Home

10%

Jake Montgomery

My Next Challenge

By InnerVoice

March 15^th, 2019

my first triathlon

I grew up in Wollongong, a city just south of Sydney. I lived there for the first 22 years of my life, and then more recently I moved north to the Gold Coast where the conditions are better for training and racing. It’s been a good move. My first race was at age 13, so even though I’m still young, I’ve been in triathlon for a while. My swim coach at the time, he was a triathlete, and he saw my results in swimming and cross country and suggested I give triathlon a try. I’d never ridden a road bike before, but I did my first triathlon and absolutely loved it, and road riding has been one of my favorite things to do ever since.

While I was still in school, triathlon was just a fun thing to do on weekends and after school, and I continued on with that mentality into my first year of college. During that first year, the Australian head coach asked me if I wanted to come with him to train and race in Europe for a couple of months. I turned pro in the Sprint and Olympic distances, and that trip was a lot of fun. After a couple of years of racing draft-legal shorter distances, I wasn't really getting the results I was after. I was always mid-pack and was kind of losing the love for it a little bit. Triathlon had always been fun for me, but I was starting to wonder if I should give it up and do something else. After some thought, I decided on stepping it up and giving an Ironman 70.3 a go and seeing how that worked out for me.

Jake Montgomery

Jake Montgomery

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Chris Thorn | Cervélo

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

my first big win

Just over a year after my first long-course race, I raced Geelong 70.3. In the two months before Geelong, I’d had two 2nd place finishes, and it was clear that I was getting closer and closer to my first win. The first of my 2nd places, I was run down in the last three kilometers. The second of my 2nd places, I was run down in the last kilometer. So, despite the fact that Geelong was usually a pretty stacked field, I was going there with a lot of confidence.

At that stage, I was still very new, so I couldn’t really worry about what other athletes were doing, I just had to do my own thing. I knew what people like Craig Alexander were capable of, so I just had to focus on what I was capable of in that moment and at each point throughout the race. So, in that sense, it wasn’t really a race, it was just me doing what I could at that time to push myself to the max. I put together a good race from start to finish, with no real weakness in the swim, bike or run. It’s one of the best moments of my life, crossing that line and taking the tape for my first career win.

Some things have definitely changed since then, and the thing that sticks out is that people aren’t willing to let me go ahead on the bike anymore because that’s where I’ve been able to get results. My swim-bike is my strongest, so I can get time advantages there, and while my run isn’t the quickest, hopefully, I’ve put enough time on them that I can get a podium finish. Once you’ve won a big race, people definitely put more time into studying you and learning your strengths and weaknesses. For all that, though, I still like to rely on my own execution.

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Jake Montgomery

my accident

Going into my first World Championships was very exciting for me, especially being able to race on home turf in Australia. I was ranked 12th going in, so I thought I had a good chance for a top result. Everything was going to plan in the lead up: I got up to the Sunshine Coast the day before, got my swim done in the morning, caught up with some sponsors and got to the race briefing. I went for a quick spin in the afternoon to make sure the bike was ticking over nicely, and the first 10 minutes of that ride was my last memory for almost two months.

To this day, I have no recollection of anything that happened during my accident. According to my Garmin, the accident happened about 20 minutes into my ride, which is when my speed went from about 40 kilometers an hour to zero very quickly. From what the police report said, a car turned in front of me, and I went into the windscreen, over the top of the car, and landed on my head. From what I’ve heard, I was put straight in an ambulance and rushed to the nearest hospital. I went straight into intensive care and was unconscious for almost 72 hours. While I was in the ambulance was when my dad got the call; he was at the hotel waiting for me to come back from my ride and he hadn’t heard anything. I ended up spending the night in the local hospital and then was moved to the bigger Royal Brisbane Hospital for further care.

I had three internal brain bleeds on the left side of my head. I had swelling of the brain. I had several fractures in my upper body. I had muscle tears all over. I was pretty much in pieces. One of the first things I remember is around week 6 of my recovery, where I saw a neurologist. He described how serious everything was and asked what my plans were. I told him I wanted to get back to triathlon, the sport I love. He told me that the risk of seizures was too great, and the jolting from running or strenuous activity were severe risks of causing seizures. He gave me the worst case scenario, and it really scared me. I was at a point in my life where all I lived for was triathlon, and it was being taken away. I asked the neurologist: “is there a 0% chance of me coming back?” He said if I was serious about racing again, I should give it four months and then try my first steps running.

