Adrien Briffod, Master's student and triathlete, 100% committed!

At 10:45am on 31 July, Briffod dove into the Seine to begin his Olympic triathlon, squaring off against the other racers and navigating the current. The 1.5-kilometer swimming leg went around the iconic Pont Alexandre III and Pont des Invalides bridges. More than a race, that first leg turned out to be an aquatic wrestling match that took Briffod by surprise. “You usually pull back a little to create space, but there we all had to swim on top of each other, even while heading against the current coming back,” he says. A novice Olympian, Briffod was caught off guard. “The current was a lot stronger than I expected, and the other racers more tenacious.”

It was an exhausting experience that left him already tired when he got out of the water. But he charged on, jumping on his bicycle for the 40-kilometer cycling leg. Briffod was unable to break free from a small group despite putting in his best effort. When he started the 10-kilometer running leg, he realized he wouldn’t finish in the top three. “It just wasn’t my day,” he says.

“I managed to qualify, I earned my spot”

At nearly 30 years old, Briffod knows what it means to stand on the podium. He won the bronze at the 2023 European Games and European Championships, took fifth place at the 2021 World Championship, and won two World Cup medals – the gold in 2017 (“I won that by beating an Olympic medal winner, which was really motivating!”) and the silver in 2021.

In Paris, Briffod dreamed of making it into the top eight and earning his Olympic stripes. He also hoped to place high in the relay race. But a nasty case of the stomach flu after his first race in the (overly polluted?) Seine put paid to his chances of winning. “The Swiss Olympic and triathlon committees decided to replace me on 3 August, judging that I wouldn’t be in top form for the relay race,” says Briffod. “But then my replacement got sick, and he was replaced in turn. It was psychologically tough to be removed so quickly with no hope of being able to return to the competition.”

Yet Briffod is happy with the overall experience and enjoyed some intense moments – "I loved hanging out with other athletes at the Olympic village. And most importantly, I competed in the Olympics! I managed to qualify, I earned my spot there.”

“I started at EPFL in 2014”

Briffod started track and field when he was 10 years old and did triathlons with his two sisters in the kids section of the Triviera Triathlon Club in Vevey. He saw it as a good opportunity to diversify his sporting activities, as before then he’d only cycled with his parents. His sisters didn’t continue to compete but supported him fully. “I didn’t yet have the drive that I do today,” says Briffod. “I remember watching the Olympics in awe on TV – but I never thought I’d participate one day! I began training more intensely when I was 16.”

After graduating from high school, Briffod took a break from academics and completed his mandatory military service in elite sports at Switzerland’s national sports center in Macolin. “I was interested in science and started at EPFL in 2014,” he says. “Before enrolling I did a lot of research and found that elite athletes are allowed to take twice as many years to complete their degrees as regular students.”

Briffod dove into his studies during his first year and didn’t miss a class. “I was really well organized: swimming in the morning before my first class, running during the lunch break and cycling in the evening,” he says. “My days were all alike during my first year. Everything was planned, almost down to the minute. I constantly sought to make the best use of my time.”

“I’ll graduate in 2025”

“I started the second year of my bachelor’s degree when I was already in my third year at EPFL. I decided to take on the same courseload as a regular student while keeping up my training on the side, between 22 and 24 hours a week,” says Briffod. But as the semester wore on, he realized he had no social life and no real downtime – and this was affecting his training. “I wondered if I’d made the right choice to work on a university degree alongside my activities as an elite athlete,” he says. “It was a tough period, and what got me through was the support of my family and coaches. My mental preparation also helped a lot.” But Briffod is still hit by the occasional doubt. And now that he’s nearing 30, he’s starting to consider other priorities. “All my friends have graduated and are working. But not me! I earn a little money as an athlete and put it aside, but I’d like to one day join the business world.”

By the time Briffod graduates in 2025, he will have spent 11 years at EPFL, including a sabbatical year between his bachelor’s and master’s. “In all, I took six years for the bachelor’s and four for the master’s,” he says. “I’d like to continue practicing sports after I graduate, and hope to find a part-time position with a company so I don’t lose what I learned at EPFL.” Yet Briffod is steadily becoming one of the oldest of his fellow triathletes – will he still want to compete five or even ten years from now? Does he aspire to take part in another Olympics? "I'm thinking about it."