Triathlon: Terenzo Bozzone a superstar in the making

Terenzo Bozzone. File picture

Terenzo Bozzone has never done things by halves.

As a nipper on the karate mat, the words character, dedication, self-control, etiquette, discipline and honour were branded into him.

"I think he started karate at four years old and he had to shout those words out every day," says his businessman father Carlo.

"The first time I heard them I thought, 'What are they shouting that out for', but those are the words he has believed in and how he runs his life."

Last weekend, Terenzo Bozzone did what he's always done - he arrived ahead of time.

Competing in his first senior World Cup race in the sweltering Honolulu heat, the 20-year-old Auckland triathlete finished a remarkable fourth, despite putting little emphasis on the race.

Given Bozzone's history, it wasn't a major surprise, even though he has skipped a class in bypassing the under-23 ranks. Bozzone had, after all, won two world junior (under-19) triathlon titles against older opponents, and had done the same in duathlons.

Bozzone was precocious: when the 16-year-old arrived at his first world junior triathlon in Edmonton in 2001, the New Zealand team spent days arguing for a dispensation from the age limit of 17. He'd needed a similar duathlon clearance the year before.

Going into his first senior season this year, Bozzone had targeted next week's renowned Wildflower half-ironman near San Francisco as the place to make a mark.

And what made Bozzone's Hawaiian placing even more remarkable was that he had to battle dizziness during the swim, the result of forgetting to wear a plug in a troublesome ear.

His World Cup race debut reinforced the belief that Bozzone is a triathlon superstar in the making, although one of his coaches, Jon Ackland, urges caution.

"It was a pretty good early-season field ... he definitely shouldn't have been able to do that," says Ackland, a sports scientist and endurance specialist.

"Honolulu was very exciting, but there's still a lot of water to go under the bridge to cement what Terenzo is showing at the moment."

But in his matter-of-fact way, Bozzone was having none of this when the Herald rang him during the week, just as he was leaving his Honolulu hotel room bound for Los Angeles. None of the caution, that is.

With his bags packed and the taxi horn blowing, Bozzone said: "My goals are to be the best triathlete in the world and win the Olympic games ... to really make a stand for triathlons."

There is more.

"I want to be like the Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan of triathlons. At the end of the day, I want to make that kind of difference and put something back into the community."

Woods, Jordan? Okay, maybe. But as for worrying about the community?

Little wonder then that Ackland describes Bozzone as "someone who operates like a 30-year-old".

"In Terenzo's case, most of the things you need for elite performance are already lined up.

"It's too easy to just say he is talented. He is extraordinarily talented, but you need the whole package - confidence, strategies, work ethic, drive, the smarts, commitment. He has got a lot from his parents.

"He's not easily distracted. One of the things he is good at is thinking big. They say the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is the size of the dream.

"He's not interested in being the king of the lily pad. He'd rather take on the entire pond."

Terenzo Bozzone is really Team Bozzone, as he emphatically points out. It includes his parents Carlo and Diane, coaches Mark Bone, Frank Clarke and Ackland, sponsors, doctors, physios, manager Dean Flyger and girlfriend Kelly Lawrence (whose mother, as Marilyn Pryde, was one of New Zealand's finest tennis players).

When New Zealand triathlon official Ian Hepenstall once asked Bozzone's younger brother Dino - a top middle-distance running prospect - what he wanted to be, Dino replied, "Terenzo's manager".

Bozzone even persuaded the notoriously tough-minded swimming coach Jan Cameron to help him out, despite Cameron otherwise shying away from triathletes.

Terenzo Bozzone may still be a bit of string short of a complete package. He has, for instance, still to find clothing and shoe sponsors.

But most things seem in place. He even comes with a glamorous name and looks that match.

The South African-born Bozzone was 9 when his family left their Johannesburg home destined for New Zealand.

Carlo is of French and Italian descent - there is a northern Italian village named after the family - and was born in Mauritius. Diane is a South African of Lebanese descent.

Terenzo Bozzone's young life may have straddled two famous rugby nations, but rugby would never be his sport.

Carlo had been taken by his father to a ward at a Johannesburg hospital which was "full of paralysed kids from playing rugby". But whereas Carlo was allowed to make up his own mind about whether to play the game or not, Carlo made the decision for his own sons.

So Terenzo got involved in other sports - including swimming - before finding triathlons, by accident.

The Bozzones were fascinated by the water activities near their rented house in Rothesay Bay and eventually bought a boat. While wakeboarding one day, the 13-year-old burst an eardrum after crashing when Carlo accelerated too fast.

While he was recovering and unable to go under water, a friend suggested run-bike-run duathlons. He borrowed a bike, and hasn't looked back, although the ear was a problem, requiring a series of operations.

Success flowed for the teenager, with just one acrimonious blot on the Bozzone landscape.

While gunning for an unprecedented third world junior triathlon title in Portugal last May, Bozzone stopped to help fellow New Zealander Ben Pattle who was having an asthma attack during the cycle leg.

It was portrayed in the media as a selfless act which had cost a champion his title, a line some believed Bozzone allowed to be overplayed.

Bozzone had gone straight to Portugal after filming the TV show Treasure Island in Fiji, which had affected his preparation. It was clear before the Pattle incident that he was not in top shape, and off the pace.

THE Bozzone family and coaches say that whatever the situation, Bozzone would have helped and that Pattle has never publicly acknowledged his team-mate's assistance.

It led to Pattle visiting the Bozzone home to clear the air, but Carlo for one still appears angered by the incident.

"The team were nasty to him and said he wasn't prepared properly and used it as an excuse. That just stinks. His countrymen ignored him and were terrible to him," says Carlo.

It also led to suggestions that Bozzone put his profile and sponsorship appeal first on this occasion, doing the TV show instead of training.

Then again, young men will be young men, and a TV show is tempting. And more significantly, the Treasure Island venture reveals a Bozzone who, having already conquered the junior scene, had his eye on the bigger publicity picture.

If that is an unfortunate episode, it is Bozzone's maturity, attention to detail and ability to putmisfortune aside which impresses those around him. Ackland believes Portugal has even "galvanised" him.

Observers recall an exhausted teenager having the presence to track down his sponsored cap before talking to the media after winning the world junior title in Queenstown two years ago. And Ackland marvels at how Bozzone was unfazed after losing three minutes through a puncture at a half ironman.

Ackland also recounts the time Bozzone met the bigwig from a heart monitor company at a seminar for an elite junior squad. Ackland suggested he might be a potential backer for Bozzone, who quickly tracked down chairs for the men when they were left standing in a room. Within two days, Bozzone had sealed a sponsorship deal with the company.

The Terenzo Bozzone motto might be "onwards and upwards".

"At the end of the day, if you don't get there this time, there's always next time when you can do even better," says Bozzone, who will be based in Canada for the next four months.

"And it comes down to the people I have around me - without them I wouldn't be where I am. To them I owe all the honours.

"The motivation is knowing so many people are behind you, that their backing is unconditional. For good people like that, you just want to do well."