powerful reminder that lasting success doesn’t come from choosing someone else’s path. It comes from choosing your own, and bringing your full energy, belief, and courage to that pursuit. Indeed, this approach went on to shape Lindley’s impact and cement her place among the most influential coaches the sport has known.
Bringing a Champion Mindset Into 2026 and Beyond
At its core, the ChampionMind approach offers more than a framework; it offers a way of meeting life. Drawing on her journey as a world champion athlete, elite coach, and human navigating life’s hardest moments, Siri Lindley shows that mindset is not a fixed trait but a daily practice – one capable of profoundly reshaping what becomes possible, both in sport and in life.
May this be your invitation.
Note: This article marks the beginning of a deeper exploration of the ChampionMind philosophy, with a companion piece coming soon. For those eager to dive deeper now, her book Finding A Way offers a powerful and personal entry point.
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