Triathlon teammate deflects praise after selfless act opens door for Wilde's Olympic heroics

While Hayden Wilde deservedly earned the plaudits for his gut-busting efforts to win the silver medal in the men's individual triathlon at Paris 2024, he had an unsung hero to his cause in teammate Dylan McCullough.

Just moments after Wilde tumbled over the finish line and wrapped his arm around rival Alex Yee, whose last-ditch sprint had denied him gold, he was deflecting credit for his accomplishment towards McCullough, whose selfless act had paved his way to the podium.

After Wilde had emerged from a gruelling swim leg in the Seine marooned in the middle of the field heading into the bike leg, McCullough answered the call from his coaches and dropped back from a strong position to join his teammate, allow him to draft behind him and "tow" him back to the lead group.

It meant McCullough had to empty his tank to open the door for Wilde to contend, essentially sacrificing his own hopes for the greater good, meaning he was "completely cooked" heading into the run.

"I couldn't have asked for a better teammate," Wilde told RNZ.

"He's a first-time Olympian, he's obviously got his own ambitions and I don't want anyone to sacrifice their race for me. What he did out there was selfless. It was fantastic.

"That guy deserves the keys to New Zealand."

McCullough ultimately crossed in a respectable 19th place, although as far as he was concerned, his job was done by laying the foundation for Wilde's second Olympic medal.

"It is the biggest sporting event in the world for what we do so obviously you want to do what you can to help New Zealand, and if there was a gold or silver or bronze on the line, then I just wanted to do everything I could to help Hayden," McCullough told SENZ’s Scotty & Izzy.

"It's not my day, it's Haydo's day. I wasn't doing this for any recognition or anything. It's just come with it after what Hayden said.

"Obviously it's just for New Zealand, this medal and Haydo.

McCullough insists his tactical manoeuvre was all part of the team's blueprint for the race.

"We had a game plan going into the race where ideally Hayden was going to be in that front group," he explained. "But if not, if he was in the chase group and I was in the front, then I'd listen out for the coaches and look at the whiteboard.

"After lap three, I saw the whiteboard with capital letters saying 'Dylan, drop back'. That was my call to go back and, within less than a lap, we were up at the front.

"I just sat in the front and did what I could, rode as hard as I could and then left the rest to Haydo and he did his thing and got over the line and silver.

"It was a bloody good day for New Zealand. Super proud to be a Kiwi."

Dominating the narrative pre-race was the questionable conditions of the River Seine, which forced the race to be postponed due to high pollution levels.

McCullough says he'd braced himself for a very different kind of contest in those murky waters and experienced exactly that, a swim that he describes as unique - for all the wrong reasons.

"It was definitely the most brutal swim I've ever done," he told Scotty Stevenson. "It was like a boxing match, compared to a swim.

"I didn't actually know where I was in the water. At parts, we weren't even swimming. We were just stopped, elbowing, barging each other out of the way.

"The current was next level, I think. I think we got to 400m in about three minutes, which was 30s, plus under world record pace.

"The water, obviously you couldn't really see more than ten centimetres in front of you. So, hopefully there's no repercussions later on."

Any potential resulting illness aside, McCullough and his teammates will have a chance to snare some more hardware in the mixed team relay on Monday (NZ time) - a race he'll head into with confidence riding high on the back of Wednesday's efforts, which were all the more satisfying considering a recent injury that had hampered his build-up.

"I'm really happy with my own individual performance," he admitted.

"I was feeling really good. I was in that front pack. Obviously burnt a few matches dropping back on the bike, but I was happy to pull through with a solid run, especially. I had a stress fracture 8-10 weeks ago, so I haven't been running that much. To put together a top 20 performance in my first Games, I'm really happy with.

"We came away with a bronze in Hamburg at the World Champs in the relay just two weeks ago, so I think our team's looking good for Monday. It's the Olympics.

"Obviously everyone's going to be racing their 'A' team, but we're Kiwis and we're going to fight with all we've got."

*Listen to the full interview below: *