Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 59, June 2014 | Page 24

Feature

Ready to
he recent international Discovery World Triathlon Series Cape Town
event was quite a highlight for Stellenbosch-based Mari Rabie. Not only
was it her first competitive race since 2012, due to a combination of studies
and injuries, but racing in SA colours meant that the local supporters went
crazy when they saw her up with the leaders after the swim and bike legs.
“Even the car guards were shouting for us South Africans!” says Mari. “It
was such a good introduction back into the sport, because I’d only been
training again for 16 weeks. I think I underperformed on the swim, then
overperformed on the bike, relative to the training I’ve done so far, and
then on the run, the first 5km were good, but in the last 5km I felt like I
was running sideways and dropped a few positions. Still, it’s great to be
back!”

MIXED EMOTIONS
Mari (27) can look back on a highly successful triathlon career. She
represented South Africa at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2008
Beijing Olympics, and remains the only African to claim a podium position
at the ITU World Champs, having finished third in the under-23 age group
in 2008. She has been SA Champ four times, as well as African Champ,
and in 2010 won the SA XTERRA Champs as well as the SA Ironman 70.3
title, then added a third position at the XTERRA World Champs in Hawaii in
2012.
Unfortunately, Mari has struggled with injuries and bad luck over the
years, and Beijing remains her biggest disappointment, due to frustrating
technical problems with the chain on her bike, which saw her drop from
the lead bunch to stone last in 55th position. “I actually stopped running
1km in, but my father convinced me to finish, because I may never get to
the Olympics again, and I managed to climb back up to 43rd position. After

Images: Riaan Taylor

Despite injuries and bad luck, Mari Rabie
has enjoyed a highly successful triathlon
career, and now, older and wiser, she feels
she is finally getting back to her racing
best. – BY SEAN FALCONER

that, I didn’t do any triathlon in 2009. I found a different goal, which was
to focus on my studies. I didn’t even follow triathlon, and thought I was
done with it.”

OXFORD BLUE
Sporting talent runs in Mari’s family, with father Lood a former SA Marathon
Champion, older sister Anel a Junior SA cyclist and triathlete, and younger
brother Lood Jnr in the national waterpolo team, but Mari can also lay
claim to an impressive academic record. She finished in the top five in the
Western Cape in Matric in 2004, then studied actuarial science at Maties
from 2005 to 2009, balancing that with competing internationally. Having
taken the year off triathlon in 2009, she returned to competition in 2010,
but her injury hoodoo struck once again. “The beginning of 2010 was my
best season and I won XTERRA SA and 70.3 SA, then finished fourth in a
World Cup event, but I was doing too much, too soon, and in May I picked
up another injury.”
In the meantime, Mari had won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to go
study at Oxford University, where she completed a Masters in Statistics
from 2010 to 2012. While in the UK she initially put triathlon on hold,
then decided to try qualify for the 2012 ۙۈ