Milan Born Athlete Set to Compete in Ironman World Championships

Matt Albin at the finish line of Ironman Maryland. Photo: FinisherPix

Milan-native Matt Albin will be competing in two Ironman World Championships this upcoming fall in Europe and plans to continue training to become a triathlon coach himself when he returns. Albin was on the Milan High School swim team starting his freshman year and continued with club swimming at college.

“After college, like a lot of people, I settled into life, and started gaining a few extra pounds,” Albin said. “And at one point I said, I need to do something here to stay fit. So I started doing duathlons. One of my uncles was actually into it, so I thought, I’ll try too. And then that led to triathlons, because I was a strong swimmer. Then once I got into that, I just kind of kept doing it.”

Albin qualified for the Ironman World Championships by taking 2nd in his age group at the Ironman Maryland competition and 3rd at the Ironman 70.3 in Ohio last year.

“I beat my time from when I was in my 30s, and that was my fastest time by over 12 minutes,” Albin said. “My last personal record was when I was in my mid-30s, so I couldn’t believe it. I was 12 minutes faster and 14 years older. So, yeah, that was a great experience. I had some friends that came down and watched that.”

Albin will represent the U.S. in the Ironman World Championship (140.6 miles) in Nice, France this September, and the Half Ironman World Championship (70.3 miles) in Marbella, Spain in November. While having been already heavily involved in competitive fitness, Albin decided to compete in the Ironman when he lost his brother to cancer two years ago.

“He was never in triathlons, but he lived life very full,” Albin said. “For his hobbies, he used to go all in. For him, it was fishing and things like that. So when he passed away, I’d been thinking about doing a full Ironman for 20 years, and I just never did it. And then I said, you know, this is something I gotta quit thinking about doing and doing it. He kind of inspired me to do that.”

Currently pursuing a triathlon training certification, Albin said he wants to focus on helping those who are just getting into triathlons to ensure they have a good experience.

“I want to focus on that group, whether it’s new people or older people, the people first getting into it, and make sure they have a good experience,” he said. “And working with people that are my age and saying, hey, I’m 50, can I actually do this? I’m in my 50s, and I’m getting the best times that I’ve had in my life. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. So, I think that’s an example for anybody that if you want to get into this and you’re willing to commit some time, you can change your lifestyle and you can do some great things.”