LONDON — When Hunter Kemper saw Great Britain’s amazing Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan, fly by Tuesday, he may have seen modern triathlon fly by him, too.
One of only two men who’ve competed in all four Olympic triathlons, the 36-year-old Kemper finished a respectable 14th. He’ll look back at four Olympics and two top-10 finishes and look ahead to a triathlon that has become a speedster’s game.
“Jonathan and Alistair are changing the sport,” Kemper said, “to where you’ve got to run very, very fast. I apparently wasn’t doing that today.”
Kemper, a Colorado Springs resident since 1998, was a darkhorse, at best. Every prognostication had Alistair Brownlee winning with Spain’s Javier Gomez and Jonathan Brownlee battling for silver. That’s exactly what happened on a gorgeous course that started and ended in Hyde Park, with passes by Kensington Gardens and Victoria Hall and a drivethrough under the Marble Arch.
The trio broke the entire pack at the start of the run. Alistair won in 1:46.25 with Gomez at 1:46.36 and Jonathan, despite a 15-second penalty for an illegal bike transition, getting the bronze in 1:46.56.
“It’s getting crazy fast right now,” Kemper said. “Maybe that means it’s time for me to leave. Being 36 years old, the leg speed is not quite there. It sure as heck wasn’t there today.”
Kemper was 24th after the 1.5 kilometer swim and was close to the leaders at the end of the 43-kilometer bike race. But as he approached the transition (T-2) from the bike to the 10,000-meter run, something went wrong.
“I really struggled coming into the last 400 meters,” Kemper said. “I was in good position with a quarter mile to go and ended up being in the back coming off the bike and that’s an important part of the race. I was way far back and that was it.”
There was no catching the big three, who’ve represented the top three triathletes the past three years. Making it worse, the Brownlee brothers had countryman Stuart Hayes protecting them from the wind in the bike race.
Then the Brownlees and Lopez made a major break at the start of the run, leaving the rest of the field thinking of a good pub.
“You need to put yourself in the front so when they do the burst you’re right there with it,” Kemper said. “I can’t start 10 seconds behind or whatever I did. I need a full 10K to wind up and get into it and I needed a little more than 10K.
“I needed about 40 K.”
So Kemper leaves a legacy of four Olympics with a 17th, a ninth, a seventh and a 14th. Canada’s Simon Whitfield, the other man with four Olympics under his belt, wasn’t so fortunate. He crashed on the bike and didn’t finish.
“He has two medals,” Kemper said. “I don’t have any. I’m very proud of being in that company. It’s something that’s special to me and I’ll definitely hold dear. Even now I’ll hold it dear.”
His parents, wife and 5-year-old son Davis are here and they’ll watch the rest of the Olympics. But Kemper’s not retiring. Not yet.
Whether it’s the camaraderie of the triathlon world or a new subservient team role in the future, he looks at Rio 2016, however far in the distance, as another opportunity.
“Maybe I’ll be part of that five-time club,” he said. “Then I’ll be real special. Put me out there in a wheelchair in Rio. I’ll swim and bike and pull the Stuey Hayes role and support my team in Rio.”
