{"id":19067,"date":"2022-11-14T17:54:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T16:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/?p=118063"},"modified":"2022-11-14T18:06:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T17:06:15","slug":"vasco-vilaca-background-career-highlights-quotes","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/rss_feed\/vasco-vilaca-background-career-highlights-quotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Vasco Vila\u00e7a: Background, career highlights, quotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Nige Tassell\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 14 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Still only in his\u00a0early 20s, the Portuguese triathlete Vasco Vila\u00e7a has already made a sizeable impact on short-course racing, no more so than the unexpected silver medal he won at the single-race world championships in 2020. A lengthy and well-decorated racing career beckons\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who is Vasco Vila\u00e7a?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Born in the Lisbon suburb of Amadora in the last days of the 20th century, Vasco Vila\u00e7a knew very early on what career he wanted for himself.<\/p>\n

At the age of six, he competed in his first duathlon (\u201cI only raced duathlon as I didn\u2019t like the idea of swimming in dirty water!\u201d), whereupon he duly announced that his life goal was to become a professional triathlete.<\/p>\n

This ambition didn\u2019t falter after the Vila\u00e7a family moved to Sweden in 2013 due to his professor father\u2019s work and a national multisport title in his adopted home would follow.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Vila\u00e7a \u2013 whose sister was also competing at a high level \u2013 took his first international title, crowned European junior champion in Kitzb\u00fchel.<\/p>\n

He took this form to Rotterdam three months later where he earned himself silver in the junior worlds. Vila\u00e7a had arrived.<\/p>\n

His move into the elite ranks showed great promise, in particular a second-place finish in a European Cup race in Malm\u00f6. However, nothing prepared the triathlon world for the version of Vila\u00e7a who emerged after the enforced hibernation of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

As the sport found its feet again, the first major race was a one-off sprint-distance race in Hamburg to decide the 2020 world champion, and in the German port city, at the age of 20 Vila\u00e7a took a highly unexpected silver behind reigning champion Vincent Luis<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a trick he repeated the following weekend when he again finished second to Luis over the Olympic distance in a World Cup race in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

Although the last two seasons haven\u2019t hit those same heights, Vila\u00e7a has consolidated his position in the vanguard of elite triathlon with both a string of World Triathlon Series top 10s and sharp displays in Super League. His time is truly yet to come.<\/p>\n

How old is Vasco Vila\u00e7a?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Vasco Vila\u00e7a was born on December 21 1999, making him 22 years of age.<\/p>\n

Vasco Vila\u00e7a\u2019s career highlights<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
L-R: Shachar Sagiv, Hayden Wilde and Vasco Vila\u00e7a on the podium at the 2022 Super League Triathlon Malibu. (Credit: Tommaso Boddi\/Getty Images for Malibu Triathlon & Super League Triathlon)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

April 2016: A first international victory<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At 16, Vila\u00e7a wins the junior European Cup race in Quarteira in his native Portugal. The victory represents his extraordinary ascent and acceleration through the sport over the past 12 months. The previous season in the same race, he\u2019d trailed home almost last in 61st place, finishing five minutes slower than his race-winning 2016 time.<\/p>\n

May 2016: A first national title<\/h3>\n

Vila\u00e7a leads home the field in the national junior duathlon championships in his adopted homeland of Sweden, his family having emigrated there three years earlier. Later this month, back in his native Lisbon, he comes fourth in the European junior championships.<\/p>\n

June 2017: European glory crowns the continental king<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A year later, Vila\u00e7a converts his promising European junior champs performance into a golden one in Kitzb\u00fchel. He posts the fastest run of the day, holding off Spain\u2019s Javer Lluch Perez and Hungary\u2019s Csingor Lehmann by a single second.<\/p>\n

A fortnight later, Vila\u00e7a becomes Portugal\u2019s junior national champion in the seaside resort of Esposende.<\/p>\n

September 2017: Silver is the colour at the world champ<\/strong>s<\/h3>\n
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Vasco Vilaca soaks up the soaked crowd as he runs home for silver at the 2017 World Junior Champs in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. (Credit: ITU\/Wagner Araujo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

In the Rotterdam rain and gloom, Vila\u00e7a announces himself as the second-best junior on the planet by taking silver at the world champs, beaten only by the Australian Matt Hauser<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

August 2019: Impressive elite second in Malm\u00f6<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After finishing comfortably within the top 20 two weeks earlier in Edmonton in his first World Triathlon Series race, Vila\u00e7a travels back to Sweden where he records his best elite performance to date: finishing second in the European Cup sprint race in Malm\u00f6.<\/p>\n

September 2020: Silver at the elite world champs<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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L-R: Vasco Vilaca (2nd), Vincent Luis (1st) and Leo Bergere (3rd) on the podium of the one-race Hamburg World Champs in 2020. (Credit: Petko Beier\/World Triathlon)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

After the pandemic decimates the racing calendar, the WTS series is reduced to a single sprint-distance race in Hamburg<\/strong><\/a> to decide this season\u2019s world champion. Vila\u00e7a has clearly spent the hiatus wisely and comes to Germany in fine physical condition, ready to make a significant breakthrough.<\/p>\n

And he does just that, registering his finest elite performance to date by finishing just behind defending champion Vincent Luis to take a brilliant silver. He is still only 20.<\/p>\n

To prove it\u2019s no fluke, eight days later he again finishes second to Luis, this time over Olympic distance in the World Cup race in Karlovy in the Czech Republic. The following month, Vila\u00e7a adds gold in the Mediterranean Championships.<\/p>\n

July 2022: A significant WTS top-10 finish<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
A sprint finish at the 2022 Leeds WTCS sees Vasco Vilaca finish in his highest position to date with a fourth. (Credit: Tommy Zaferes\/World Triathlon)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Vila\u00e7a\u2019s seventh place in Hamburg isn\u2019t the greatest result on his CV (indeed, it\u2019s far from his greatest result in that actual city), but it\u2019s a notable one nonetheless.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his fourth top-10 finish of the WTS season (after two other sevenths in Abu Dhabi and Yokohama, and a fourth in Leeds<\/strong><\/a>), helping to crystallise his reputation as a serious series competitor for many years to come.<\/p>\n

His consistency in Super League competition hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed either, and includes a second and third in Munich<\/strong><\/a> and Malibu<\/strong><\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n