Making the impossible possible

Making the impossible possible

10km ocean swim. 420km bike ride. 84km double marathon. Three days.

This is what it takes to complete an ultra triathlon – the hardest triathlon in the world. To finish seems impossible, but BGS Old Boy Richard Thompson ’02 wanted more. He became an Ultraman World Champion and world-record holder.

Regarded as one of the greatest ultra-endurance athletes of all time, Thompson still competes, but has also transitioned to the business world. He is head of one of the most successful endurance coaching companies in Australia, inspiring the everyday person to believe anything is possible.

It was at Brisbane Grammar School that the groundwork for Thompson’s success was laid. As a young, relatively unfit wicketkeeper and goalkeeper representing the light dark blue, the thought of running 5km was intimidating.

The School’s culture of endeavour and motto, nil sine labore – nothing without work – combined with a drive for self-improvement, equipped Thompson with the tools to begin his ultra-endurance journey.

“Nothing has ever come naturally to me,” Thompson said. “Whatever I have had to do, I have had to work hard for it. That drive stems from a combination of my upbringing and the BGS culture. At School, the BGS motto is ingrained into you – it sinks into your skin, it sinks into your blood. If you want anything in this life, you have to go out and work hard for it.”

“Your potential exponentially increases when you have great people supporting you. At BGS, it felt like everyone was rowing the boat in the same direction, for the benefit of the group. I learned that when you work hard, and you have people in your team supporting you, amazing things happen.”

He placed last in his first triathlon at age 16, but by 23 he was the Age Group Ironman World Champion. “The only way you do that is through believing that anything is possible in this world,” Thompson said.

“My passion is endurance sport and helping others reach their full potential. It’s that feeling that you have done everything possible – you have gone out and achieved your absolute potential. In my view, that defines success.”

Thompson believes the human body can evolve to do amazing things through consistency, hard work and determination. Belief is a significant part of completing the more than 500km ultra triathlon.

“An incredible skill that I picked up at school was believing that you can achieve something before you actually do it. After winning the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii last year, I didn’t think I would race again because it took so much out of me. Now, I am training to race in the 2021 Ultraman in Australia. Initially, we set an incredibly challenging goal of taking 82 minutes off our course time. I believed we could achieve this through hard work, consistency and determination, but is this goal our true potential?”

“I realised goals can be self-limiting. So I asked myself, what happens when you remove goals? This is a new mindset my team is experimenting with for our next race. We will find what the human limit is. We will push every boundary. We want to achieve something so incredible that we do not want to limit ourselves.”

Juggling careers as a lawyer and athlete, before launching his endurance business, Thompson uses his ‘measured and controlled’ methodology across all disciplines to achieve success.

“Consistency always prevails. A piece of paper is not very strong by itself, but if you keep stacking pieces of paper, you will end up with a ream. If you keep putting reams on top of each other, you will have a wall that you can’t push over. I genuinely believe that you can achieve anything through this methodology in all fields.

“That is not to say it’s easy. It’s all about the journey. Each piece of paper is a sacrifice. If you have a goal to achieve, and you haven’t enjoyed the sacrifice, then that goal will not be worthwhile. If you love the journey, you have already won.”

As a Founding Director and Head Coach of T:Zero Multisport, Thompson has quickly achieved results. Employing 12 coaches, T:Zero has so far guided over 500 athletes to achieve their goals with more than 50 going on to represent Australia at world championship races.

“At T:Zero, we ingrain our motto of live your potential into our athletes. All of their abilities and goals are different but equally as important to us. They are all willing to put in the hard work to find their true potential. This could be running 10km, doing a triathlon or completing an Ultraman race.”

“You can be anything. You are only limited by your own expectations. The scary part is understanding that anything is achievable.”

A feature length documentary ‘Limitless – the story of human potential’ will follow Thompson’s journey to his next major goal – completing an ultra triathlon in less than 20 hours. Follow him on social media via @Rich.Thompson.Ultraman.