Paul Schuster

Paul Schuster was born in Darmstadt, Germany to two triathlon-loving parents, so a career in the sport was always a strong possibility.

He grew up watching his parents train and compete and was soon taking part in children’s races in Germany, improving all the time.

After several top-10 finishes in Challenge races, Schuster sprung onto the international stage with a big success in Heinerman Darmstadt in 2015 and then repeated the trick in 2016.

Paul also put in some excellent performances in IRONMAN events as he finished in the top 10 over the full distance at Hamburg in 2018 and Hamburg again (third) and Cozumel (fifth) in 2019. That Cozumel performance saw him become one of six men to finish in under eight hours, and one place ahead of 2013 IRONMAN World Champion Frederik Van Lierde in the process.

He also prospered at middle distance with a third at Liuzhou in 2018 followed by a third at Xi’an and a fourth at Shanghai in 2019.

‘Schusterman’ also secured a top-10 finish at Challenge Roth in 2018, a race he describes as his favourite event of all on the triathlon circuit.

Schuster enjoys each of the three disciplines for different reasons. He says he loves to swim in the sun, whilst running is great if in shape and cycling is ideal when training with a group of friends. He prepares for races alongside two of his good friends in Patrick Lange and Sean Donnelly.

Paul’s favourite training location is Stellenbosch, a beautiful area in the Western Cape province of South Africa and around 50km east of Cape Town.

Schuster says he looks close to home for inspiration, admitting that alongside Roger Federer, his sisters are his role models in life. He describes them as ‘superheroes’.

Paul’s favourite sport outside of triathlon is darts, his favourite cheat meal is pizza and he says he can’t live without his sleep.

Although he enjoys all sorts of tunes depending on his mood, his favourite genre is old-school German rap music.