I initially 'tri-ed' it randomly. I wanted to improve my swimming technique and get fit after a few years of university/punk-rock lifestyle. I was still skiing and climbing, but it was all mixed up with lots of drinking and partying.

So, after a holiday to Corsica, I looked up swimming classes in Torino, where I was studying at the time. I ended up, randomly, on a nearby triathlon team page. The description of what they were doing sounded terrific.

The internet black hole lead to "Lance Armstrong winning Ironman 70.3 Hawaii." I was obsessed with LA (it was 2012, and he hadn't confessed taking PED yet), so those images worked as the final push towards triathlon.

And in that moment I decided I wanted to do a half Ironman, and I gave myself two years to train for it. I got in touch with the triathlon team and went for a trial.

I remember I couldn't swim more than 50 meters without stopping. The team's coach prescribed a 400-m warm-up for my first session with them. I thought I was fucked.

But in some way, I survived that session and enjoyed it. I knew nothing about that sport, and I threw myself in the the hands of the new coach, a former Olympian from Ukraine. The training wasn't exactly a walk in the park under his guidance, but I was stubborn and had a passion for sports.

The first thing I loved about triathlon was the routine. We're all are animals of habits to a certain extent, and I loved the amount of dedication and consistency that I needed to put into this challenge. Plus, I didn't have to travel anywhere else, so my schedule was very standardized, yet enjoyable: I was spending the week in Turin, and the weekends in the mountains where I had grown up.

The second thing that I loved about triathlon was getting fit. I had never done much endurance sports in my life (I had recently finished racing as an alpine skier), so I struggled at first to adapt my body to the new requirements.

But I loved my new sporting career, and I loved feeling my fitness improvements. Above all, I loved getting better at swimming. Being the discipline where I must struggled, feeling that it was coming together was a huge boost (it still hasn't come together, even after almost ten years of it).

Although I was getting into triathlon more and more, and because I knew what kind of stress and dedication high-performance require (I still had impressed in min mind those 15 years of alpine ski racing), I was always telling to myself: "this is a game." Play, enjoy, and don't get obsessed with it.

I was aware of how much endurance sports can obsess people. I had examples from cycling, rock climbing (a discipline where weight management is even riskier and crucial than any other discipline I have ever done), and running. Only now I know that there is a physiological explanation for this 'endurance high.' Back then, though, it was only a simple "take it easy" and relax. And I was able to do precisely that for the first three years in the sport.

I raced my first sprint triathlon in Germany in 2013 and thought I would have never been able to finish a half Ironman. But that was also my first experience in open water (and the first time I was swimming with a wetsuit too), so I gave myself some time to think about it. In the end, I was thrilled and excited about having finished my first triathlon and I went on racing a few more that year. It was still a game, though.

The year after I raced more, I finished my first Olympic and my first half IM. I put in more training and at some point I questioned the sanity of what I was doing. I had never trained twice per day, so that sounded a bit too extreme also for me.

But I wanted that race so badly that I put in what I had to do to get it. It was still a game, though.

The feeling of finishing that race with a faster time than I had expected, and the overall feel of it, made me think that, maybe, I could have even tried a full IM.

When I started triathlon, I had never thought to do a full IM. That was out of the picture, and I always repeated myself that half was the longest I wanted to go. But after I completed the half, for the first time when I thought, "Mmm, maybe going the full distance would not be a game anymore.”

It took me another year to decide to go for it and two years to race one full IM.

I still wanted it to be a game, but when I start training again, in a different city and environment (with a different club and different training partners), everything changed.

I was going through a rough time and had severe depression. Triathlon became the way to feel better, but also an obsession. It stopped being a game. I was taking it so seriously, and I was taking myself more seriously and putting extra pressure on myself too. That sort of pressure that I shouldn’t have put on myself, given the life circumstances.

I had swapped my core intention without realizing 100%. The environment pushed me towards that change, but I did the rest. My situation and the psychological struggle completed the mosaic.

It took some time to realize that.

In the meantime, I became a triathlon coach and represented Great Britain twice in the long-distance triathlon World Championships. That was something I could have never imagined possible when I started with triathlons in 2012. I was proud of myself, but by coaching other people I also realized that I wanted to get back to that "this is a game" feeling and mantra.

Just now, four years after my first full IM, I feeli like I'm finally getting there again.

Don't get me wrong, I have a competitive nature, and I try to improve in what I do almost consistently. Yet, now I'm more aware of how I take what I do day after day, week after week, season after season.

I have gone through a lot in the last ten years -- both in triathlon and outside of it. I feel more mature; I feel like I've lived triathlon in many different ways (both as a game, a challenge, and even as a job), and that's OK.

I feel like the way we tackle things should — and must — change and adapt over time. We are not fixed, but we evolve. Therefore, the way we do something follows our development. If I had to leave triathlon now to do something else, I would be ready and happy with what I have done and achieved in the sport.

But after all these years, one thing is for sure. I 'tri-ed' it, I still 'tri' it, and I will tri-it in the future because I love it.

I love swimming, I love cycling, and I love running. I love sports in general: I love skiing, hiking, and climbing (rock climbing and ice climbing, mountaineering, and trail running). I used to play tennis and golf, soccer, basketball, skateboarding, and volleyball. I always loved being outdoors.

Since I was a child, I have tried as many sports as I could and I have been outdoors in any condition: when it was sunny, rainy, snowy, foggy, cold, warm, hot, and humid. The toughest day of my sports life has been a day when I was climbing above 4,000 meters with a couple of friends on a sharp ridge with.

A sudden storm hit us, and I lost my ice ax in the process, which made the ascension harder and trickier. That day I thought I would have died. And I promised myself I would have stopped doing that crazy shit if I was proved wrong. I was given a second chance ,and shortly after I bought a road bike; my first one.

Triathlon is what I love now because it puts together different sports. I know I love it, because at the start line of my last race, in Italy, I started to cry. I was crying tears of joy. I felt that what I was doing was right. And, for the time being, I was doing it in the right way: a mixture of improvement and game.

I cried because I felt at peace.

I thought I was in the right place and at the right time.

That's why I keep 'tri-ing' it.