Jason Shortis isn't done yet
Wednesday, 02 July 2008 06:51
Jason Shortis is one of the icons of world Ironman racing. With twelve top 10's at Ironman Australia, he's something of a living legend on the Australian triathlon scene. Jason has raced over 40 Ironman races all over the world and has a great knack of winning once, sometimes twice or more, each year. The man they call 'Shorto' is powerful runner and at age 38, is still someone to fear on the marathon at any Ironman in the world. We caught up with Jason and found out there is still more to come in his amazing career.
Let’s rewind to your first race in 1984 at Berowra Waters (NSW). Were you instantly hooked or did it take a little time to get going?
I was gone straight away. It was interesting because it was an Olympic distance race. It was pouring with rain, it was miserable, cold and wet and I raced the whole way in a pair of Dunlop Volleys (laughs). There was no such thing as helmets and there was no such thing as aerobars either.
So now you've gained the “Hardman” tag by racing in a pair of Dunlops, how did you find the physical toughness of the race?
I was always someone who was after a challenge, even from a fairly young age. I was fourteen back then and I just loved it. I loved the physicality of it. It was just something which really drew me in straight away.
You used to be an aerobics instructor. Was it the lycra that got you or was it the fact that you could wear fluoro green and still be appreciated by people?
(laughs)To be honest, how that evolved was I was always a bit of a skeptic when the girls in my class at school said aerobics gets the heart pumping and I said "yeah sure". So they said why don’t you come and do a class and it was very, very hard. I thought this is another challenge, so I went and did it and I found I could actually make a little money out of that. I kind of put my way through university a little bit by taking classes, doing some casual work and doing that kind of stuff.
So the hard man tag that we have established has kind of been eroded now ?
Well you know, that’s not a part of my life I’d like to talk about. It was kind of an interesting time I suppose.
When you made the decision to become a professional triathlete, did people around you tell you that you can’t make a living doing this?
To be honest, I probably came to be a professional triathlete quite accidentally. It was kind of a natural evolution. I started making prize money. In the old days to be a professional it just depended on where you finished across the line. If you were top 10 in an Ironman, that gave you money. So it kind of evolved that way. People were coming up to you and saying "look, we’d like to give you stuff for free and then we would like to pay you to use this stuff" and that’s how it kind of all started and low and behold, I was actually starting to make money out of the sport. To go full time was kind of a leap of faith in a lot of regards. Particularly being based in Australia, because you don’t make a lot of money as a professional triathlete in Australia.
You’ve been quoted as saying that the poorest people as a group in triathlon are the professionals. Obviously the money’s not coming like the big sports, like tennis and golf. You don’t get the big endorsements.
No and I guess that's just natural. We don’t get the television coverage that you get in the mainstream sports. And so essentially, what it comes down to is economics. It comes down to marketing economics. Companies pay for television time and triathlon just does not get television time. Therefore it doesn’t get the sponsorship dollars that other mainstream sports do. I remember sitting down with a mate and he ran through basically what it costs or what the value per minute dollar wise it is for a major company or corporation and triathlon just doesn’t provide it really. Triathlon's always been a fringe sport in Australia, even though we do do so well at it. We do have a lot of really good, world class triathletes, but I don’t think it will ever be a mainstream sport like football, cricket or even tennis.
Is it frustrating that the financial rewards are not so generous, knowing how much work you have to do in order to become one of the world’s elite?
I guess that I never really viewed it that way. I've always looked at it just as it is. That’s what you’re dealt with, so you just do the best with what you actually have. I still do view it as I am really lucky because I get paid to do what I love doing. And there are very few people in this world, in whatever field they’re in, that get that opportunity. I am just blessed. That’s the way that I view it. You know I don’t make a lot of money, but I’ve made a reasonable living as a triathlete, and it’s also provided me with a whole lot of other opportunities as well now.
I think it is just what you make of it. I also see guys who do complain about how little they do make. The view that I have always had is that you do make your own opportunities. If these are the opportunities we have, let’s make the best of them. Let’s be as professional as we can. I think as a whole, as professional triathletes, we've been our own worst enemies. If you look at the way we present ourselves and the way that we communicate, and the way we act as professional triathletes, we haven’t really been a good endorsement. Is it any wonder that corporations and corporate Australia haven't been throwing lots of dollars at us?
Some of the best results you’ve had have been away from the Hawaiian Ironman, yet you’re one of the best runners in the sport. Do you not like Kona or is it just a race that's hard because of the talent that’s on show there?
