Richard Varga is a Slovak triathlete born 28th January 1989. He is a winner of the 2010, 2012 and 2013 ITU Aquathlon World Championship.
He represented Slovakia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in men's triathlon and had the fastest swim split in the event before ultimately finishing in 22nd place.
Richard has always excelled in swimming and thanks to that he got the attention of not only competitors, but organisers as well. He received an invitation from a french triathlon club Sartrouville for Iron Tour France 2010. He was in a team with Alistair and his brother Jonathan Brownlee. Richard made friends with both of them and has been training with them since and his results significantly improved.
On 15th September 2013 Richard had competed in the last race of the ITU World Triathlon Championship finishing 31st. Though overall in the series he placed 20th in the championship. After the race he kindly provided Kaya Therapy with an interview, which I will give you a quick glance off:
K: How was the race and how are you feeling?
R: The race was quite good considering that I was ill last week. Yesterday I injured my foot in training. Considering these things, I tried to push out the maximum and I think I achieved it. In triathlon, one day can be great and everything goes smooth and then another is worse like today. Even though I wasn't in the best form, I still ended up with a decent result.
K: In spite of the injury did you finish to your expectation?
R: A week ago before I got ill I was hoping to finish in the first ten, which was 20 places better. I think I set myself realistic goals. I had higher ambitions, but sport is like that, one moment all is great and then the other it is not.
Richard at ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in London
K: How did you get into triathlon and what has lead you to it?
R: I got into triathlons through my brother, he started after his swimming career with triathlons. I used to go watch him and it appealed to me and sometimes he used to bring me along to compete in aquathlon and I was successful. Then Gabriel Baran noticed me, he was my ex-triathlon coach who was a member of a swimming club STU Slavia Bratislava which I used to belong to. The team had been supporting me since I was 14 and motivated me to do triathlons, they saw a potential in me and with time I moved into triathlons.
K: You are famous for the fastest swim and being the first one out of the water. Have you always been a good swimmer?
R: I would say yes, when I was 8-10 years old I was accomplishing national records, I was winning various races. I think I was talented and of course I had to work hard. It was not only about the talent, but also about the training and I put in a lot of kilometers. Now I don't need to do as much training as I used to do, to be ahead of everyone.
Richard Varga at the 2012 Summer Olympics. First out of the water!
K: How often do you train? Do you have your own coach?
R: I train about 36-40 hours a week. I have 3 and 4 phases of training and I have a personal coach Kristian Cupak, who is an athletics and a conditioning coach from Bratislava and when I am in the country we sort out winter preparation.
K: What about sponsors, is it easy to gain them?
R: At the moment I am in a sport marketing team called Team Slovakia run by Richard Galovic and there is an elite team of Slovakian athletes such as Hrbaty, Kuzminova, Hantuchova, Gaborik, brothers Hochschorners, Martikan and Dukatova. They started to sponsor me recently. Due to the economic crisis not many people have money to sponsor athletes and the state can't, therefore you need to seek private sponsors. We are trying to resource sponsors from abroad for wet suits and triathlon suits. The bike I have is from Trek Slovakia, they help me a lot and I appreciate them supporting me and spending the money on my ambitions to improve and deliver a better result.
K: Where do you normally train? Do you utilise a swimming pool open to the public or a private one?
R: During the summer period, in July and August, when in Slovakia we have a few lanes reserved in public pools and most people are considerate and do not intervene, so I can train comfortably. We also swim in lakes once a week, but during the year we have normally 1-2 lanes reserved for training.
K: Does your coach motivate you? What motivates you to improve?
R: My coach always motivates me, but I have never had a problem where he has to motivate me. It is actually the other way around, he has to stop me and tell me that less training is sometimes good.
K: Earlier you mentioned injuries. Do you get them often and how do to deal with them?
R: Because I train a lot the injuries come around often, some are lighter and some more serious. It is difficult to say how bad the injury is, as sometimes you think that you will be fine and it will pass within a few days or sometimes it will just not go away. Then I try different things like relaxing, having a massage for muscle relief, applying ice and then also sometimes heat, stretching as well. If it is more serious I would have an MRI scan but if nothing else works, then resting or strapping up with tape works. Depending on how serious the injury, it may take a long time.
K: Do you listen to the advices of the specialists or do you tend to ignore them?
R: Within the past 2-4 years I have gone through a lot of injuries. At first I used to listened to them, but of course they do not know the position I am in and so tell you not to do anything for 2 months, however in this sport it is really unrealistic. I learnt that some people will say "you can't do something", but you can always find a way to do it. So I try everything to make it work.
K: Do you have your own personal masseur? How often do you have massages? Do you prefer them before or after a race?
R: I don't have a personal masseur and in co-operation with TEAM SLOVAKIA, I am supposed to get a masseur or physio therapist throughout winter who should be taking care of me, but at the moment I do not have massages that often, once or twice a week. I travel a lot and I can't afford to pay a masseur to go with me, even though it would be the best. I prefer to have a massage after the race.
Richard Varga with Karin Polcerova (Kaya Therapy)
K: What does your nutrition look like? What is it like for the race day?
R: 24 hours beforehand, it is a carbohydrate diet, so rice and pasta, but nothing heavy. And then 3 days before I'd have some meat for proteins, nothing especially heavy so pretty much only sugars.
K: How much do you eat in a day? Do you count or watch your calories?
R: I don't watch the calories. When you train 5 to 7 hours a day you don't need to as you burn a lot. You would look at including amino acids and protein shakes. You would also need to combine and find a right balance by having salads, vegetables, proteins, carbohydrates as well as vitamins. You have to be sensible, for example, eating beans during the day will upset your stomach for the run. You have to plan ahead by thinking about what and when you eat, and whether the stomach processes the food quickly enough.
K: What is your next challenge in a triathlon? Would you have an interest in doing an Ironman?
R: Yes, but at the moment I am focusing on the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio where I would like to succeed and fight for a medal as long as I am healthy and hopefully for 2020, but of course it all depends on my health and motivation and then I would like to give the Ironman a go.
K: What do you like to do in your free time if you manage to find any?
R: I like sleeping, reading books, watching TV and common things like walking in the countryside or in a town, listening to music.
K: How do you handle the popularity in Slovakia?
R: I don't have a problem with it. I am abroad most of the time and it is not that huge to affect me.
K: Going back to the race, what are your feelings when it doesn't go up to your expectation? Are you hard on yourself?
R: I do recap the race and pin point what has gone wrong. I write it down and look at it before the following race and try to avoid it, so it does not happen again. In triathlon there are many things which can go wrong and the mistake can be easily repeated, but it is impossible to think of all those things because there are loads. Throughout the race you do things automatically and even though you think on how you would do all of them the best, in some situations you can do things differently. Each race varies like today, where I knew I was supposed to run slower but I ran faster than I wanted to and let myself go, but if I ran slower I could have been 15 seconds faster and it would not have made a massive difference.
K: Which race, out of all you have done, did you enjoy the most?
R: I think abroad in Kitzbuhel Austria, when we cycled up a hill which was aproximatelly 12 kilometers long. I ended up being 6th, which was very special and I would like to experience it again. In Slovakia I always like racing at home in Bratislava as my brother Michal who is organising a few races there in Cunovo or Strkovec (districts in Bratislava). I always have friends and family to support me and the atmosphere there is great.
Richard and his mum Viera
Many thanks to Richard's mum Viera for arranging this interview.
It was great meeting Richard in person, he is down to earth, humble and pleasant guy. I wish him the best of luck and success for the future.
