Ready to Climb: Matthew Marquardt’s Trek Speed Concept

Photos: Kevin Mackinnon

After multiple IRONMAN podiums in years past, Ohio’s Matthew Marquardt has levelled up in 2025, winning in Cairns and Lake Placid in back-to-back months earlier this summer. Now he is in Nice, France, for his third crack at the IRONMAN World Championship (he finished 11th in Nice in 2023 and 15th in Kona last year), and he has a real chance to do something special on race day. Triathlon is far from Marquardt’s only endeavor, however, and when he’s not training, he’s neck-deep in studies at medical school and philanthropic work. Chasing a world title is the main focus for this week, though, and he will be dialled in on that hunt ahead of Sunday’s race.

A Busy Schedule

For a lot of people, juggling med school, charity work and training for professional triathlon would be way too much to handle. Marquardt says the opposite, noting that it not only isn’t too much, but that he believes that each pursuit helps him with the others.

“I certainly have had periods of time where it’s, like, just triathlon or just med school,” he says. “I think that they both do mutually benefit each other.”

He points to his training schedule, saying that he never overthinks his workouts. To overthink or add to them would take away from his other duties in life, and he simply doesn’t have the time for that.

“It’s very much like, ‘OK, here’s my block of time to do my workout’ … and then I’m on my way doing whatever comes next or medical school or research or philanthropy,” he adds. “I think that really helps keep balance in that I don’t kind of overanalyze any one spot in my life.”

Marquardt adds that this balancing act gives him a unique and healthy perspective on these various parts of his life.

“Triathlon is, you know, a really cool thing,” he says. “It’s really important [to me], but medicine is also really important. Helping people is really important. So having those kind of two things to kind of be able to balance each other out is really important.”

He continues, admitting that there have “certainly” been times when he has missed out on sleep to fit all of these things into his schedule, but he says that trade is well worth it for him.

“I think the mental side of having purpose and having just a greater mission in life, I think, much outweighs kind of those benefits from the performance side,” he says.

Racing for Others

Triathlon is an inherently individual sport, but Marquardt has found a way to bring other people along with him in races. In Nice on Sunday, he will be riding with the names of more than 50 individuals who have had or are currently fighting cancer. This started with just a few initials of people Marquardt knows personally who have battled cancer, but the list has grown ahead of this year’s world championship.

“A couple people had asked me in previous years if their initials could be added,” he says. “I decided
I would open it up to the greater community.”

He has a donation page through Pelotonia, an Ohio-based nonprofit dedicated to fundraising for cancer research, and anyone was able to request to have their initials or the initials of a loved one added to his bike frame. Donations were encouraged (but there was no fee to have initials added), and the fundraiser has nearly reached $10,000.

Some of the names he’ll be carrying with him on his bike are those of triathletes who always wanted to race at the worlds but are now unable to due to their health conditions.

“It brings a lot of purpose to me to be able to have those initials on my bike and basically take them along for the course, because they otherwise would not be able to,” Marquardt says. “The initials push me in the races and kind of through those dark moments.”

Ready for Nice

Marquardt says he of course wants to perform well on Sunday, but he won’t be measuring his success based solely off of his final ranking in Nice.

“Everyone’s dream is to win a world title and, you know, that’s the same for me,” he says. “But I think, as well, there are a lot of other goals, there are a lot of other ways that I can come out of this weekend and still be really happy with the performance regardless of the result.”

Marquardt says his philosophy in life is to give his all in every pursuit. He wants to reach his potential, but if that level isn’t enough for a win, he’s OK with that.

“I’ve always said before every race, you know, like if I put together what I think is the best race ever for myself and still come in 15th I’m going to be happy with that,” he says. “A lot of times for me that has meant that results have come with it, which is a nice bonus.”

He says his IRONMAN wins in Cairns and Lake Placid were perfect examples of this.

“It was obviously really phenomenal to get back-to-back wins,” he says, “but what I was most excited
about was to really finally feel like I was putting together a full race and to really see the body
respond in the way that I knew that it could respond based on the training that I’ve done.”

He believes he can recreate this feeling on the weekend.

“Hopefully Sunday will be no different and I can race the race well strategically as well as physically, and whatever happens,” he says.

With files from Ben Snider-McGrath

Matthew Marquardt’s Trek Speed Concept

Marquardt is running SRAM Red components and used the included power meter. He’s got a 56/43 chainring on the front.

Marquardt has given himself lots of gears to play with for the climbs on the course here in Nice.

Marquardt is riding with Shimano Dura Ace pedals.

The Princeton Carbon Works 7580 front wheel is combined with the Blur 633 Disc. He’s riding Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR tires – 25mm front, 28mm back with roughly 75 psi in each.

The Sync Ergonomic Aerobar has room for two water bottle cages up front, with his Garmin computer lined up front and centre.

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