After a career spanning more than ten years, Scottish elite triathlete Cat Morrison has retired from the sport, saying she had started experiencing “feelings of disengagement”.
Morrison’s notable successes include a gold at the Duathlon World Championships in 2006, a bronze medal in the Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in 2007, and consecutive golds in the Long Distance World Duathlon champs in 2007 and 2008. More recent successes include victory at last year’s Ironman 70.3 Auckland and Alpe d’Huez Long Course Triathlon.
However, she failed to finish at the Ironman World Championships in Kona last year, and reveals on her blog that while she was hugely disappointed, she “wasn’t as heart and gut-wrenchingly disappointed as I had been in previous years when things didn’t go to plan.”
The athlete adds: “Over the past season I have struggled to be fully mentally focused on triathlon. Training, racing and travelling has not given me the same positive feedback, fulfillment and personal satisfaction that it has done in the past. I found myself questioning why I was training and competing."
Thus, Morrison says that it is time to change and develop new opportunities to challenge herself, although she’s “not entirely sure” what these new challenges are, adding: “For someone who thrives on focus, routine and working to a plan it is daunting, intimidating and scary. But that also makes it exciting!”
This is the second high-profile retirement announcement in the sport this year already, with New Zealand’s Olympic silver medallist Bevan Docherty calling time on his stellar career last week.
(Images: Triathlon.org)