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Fabio Spiteri

Profile

Over 27 years in competitive sports, Fabio Spiteri's journey commenced with sprint and middle-distance track events, achieving the pinnacle with two bronze medals in the 4 x 400m relay at Small Nation Games. Calf issues led to a transition to triathlon, marking the start of a remarkable sporting odyssey. In 2013, leaving a 21-year career at Malta Freeport, Spiteri embraced coaching, allowing ample time for personal training and recovery.

In 2017, driven by a desire for greater challenges, Spiteri ventured into ultra-races, completing the triple Ironman, quintuple Ironman, and a nonstop 1000km cycling around Sicily in 47 hours. Despite setbacks, such as failing to finish the Deca Ironman in Brazil and a crash in Switzerland, resulting in a broken clavicle and surgery, these experiences fueled his determination.

Looking ahead to the next season, Spiteri has applied for ambitious races, including 5x Ironman in Colmar, France, and 10x Ironman in Lago di Garda, Italy, aiming to break his national record.

Beyond sports, Spiteri is passionately involved in animal welfare. Launching Project 100, he aims to raise €100,000 from his races, directing funds toward food and medicine for animal shelters and cat feeders. His ongoing fundraising efforts since 2017 have already exceeded €210,000, reflecting a sustained commitment to supporting animal shelters and emphasizing the convergence of sports and philanthropy in Spiteri's inspiring journey.

Interview

  1. What motivated you to transition from a traditional job to a focus on sports coaching and training as a triathlete? Can you share the driving factors that led to this career shift?

Yes, so basically I've worked 21 years at Freeport which involved lots of extreme long hours, weekends, back to back hours of working. I've always loved sport, I've always trained, but it was, unfortunately sometimes I would not be in the mood to race in the morning or finish the night shift and race in the morning.

It was a bit hectic. Having said that, I started coaching on the side, post-triathlete, I was on the MTs at that time, we're talking 2011. Unfortunately I lost my parents that year, so I needed a change in my life, I got my required qualifications and I started full-time coaching.

It was I think the best decision I've ever done, because it's something I love doing. As well it gave me more time for myself to train, to train for my extreme sports, so basically that's how it started.

  1. Endurance sports, especially Ironman races, often come with physical challenges and the risk of injuries. Can you share some of the significant injuries or challenges you've faced as an Ironman athlete, and how have these experiences shaped your approach to training, recovery, and overall resilience in the sport?

To be honest, I changed, used to be a medium-distance runner 400m and 800m, and I changed to triathlon for the simple reason because I used to get a lot of injuries from track. Now running at a very very high speed, using the spike shoes over and over again, I was having issues with my calf, that's why I changed to triathlon. So there's more, there's a more element of injury in short distance than long distance.

Training for an Ironman, training for an ultra-distance, it's more repetitive movement, I'm training in zone 1 and zone 2, low heart rate, slow pace. So, well, you still get some injuries, but my type of injuries is, it's either like the recent cycling crash, I broke my shoulder, but these type of injuries. And there's also the wear and tear during the event itself, like blisters and shoulder pain from extreme, I don't know, 16 hours of swimming.

So, but as you go along, body adapts, mind adapts and you start going even further distances throughout the event.

  1. As an Ironman athlete involved in fundraising for animals, how has your passion for endurance sports translated into support for animal causes?

Yes, I have two passions, which is sports and animals, I have 13 pets myself, I've always lived with pets, dogs, cats, rabbits, they were always part of my life. When I started doing these extreme races, since I'm the only extreme triathlete in Malta, I was getting good followers during my events.

Even through the messages I was getting, phone calls, messages on Facebook, posts on Facebook. And then I said to myself, wow, this can be translated into a good fundraising event. So I amalgamated fundraising with my extreme races, I've been fundraising from 2017 now, and yeah, it's a good idea, I will continue fundraising for as long as my body can take me to do sports.

  1. Are there specific projects, events, or partnerships you are considering to further your efforts and make a lasting difference in the welfare of animals?

Yes, this year I'm taking part in the 5x Ironman World Championships in June in France, and it will build me up for the Deca the 10x Ironman, which will be in Lago di Garda in September. So I created this project 100, the target is collecting 100,000 Euro for animal shelters, and it will start from May, which is one month before my first race, up to September, which will be the last month after my second race. And also I'm in the process of getting a strong team to, we're going to try and organise the e-stream of our animals, tentative date, first week of December, cross fingers it will happen.

  1. As an Ironman athlete and advocate for animal causes, what message do you hope to convey to the general population regarding the intersection of endurance sports and fundraising for animals?

Yes, this is a simple statement for me, please do love your animals, especially your pets at home, do fundraise because there are lots of shelters which are depending on our fundraising, and yes obviously at least people should do some sport activity at least three times a week.

Thank you very much for this interview Fabio, best of luck.