A teenage off-road triathlon athlete from Durbanville in Cape Town has made South Africa proud in Molveno, Italy, where she has just been crowned XTERRA World Champion in her age category.
The 17-year-old endurance athlete Nadia van Wyk won the 16-17 years age group in the second annual XTERRA Youth B World Championships on Sunday 28 September — covering 750m swimming, 15km cycling and 5km running.
She crossed the finish line in a winning time of 1:58:10.
Dedicated training
Nadia’s triumph in Italy is the culmination of years of dedicated training across multiple disciplines.
While off-road triathlon is her current focus, her athletic background is rooted in endurance and technical skill, including mountain biking (MTB), duathlons and road triathlons.
She boasts an impressive list of achievements leading up to the world title.
Among those was her victory earlier this year at the CAC MTB African Continental Championships – XCO in the junior category, highlighting her dominance on the continent’s mountain bike trails.
Turning heads
Nadia has turned heads since 2021 when she won gold medals in the SA Triathlon Championships, the Western Cape XCO MTB Cup and the Western Cape Road Race.
Nadia has achieved 52 gold, 16 silver and 4 bronze medals across triathlon, duathlon, mountain biking, road cycling and athletics from 2021 up until this year.
Top achievements
Besides being the XTERRA World Champion in her category, her other top achievements include competing in the UCI MTB World Championships in Switzerland, taking the SA crown in the South African Triathlon Championships in 2021, 2023 and 2025, in the Xterra Triathlon in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and in SA Duathlon Championships in 2022 and 2023.
In 2022 she achieved victories in the 2022 Triple Crown: SA Road Race, Time Trial, Criterium Golds categories. She attributes her success to her exceptional endurance and race discipline, as well as strong technical bike handling.
International events
Her selection for five international events this year is another highlight of her career.
These include the XTERRA World Championships in Italy; the Junior Cross Triathlon and World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Spain; the World Triathlon Age-Group Championships in Australia; and the Junior African Triathlon Championships in South Africa. she could anly attend the UCI XCO en XTERRA World Championships.
Homeschooled
Nadia, who was at Gene Louw Primary School, started to excel in athletics, especially in long distance, whilst in primary school. She achieved her Western Cape colours in road cycling, mountain biking, duathlon and athletics from 2018 to 2021.
She has been homeschooled since Grade 8 to accommodate her flourishing sporting career. She skipped Grade 8 and continued straight to Grade 9 when she started being homeschooled and will be writing her matric exam soon, her mother, Erika van Wyk, explains.
Next year Nadia will focus on a sporting career, as well as a future after sport, Van Wyk says.
Currently she is focusing on developing herself in all elements of different sports disciplines to be able to make an informed decision later about which discipline she wants to focus on, she says.
World champion in mountain biking
Her biggest dream was to become a world champion, which she has now achieved. Her next big dream is to win the world championships in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. Nadia definitely takes after her father, Rohan van Wyk, who was also a sports star at school.
“But our entire family is quite active,” she says.
With so many sports on her plate, it is no wonder trail running, mountain biking and exercising are among her favourite hobbies. Nadia also likes drawing, music and painting, as well as horse riding.
