Any triathlete wondering "Where’s Waldo?" won't be able to find the tall, lanky Tasmanian, triathlon’s greatest swim-bike threat ever, on a starting line. After bagging a record sixth Noosa title this winter, Craig Walton took a long, clear look at the fire within that launched him to the very summit of the non-drafting short-course world and found it wanting.

“At the end of the day I lost that passion and spark for racing at the elite level,” says the 32-year-old veteran of 17 swim-bike-run seasons. "Every time I toed the line recently, I had a real battle within myself to answer the question: 'What am I doing here?'"

What Walton had been doing all these years was magnificent. For the longest time, Walton was virtually the lone throwback in the brave new world of draft-legal International Triathlon Union World Cup racing who always believed and often proved he could turn back the clock and win without drafting like a NASCAR racer. Walton is a tall (6-feet-2-inches) and muscular (181 pounds) very superior swimmer who could reel off a mid-16-minute 1,500 meters, then go off the front on the bike like Miguel Indurain in a Speedo and at certain times hold off the Lilliputian, fleet-footed, wheel-sucking hordes on the run.

And while he towered over the world of non-drafting like the Colossus he is, winning on his own time-trial merits by embarrassingly large margins at races like Chicago, Los Angeles and Life Time Fitness, his true, brave spirit was best seen when the odds were thrillingly long against him.

On many occasions in ITU-style races, Walton succeeded in breaking free of the drafting remoras, taking off the front and winning two World Cups on flat tracks like Tiszaujvaros and three on the tough hills at the Corner Brook World Cup and another at Geelong. At the 2004 St. Anthony’s Triathlon, he forgot his bike shoes in transition and rode 40km mashing down on tiny Speedplay pedals with his run shoes - and won!

More times than we can count, Walton answered the call in draft-legal races that robbed him of his ace-in-the-hole - cycling time-trial dominance. Whereupon he rode heedless of the odds against him, like Lord Cardigan’s men in the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Superswimmer Walton pounds through the pool

Photo: Timothy Carlson

At the first Australian Olympic qualifier at the 2000 Sydney World Cup, Walton swam first, rode at the front, suffered a flat - came all the way back to arrive at T2 with the first pack. On that incredible bike, Walton passed 40 of the world’s best, pulling Peter Robertson along with him, setting up Robertson for his incredible longshot win and the first Australian Olympic slot as Craig bonked and fell back on the run.

Two weeks later, Walton had his own win-or-die-trying moment. “To make the Olympic team, I had to podium and place first Australian at the ITU World Championship in Perth," he recalls. "With all that pressure, I had a great race, taking the lead until well into the run and finishing a close third behind Olivier Marceau.”

At the Olympics in Sydney five months later, Walton made a break on the bike from a ferocious pack, leading the breakaway and taking a kamikaze lead before a quarter million roaring Aussie fans that lasted halfway through the run. “To lead that race in Sydney for as long as I did, to have thousands of fans cheering you on, is something I will never forget,” says Walton. “There is no greater honour than flying the flag for Australia.”

As for his go-for-broke attitude, Walton says, “It’s my classic strategy.”

In some big races, Walton gave it his best and came up just short, taking second to Chris McCormack at Wildflower and Escape From Alcatraz in 2001. In North American races in 2002 and the first half of 2003, Walton went virtually unbeaten.

Walton’s unparalleled work ethic was forged in his upbringing in Tasmania. “I was a lot tougher coming out of there than if I had grown up on the Gold Coast, where the weather is warm and there are outdoor swimming pools every five kilometers and big squads of triathletes to train with,” he says. “My father (Vic) pulled me out of bed every day at 7 a.m. from the time when I was 7 years old until I left home at 20. He made sure I did all the tough work that needed to be done. He was quite hard on me and didn’t offer too many accolades. He taught me you have to work very hard from an early age.”

