After a year of racing under the World Triathlon colours, Max Stapley has officially completed his switch of sporting to nationality to Great Britain. The change took effect as as of 29th May 2023.
Until 29th May 2022, Stapley represented Australia. However, he has always had somewhat of a nomadic existence as a triathlete.
As a Junior athlete, he was often based in France. Indeed, in 2017 he raced at the European Junior Championships in Kitzbühel as an Australian. That day he finished 33rd.
His World Cup debut for Australia came the following year in Mooloolaba where he finished 27th. In subsequent seasons, he went on to finish 9th at the Chengdu World Cup in 2019 and 6th at the Haeundae World Cup in 2021.
His final race as an Australian came at the Arzachena World Cup in May 2022 where he finished 23rd.
In his year in the international wilderness Stapley raced at World Cups in Bergen and Pontevedra. His high point came with his 6th place at the World U23 Championships in Abu Dhabi.
Within days of his switch, he will be making his first start as a British athlete. At the European Championships in Madrid this weekend, Stapley will be the fifth Brit on the start line. Among his newfound compatriots to be starting are Olympic medallist Jonathan Brownlee and rising talents Ben Dijkstra and Jack Willis.
A potential WTCS debut may also be on the cards for Stapley later this year.
In the bigger picture, his Olympic status is up in the air. As per the World Triathlon Olympic Qualification System, “all athletes must represent the same National Federation during the whole qualification period”. Where the World Triathlon colours fall in this system is a little murky as it technically is not a National Federation.
However, as previously noted, Stapley raced at the Arzachena World Cup for Australia on 28th May 2022. Unfortunately for Stapley the First Period of Olympic Qualification started only one day earlier. As a result he will likely be ineligible to race for Britain at the Paris Olympics.
As things stand, he is 134th in the Olympic rankings so would need to get into the top-30 (or another Brit to get into the top-30) to have a chance of joining the likely duo of Alex Yee and Jonathan Brownlee.
With the likes of Dijkstra and the World U23 champion, Connor Bentley, also ahead of him in pecking order, Stapley’s Paris odds are a little thin.
Going forward, he will likely target a WTCS debut and gaining as much experience as possible to set himself up for a tilt at the 2028 Olympic Games.
