Being part of the Namibian team (and the flag bearer) for the first ever Youth Olympic Games is such an honour. Just being able to attend the Games already meant so much to me

The past few month had been so awesome as of all the support I received leading into the Games and especially the last few weeks, the whole Namibian team just received so much help and support from our IOC, we couldn’t have asked for anything better.

As we arrived on the 11th Sep the stress and worries began as usual, they took my bike at the airport and I only got a chance to build it when I arrived at the race venue some days later.

There were so many swimming pools around, but with all the swimmers we got 1 outside pool with no lanes and as for the running: a nice 15min loop around the village. But at the race venue in East Coast Park there where endless roads along the coast, packed full of people and tourists, easy training could be done but nothing more than that. The weather is extremely humid and hot; it was so difficult to do anything lasting more than 30min, my 2 water bottles on the bike kept me going for 60min.

When race day came I felt so good and my preparations couldn’t have gone any better. I knew I did my best and it’s all up to the race now. The swim started really fast, but I kept in front and got out with the leading bunch. Together with around 6 athletes we worked well on the bike, the chase pack was rather big, but wasn’t strong enough to catch or close the 60sec gap. As I started the run I felt ok, wasn’t feeling too good but I barely ever feel good in the first km, so I kept in mind that I’ll pick up speed soon. After the first lap of 2.5km I pushed myself to pass the 4th athlete, but I couldn’t keep that speed and he soon passed me again, so I just gave it all I got to not let any more athletes pass me. When I crossed the finish line in 5th place, with really tough weather conditions I told myself I raced my best today and knew I gave everything I got.

This was one of the best races I have ever done and it was such a wonderful experience!!!

Now for some more extremely hot training sessions here in Singapore and then off to Budapest for Junior Worlds Championships on the 12 September. And then hopefully back home to South Africa.

This was the best feeling I ever experienced in the world of triathlon; standing on the podium while my national anthem played, I was a proud man day today. I knew that with enough training and hard work, all still needed was time to bring where I want to be....

After lots of travel I arrived in Tabor 3days before the event, as always, I won’t train when feeling tired so all I did was getting info, TV and sleeping. After that I went to train, but the weather left me no choice and I had to train whenever I got a chance. I love being in other countries, riding on new roads, running in these awesomely wonderful trail and swimming in either these world class pools or open water. I always feel stressed about where, when and how, but after day 1, everything goes so much better.

When race day arrived, it was so warm and I tried everything to stay cool and not dehydrated or overheat before the race even started. I stayed in the shade until I heard the word go, and that was a false start, we went all out for about 60sec until they managed to stop us, so at least it was a good warm up. When the actual GO went, I went as hard as I could for the swim, but they managed to stay with me and 6 athletes got out together and worked well on the bike, chase pack worked really hard, but couldn’t close the gap. After a hard bike, I started running with sore and tired legs and the 1st of 3 laps was really slow, but I managed to stay with the leading runners, after getting my legs I started picking up speed and kept on

increasing the pace until the end. It was such an awesome feeling passing through the finish line first; I kept the thought of “I can do this, just have some faith in yourself” from the start to end.

What’s up ahead for me: really long travels back to Namibia now to meet the rest of the Namibian Youth Olympic Team and travel to Singapore to race on the 16th, then back to Namibia with the Team and the next day all the way back to Budapest to train and prepare for Junior World Champs. Hopefully then some rest before the South African racings season starts.

After being set back with a long period of no training I didn't know at all what to expect as this was my first race in a long time, though I had some idea that my swimming was good, I didn't think I was up there with the bike and running as well, surprised I were..

Being told that I will receive support from the IOC and NNOC (Namibian National Olympic Committee) for Youth Olympic Games preparation to be held in August. I and my coach Libby Burrell decided to do some European racing before my BIG race. Echternach was first on the list and Tabor-Czech Republic still to come.

Echternach had some tough racing conditions, the water temp was 28.5'C and air temp was around 35'C, it was extremely hot, but if you reside in South Africa and come from Namibia then you will be lucky to have "cold" temperatures like these for summer. It was all normal to me so I handled it perfectly. I went all out in the swim as I'm not such a big fan of swimming in a bunch, just got myself some space and from then I kept the tempo on. Coming into T1 first and a group of 5 athletes including me led the bike for half way till we got caught by nearly everybody, so we were back were we started; all together again. But just before T2 I broke away and started the run in 3rd place, soon I caught everyone and ran at a comfortable pace as I knew I shouldn't go out to hard as I didn't quite know what my body could do. After halfway one athlete caught me, I tried to stay with him, but the pace was just too fast and I wasn't quite ready for that at the moment. I had a surprising 2nd finish.

Now back home (Potchefstroom, SA) for 2 weeks of tough training then off to Czech Republic.

If Spain won the Soccer World Cup and they stayed and trained I’m Potchefstroom, RSA throughout the event, then I'm for sure in the right place...

Seeing as this is the first of many blogs to come, I thought it would be a good start to not only write something about myself, but to also give you some idea of who I am and how I came to be.

Aaaah, the dilemma we all face when we have to tell the story of our lives – where to start? Honestly I have no idea, but I’ll start at the beginning and try to keep it short, so bear with me while I give you an in depth look into the life of Abrahm Louw.

Over the past few years I had many great obstacles that I needed to overcome, but I suppose every aspiring athlete does. This forced me to make decisions and choices which, if I am being truly honest, I doubt I would make again. I have no regrets, as I do not believe that life should be lived one step in the past always beating yourself up about the choices you made. Money was never really one of my desires, but the reality is that you can’t live without it. There were times in my life that when I had something to eat and somewhere to close my eyes for the night, I would be more than happy. If you reside in Africa you will learn the true meaning of poverty. Thanks to my great hard working father, I never really had too big worries and had everything I needed, or at least the basics I suppose. The truth is, if I was not one of the “lucky” athletes who got spotted at an early age, and received sponsored gear and equipment, I would not have been able to continue living out my passion. My parents would never have been able to afford keeping me in the sport.

I always try to stay positive no matter what, through all the ups and downs of life. As I grew up I started realizing how much my parents actually did for me- I am who I am today because of them and all the help and support I received from ITU, Specialized and my sponsors throughout the years from when I started doing triathlon.

The biggest mistake I made was pursuing my one and only dream of becoming a top triathlete and in doing so left my studies to train together with world class athletes in my home town Potchefstroom, South Africa. This went well for some time, but as I was still young I didn’t actually know what I let myself into and before I knew it triathlon was the only thing in my head. I lost most of my social life and I became paranoid with my training and especially with my food . The first year I excelled and did excellent, but we all know what they say about too much of a good thing. From then I didn’t really improve too much, everything went great with my training sessions, but came race day, my performance slacked to an embarrassing level. All of this just because I didn’t have a life outside of triathlon, everything used to be so much fun and exciting and I would never have taken it so serious at such a young age if I knew that this would be the result. This taught me a great lesson in life, but I managed to rescue myself and I have found a way to enjoy training, having a life that doesn’t have anything to do with triathlon, and to enjoy whatever food is available. I thought it would be a good idea to share this because it can have a huge impact on athletes similar to or younger than my age. I think that’s enough for today.

As winter is on the rise in RSA, there’s going to be some tough training and preparation waiting for me leading up to the Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore in August, but thanks to Specialized for supplying warm gear I don’t think it will be a problem (I think I can go train at the Arctic, haha).