What Walton learned from his dad was self-reliance. “I just had the hunger,” he says. “While most guys raced and trained as full professionals, I worked from 7 a.m. and got home at 6 p.m. I’d go out at night in the middle of winter when it was raining and 3 degrees Celsius. I put on all my thermals - four layers with balaclava, wetsuit boots over my riding shoes and wetsuit gloves on - and rode with a small light for two or three hours. I couldn't do it now. I’ve softened - compared to what I used to be.”

Walton carried that drive throughout his career. “For most of my career, I swam six kilometers as hard as I could, then I rode two-three-four hours a day, as hard as I could. And then I’d run as hard as I could for an hour. Five or six days a week.”

Walton found that that Puritan ethic worked against him in his Ironman ambitions. “I was aiming at Ironman Hawaii in 2002, and I read about the sessions Luc van Lierde did before his Ironman debut in 1996. I thought if I’m going to do Ironman, I should mimic those sessions and train along those lines. I did some crazy stuff. In fact. I trained so hard I didn’t win. I got third at Ironman California in 2001 and fourth at Ironman Australia in 2002. I think it does you some damage mentally when you work that hard and have your body shutdown 20km into the run and you have to walk to recover. "

Walton explains: "I was one of those people who wouldn’t show up at the start line unless I had done more work than anyone else. Now I think I might have done better if I hadn’t trained so hard. But by the end of the day, my whole psychology wouldn’t allow me to do it any other way. You can’t change your whole mentality. In my heart. I knew I was not an Ironman athlete.”

Eventually, Walton wore down. A staph infection on his arm took him out of action in 2003. A bike crash took him out for another spell. From late 2004 through 2006, glandular fever left him weak and flat on his back, unable to train, undergoing a sort of death of his athletic self. Since then, he recovered but rarely matched up to his old standards. Perhaps the closest he came was at the 2007 Los Angeles Triathlon, where he led all day but lost by five seconds to a late race rally by Greg Bennett.

“Since my sickness, the only race where I felt like the old Craig Walton, was L.A. On the swim and the bike and the run, I felt strong again. Look, I used to feel that way every time I raced, not just once a year. So I came to see it was definitely time to hang up my boots.”

While many could not understand why a man who was just 32 years old and had just dusted the cream of the crop at Noosa for a sixth time would retire, Walton says: “Even though I trained hard since my health was back to normal, my body lost all its racing strength and I couldn’t seem to get it back. I was inspired by what my good friend Greg Bennett did winning the Life Time Series this year and I wanted to knock him off. But in the end, my heart and mind weren’t in it. I didn’t have the fire. The good days came few and far between. I knew it was inevitable I’d finish second at Noosa, then slide down to fourth and fifth and 10th. Better to go out with a win my last race there.”

Walton says he has no regrets. “I’ve achieved more in triathlon than I ever dreamt of when I started the sport 17 years ago,” he says. “I would have been happy to win Noosa once, much less six bloody times. I never thought I’d be classed as one of the best in the world, that I’d win seven World Cups, that I’d win Chicago, L.A., Minneapolis. It’s been a great ride. But every athlete has to call it a day sooner or later.”

Walton coaching Snowsill

Photo: Timothy Carlson

On his way out, Walton says he has a lot of people to thank. “I learned a lot from my coaches, Bill Davoren and Brett Sutton. I have to thank a lot of my sponsors, especially Jim Felt, who stuck with me through thick and thin.”

During his sickness, Walton eased into a larger and larger coaching role with his longtime girlfriend Emma Snowsill, as she won her second and third ITU world championships. “At this point in time, my focus the next few months is to try to help Emma go to the Olympics and win a medal. Now that I’m not trying to take off on my bike for my own sessions, I’m able to play more of a coaching role than I ever did in the past.”

So now Walton will get his excitement from working with Snowsill. Looking ahead, he sees himself coming full circle, launching into real estate and property development in Australia, following in his father’s footsteps after leaving some mighty big footsteps for the rest of the sport of triathlon to follow.