Name: Ian Dempsey
Age: 37
Hometown: Aldridge, West Midlands

My sporting career started at the age of 6 as a swimmer for my local club Walsall. At the time Walsall boasted talents such as Nick Gillingham (Olympic silver & bronze medalist) this was inspirational as a young swimmer seeing what these guys went onto achieve.

When training from such a young age you don’t, at the time understand the importance of hard work and consistency but It definitely gets ingrained into your DNA and still to this day provides me with the platform to achieve sporting success. My true belief is that you can accomplish anything with hard work, commitment, consistency and a strong will.

After finishing my A-Levels I decided against going to university and took an opportunity to work in Florida as a lifeguard/ swimming teacher on a summer camp; this was my first experience at coaching and I instantly took to the process of helping my swim groups to improve technique and confidence in the water. My 3 years in the USA also gave me a tremendous life experience.

After returning to the UK I took a job with Fitness First, primarily as a sales consultant but upon qualifying as a level 3 personal trainer, I moved over into this side of the business. It was at this time a member asked me to give him some swimming advice for an upcoming triathlon he was taking part in later that year in Marbella, Spain. After some initial advice he then asked for some 1:1 swim lessons. I was happy to help but also intrigued to hear more about this triathlon?! After 3/4 weeks my client knowing about my swimming background and more lately of my running achievements suggested I should do the triathlon in Marbella. I said ‘’I’d love to -but don’t own a bike“. “I’ll sort that” he said, and off we went! 1900m swim (8th out the water) 56 mile hilly bike (about 500th) and a half marathon (1hr 23mins) I was hooked. Who would have thought that just 3 years later I’d be representing team GB in my age-group in the World Triathlon Championships finishing in 6th place.

The next 5 years were all about building my fitness coaching business; Fitclub & obviously my new found love of triathlon. I have through this time applied the hard work and commitment strategy to both Fitclub and triathlon and both have moved from strength to strength. Positively, my triathlon results seemed to inspire our local community which worked hand in hand with building a local fitness business. I’ve coached over 500 people between 2009 and 2018 in many areas including weight loss, strength, running, swimming and more lately, triathlon. Using the vast experience I’ve gained over the last 8 years whilst racing in triathlon, I now feel in a strong position to share my knowledge and help individuals who have a desire to improve; from All levels of Triathlon.

Below are a list of my personal triathlon achievements from recent years.

Results
IM70.3 Weymouth 2018 – 1st 35-39 12th overall. 2017 – 3rd 35-39
Outlaw Holkham 2018 – 2nd overall
IM70.3 Staffs 2018 – 3rd 35-39. 2017 1st 35-39. 2016 1st 30-34.
IM70.3 Mallorca 2018 9th overall
Challenge Gran Caneria 2017 – 2nd Age Grouper overall
Challenge Salou 2017 – 1st age grouper overall
Challenge fuertventura 2017 – 1st age grouper overall.
London Triathlon 2016 – 1st age grouper

World Champs
ITU Edmonton Canada 2015 6th
IM70.3 Zell em Zee 2016 14th
IM70.3 South Africa 2018 11th