The World Triathlon Series simply wouldn’t be the same without the strong Russian contingency consistently pushing the pace in the men’s races. Leading that pack is two-time Olympian Dmitry Polyanskiy. As one of the speedy sets of brothers on the circuit, Dmitry can almost always be found on the front end of the swim and in the top 10 of nearly every race he enters. Last year, his top performances earned him a third-place finish in the overall World Championship rankings. ITU recently caught up with Dmitry in Yokohama to talk triathlon, his future, and the family training dynamics.

What memories do you have of your first ever triathlon?
It was in my home town about ten or more years ago, it was a wonderful experience for me. It was held in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. I can’t remember where I finished but it was a most enjoyable experience. My father encouraged me to take part. I was a swimmer but I had a very good run and so my father said for me to go and try triathlon.

What is your favourite ITU race?
My favourite race is in Yokohama in Japan and in Madrid in Spain. I like both races and for me it feels like home because I am not far from my home.

Five years from now, where will Dmitry Polyanskiy be?
In the Russian team, we are very focused on the next Olympics in Rio, this is the important goal for us. We are training and learning new technical skills, all to prepare for the Olympic Games in Rio and of course I will try to be there. In London I had no luck with my wheels but in Rio I will be 29 years, which is I think my peak condition for triathlon. I will try, the whole team will try to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

Favourite and least favourite training activities?
Now of course it is running, this is the most important thing for us and the part of my training I enjoy the most. We are working on new technical parts of the run, we have to try and change things because now it is so high level, so fast. I don’t like the swim very much because all my life I have been swimming, since I was about 6 years old and sometimes it is too much swimming so I don’t like swim training sometimes.

Biggest influence on your career?
There are many, my father and my mother of course. And my coach too but I think the biggest influence for me is my brother. Because we are training together from a young age to now, we spend so much time together. We are competitors and we try to go to everything together too and help each other. We are very close.