Red Bull Australia

Courtney Atkinson is on the verge of becoming one of Australia’s most recognisable names in sport. He has won four consecutive Australian Junior Triathlon Championships from 1996 to 1999 and in 2002, 2003 and 2004 he was Australia’s Triathlete of the Year. Atkinson is a seven-time national triathlon team member and boasts five ITU World Cup wins and 13 podium finishes. And if that wasn’t enough, the Aussie triathlete was also a member of the Australian team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

To top it all off, Atkinson is also a five-time Australian grand prix series champion and in 2007 he won the World Cup event in Ishigaki in Japan, and the Red Bull Jungfrau Stafette Adventure Race in Zurich, while 2008 has netted victories at the Australian Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships, Australian Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships and Nossa Triathlon. And this is just the beginning!

The 29-year-old is a celebrity amongst triathlete enthusiasts since he burst in to the triathete circuit in 1996. Since then he has enjoyed a decorated career and can’t imagine himself doing anything else.

“In my last few years of high school I realised that I wasn’t going to have to get the normal teenage job at Macca’s or the corner shop. I was out racing weekends to make pocket money. Before this, I grew up competing in surf life saving events on the Gold Coast, but the new international sport of triathlon with its opportunities of travel had me hooked straight away,” Atkinson said.

For ‘Acko’, as his mates call him, this is only the beginning of his sporting journey.

“In the back of my mind I would like to think that I am still around when London comes. But that is a long time away and there are so many things I would like to achieve in the sport of triathlon before I retire. I am 29 at the moment, and it seems that guys are hitting their best years in sport in their early 30s, so I have a few years to go I would think!”