Jake Montgomery

Jake Montgomery

My recovery

During my recovery, I had a lot of anxiety and stress. I was extremely self-conscious, and for the first two months, I couldn’t even put a sentence together. I was lost for words. I would stutter when I spoke, which made me worried to go and hang out with friends. I lost a lot of motivation, and my parents told the doctors that my personality had completely changed. The Jake Montgomery they knew wasn’t there anymore, so it was a big shock for my parents.

Without my mum and dad being there to support me, I would be in a completely different place. They knew my goals and had obviously heard about the risk of seizures, but they didn’t put any pressure on me to get back or not get back. They were there to support with every decision and make sure I was on the right track and looking after myself as best I could. I had to start from scratch, and the most I could do some days was go for a walk. First, it was 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes. I had to have mum or dad accompany me, and I was afraid to go near roads for the first couple of months.

My dad and I did a lot of hydrotherapy in the pool before I could start swimming again, and for the first six months, I just rode the trainer inside. It got to the point where I had to start pushing myself harder and harder to see what my new body was capable of. Given what the doctors had told me, that was scary, but I took it slow and kept cautious. I was lucky that none of my sponsors left me and all of them supported me all the way back to my first race. One of my all-time dream sponsors was Zipp, and they actually signed me during my recovery time. They heard what my results were beforehand and they saw how determined I was to get back. That was a big positive step for me and gave me a lot of confidence. Cervelo put me on a P5x, which had just come out, for my first race back, so there was a lot of help from big companies. They didn’t drop me, in fact, they all helped me more than I could have imagined.

Jake Montgomery

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Chris Thorn | Cervélo

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

my love

I had a pretty strong, smooth comeback up until mid last year. I had a couple of nagging injuries - one in my knee which is from a few years ago - and after spending so long trying to get back, to have little injuries stop me made me reconsider racing altogether. In August last year, at Boulder 70.3, I had an absolute shocker of a race, and at that point I'd pretty much given up mentally on the sport. I figured I didn't need the stress anymore and I didn't think I was going to get back to where I was, so I didn't want to travel around half-assing it.

Coincidentally, my knee injury stopped me from going to a planned race in Maryland, so I stayed back in Boulder and ended up racing the 70.3 there instead. I had a shocking race, but it was one of the best days of my life. At the after party, I met a girl, Sidney, and from there, things just got better and better. I spent the rest of the summer with her, away from triathlon and just enjoying what life has to offer. We did a lot of hiking, her dad is a keen mountain biker, so I hit the trails with him, and Sidney and I spent time getting to know each other better.

My original plan was to go back to Australia in September, but after meeting her, it made the decision to come back to the United States pretty easy. I came back in October with no intentions of focusing on triathlon. I brought a road bike with me, just for fun, but didn't bring running shoes or swim gear. One night we were sitting down just chatting, and I told her more about my accident and why I got into the sport in the first place. Talking to her that night made me realize why I love it so much, and she helped light that spark again. I've been back training ever since, and I'm excited as ever to get back to racing.

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision)

Photo by Chris Thorn | Cervélo

Jake Montgomery

Jake Montgomery

Listen to the full interview

The InnerVoice Audio Experience - Episode 12 Jake Montgomery sand Travis McKenzie

Jake Montgomery

Footnotes

Words by Jake Montgomery, Cover photo by Chris Thorn, other photos by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision). Edited by Cody Royle, Published by Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group

FootNotes

Words by Jake Montgomery, Cover photo by Chris Thorn, other photos by Glen Murray (Korupt Vision). Edited by Cody Royle, Published by Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group

© 2026 InnerVoice

No Human is Limited

I'm Here To Win

The Humble Son

My Incredible Journey

The Most Interesting Man In The World

InnerVoice Audio ExperIence

Season 3

Loading, please hold on.