Anne Haug | Beyond Human: The Series | Ep 3

He lives and breathes the sport, absolutely obsessed, faultless in that race, yes I'm actually probably obsessed with triathlon. I think any triathlete competing at this level has to have a level of commitment which borders on obsession or do you need to be obsessed to reach the levels that she has reached and continues to reach. From Germany, Annie Howe comes in with some fantastic resume. Athletes, you're in the hands of the starter. She came into this sport quite late. Challenge Roth, she was faultless in that race. Right now Annie is putting together the best all-round race. Now this is one of the greatest runners we've ever seen in the sport. No, I don't love it, but I love the feeling after. I mean it's the best feeling ever. If you have a really, really hard session or a long session or something you really hate to do, satisfaction after. Once you achieved it, it's an absolutely amazing feeling. I think it's the best feeling in life and that's what I'm addicted to. The feeling after the training. How would you describe Anne Howe? I don't want to say she's typically German, but I think if I did say that, people might know what I meant. Efficient, ultimate professional triathlete, really. I think Anne is almost obsessed about triathlon. She's living it 24 hours, seven days a week. She's very, very professional. I think she's training very seriously, but it's not just the training, it's also the whole living. She's just doing triathlon in her life and I think this is one reason why she is so successful. Is there anything else in a life than triathlon? It's a Spartan way of doing things. You always focus on what's the next session going to be, how do I refuel, how do I recover, what's my race plan, what are my numbers looking like and then you go again. If that's not obsession, I'm not sure what is. To be honest, there is not much outside of triathlon and for some people it may sound like completely sad or boring or whatever, but I think it's just such a privilege to do that because I had a normal life before. I didn't grow up like most of the other athletes. I had to fight for that a long time and now I just want to live it to the fullest because I know how quickly it can be over. That's the reason why I absolutely love it and don't miss anything or because I had a normal life before and I choose it, the life I live. I don't want to go the easy way. I had such a strong chlorine allergy. I could have picked running or do a floor where I was really good, but I wanted to pick something I'm really bad in and wanted to be better and prove myself that I can do it. If the question is, is Anne Haug obsessed by triathlon, then I think you just need to look at her lifestyle. It's eat, it's sleep, it's train. She lives in the Olympic village, lives and breathes the sport. It can hardly be a more Spartan existence. Yeah, I live here in the Olympic Training Centre. Since 2013, after the Olympics in London, I moved in. Everything is super close. I have perfect training conditions and I have everything I need to perform well, so for me it's the perfect spot to be. Quiet and calm life and just focused on my work and that's what I really enjoy and what I think I have the best performance out of it. You always have a choice in life. You don't have to pick that life, but I picked it for purpose. Of course, if you want to achieve high goals, you have to sacrifice things. I can't meet friends or go to weddings or parties or whatever. I don't have a weekend. Seventeen years, I never had a weekend or a holiday or whatever, but it's not a sacrifice for me because I choose it because I have an amazing life. I think it's so amazing to see what's possible and I think most of the people don't trust their body or don't trust how good they can be or they don't allow themselves to dream and go after their dream and I think you shouldn't be afraid of failing because if you're afraid of failing more than you're curious about what's possible, then you don't even start and I think that's a big mistake. I think what Anne Haug has achieved in the sport is phenomenal. There's talk of other athletes that are 40 plus. When are they going to retire? Are they over the hill? We're not having those discussions about Anne Haug. In many ways, Anne Haug is still getting better. She still seems to be running faster and faster and faster. We've seen that recently, Ironman 70.3. Lanzarote, she's running a 76-minute half marathon. She just doesn't seem to be slowing down. Lanzarote was just an amazing race. If I would dream the race, it would be exactly like Lanzarote turned out. I think the European Open Ibiza will be an epic race because the best athlete in the world from every distance will battle it out. You have to be on top of your game to even have the slightest chance of being successful there. There are so many good swimmers in the pack that it will have a completely different dynamics. Lizzy Charles-Parkley is just an absolutely amazing athlete and she races the bar. She showed everyone what's possible in the swim. Ashley Chantle, now she finds, I think, her perfect distance. To see her at the PDO races last year was absolutely outstanding and I'm really happy for her because now she's really killing it. Paula Findlay, she was a bit of my hero when I started triathlon. When I just made the transition to ITU, she was the big star. She had one year where she won almost every race and she was an absolutely fantastic athlete. She's a champion, you know? I know what she was capable of in short course, so that's no surprise for me. At the PDO races, people have performances you have never, ever on your list and that makes it so exciting. The depth of field in Ibiza should be really, really top-notch. You've got the top 30 men, the top 30 women in the PDO rankings going against one another. Not just the leading names at the moment, some of these are the leading names of all time. I mean, I can't remember any season where I lined up in almost every single race facing the best athletes in the world. In every other season, you can pick your races and because everyone has to qualify for Hawaii, they can spread around a bit to get their slots and then they finally meet at one big race a year. But nowadays with the PDO races, you meet them in every single race. You know, when you're looking at the racing calendar, you're looking at this PDO European Open and saying, I want to be there and I think when you get all those names towing the start line at the same time, it should make for an epic, epic encounter. My goal for Ibiza is just to get on the limit of my performance. I think it will be an epic race. When do you have the chance to race the best short-course athlete and the best long-course athlete in the world? I mean, that's quite unique. And to win that would put you in a position to be the best overall triathlete. I think goals you can achieve easily don't have the same values like races where you really have to dig in really, really deep and have the strongest feel possible, then a victory is so much, so much better. Imagine that you've just won Ibiza. What would that mean to you? It would mean that you maybe are the best triathlete in the world. We've just arrived in Ibiza. We're here for the PTO European Open on Saturday. Really excited to be here. It's the first race of the season for me, so a pretty cool place to start the season. I think that it won't be easy to do what I did last year. It'll be interesting to see how everyone stacks up so early on in the season. Pretty good to finally be in Ibiza and having a race week. Jeez, it's a different crowd, isn't it? I guess he and Alistair is feeling as much of the nerves. I guess we all feel a bit the same that it's a race we all want to win. And the fact that it means so much makes the stakes even higher. A stellar cast list made up with some of the biggest names in triathlon gathered in Ibiza. For the first event of the PTO season and a chance to be crowned the PTO European Open champion. Time to get excited again, Helen, as we build up to one of the most incredible start lists we've seen in women's triathlon. I mean, look, Ashley Gentle, the queen of 100k there with Lucy Charles-Barclays right there. Paula Findlay, of course, maybe the greatest of all time in Daniela Ryf. Annie, when you look at that list, Helen, I mean, how can you sum it up? Oh, it's absolutely ridiculous. There are so many names to call out. I don't know who's going to come out on top. We are racing.