I think that Kona is the sort of place that shows your weaknesses and the weakness in my race has always been my swim. It’s just not the place to have your swim as your weakness. While you’re swimming in the ocean, the guys are doing 40 plus kilometres an hour down the road. There is a very strong collective group that comes out of the water together there and it’s really hard to ride them down. You have to be an exceptional cyclist. You have to be riding like Mitch Anderson or pretty much one of the absolute top cyclists in the world to be able to ride that group down.
That hasn’t been me in the past and I haven’t put my best races together in Kona. I think my best result was 12th and I ran a 2.48 marathon and I finished within six minutes of third place. But I was 12th. It’s just the time gap, there’s thirty seconds between three places in Kona. All the best guys in the world are there and you’ve got to be on your game in every single discipline. So no excuses, I just haven’t been good enough.
So who in your mind would you say is one of the scariest athletes in the professional ranks at the moment?
I think Chris McCormack. He's just the consummate professional when it comes to racing. He doesn’t have a weakness in Ironman. I think he’s amazing and he’s taking the sport to a certain level. He does control the race and I quite admire that aspect of Chris. I think he’s a very, very talented athlete and he uses his strengths to his own advantage. You know you have a race on your hands when you step out on the race course against Chris. I think he’s quite impressive.
I think Crowie's (Craig Alexander) probably going to be the next greatest thing Australia has produced in Ironman triathlon. He’s a really good athlete. Luke Bell is also an extremely talented athlete and his best races are yet to come and if he fulfils his potential, he'll be awesome. Mitch Anderson is a really great athlete too and I really like racing against him - he brings a lot to the sport as well. That’s speaking about the Australians. There’s a plethora of German Ironman triathletes that seem to keep popping up.
It’s a different scene in Europe. The bike is such a big deal for them. Now we’re starting to see that there’s a wave of Spanish guys and some of the French guys that are starting to run really quickly. I think that that is going to again impact on the Ironman distance. If you want to talk short course, Emma Snowsill is just brilliant. I think she’s absolutely amazing. What she can do on the race course is just quite unbelievable.
It would be hard to look past her. We’re all about her at the moment for Beijing. Outside the world of triathlon, is there a sports person you have looked up to or admired the way they have gone about their work?
Pretty much every sporting person, or anyone who has dabbled in sport or anyone with a sporting background would look at Tiger Woods and say wow. What that guy can do with his mind is quite amazing. I quite admire that. I think that he’s very impressive.
My background in football is AFL so I suppose there have been a few AFL players that I have quite admired and thought quite highly of. I know he plays for a team that I don’t really like, but Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions AFL team) is quite an impressive athlete to watch. Having met the guy, he is an impressive athlete and has a great work ethic. I can see talent and look at it and say that’s great and admire that. But what I suppose really brings admiration for me is someone who has had to work quite hard to get to where they are as well, to overcome adversity.
And now you've branched out and opened up a new bike shop, how is life in retail?
It's way, way, way more work than I ever thought it would be! Not that I ever thought it was going to be simple, but it has been a steep learning curve from the moment that I decided that that was what I was going to do. Again, it’s something I thought was very cool. I have been riding a bike since I was twelve, so that's 26 years and I’ve always had something to do with bikes.
I was one of those kids who used to hang out and admire all the cool stuff that was in the bike shop and I see a heap of those kids coming through the shop door now. So it’s kind of cool. I was always a bit of a dreamer. I used to say, "you know what, it’d be unreal to have your own bike shop one day, that’d be great", but there’s obviously a lot of hard work and I’ve been very lucky with the team I have, the people I have around me, so I have been very fortunate. It still has been a very interesting experience, an interesting ride and will continue to be so. I can be rest assured.
So what’s coming up for Jason Shortis in the near future?
Well, I've been really lucky in that I've finally made myself redundant in the bike shop, so I don’t actually have to be there. I go into the shop because I want to be there and just to keep an eye on things.
So I'll be racing Ironman Canada coming up in 8 weeks, and on the 24/8 I'll be racing around Penticton. I’ve had a really great lead up. I'm quite excited about that. I’ve also locked away Ironman WA at the end of the year and then Port Macquarie again Ironman Australia in April. So they are the three Ironman races that I have lined up. I cant see myself racing past 40, or even racing when I’m forty, so next year may be my last year I think. I don’t want to go out on a whimper ... I want to go out on a bang!!
So do we Jason. It’s been great talking to you and it’s been great following your career up until now. We'll be looking forward to watching you next season.
