Aaron's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Triathlon
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Year Born: 1990
State Born: NSW
About Aaron
Aaron Royle, commonly going by the nickname ‘Bugs’, grew up in a town called Edgeworth until the age of 2, his family then moved to Maryland. All throughout his childhood he had a great love for the water, and by the age of 9 he was winning state titles in butterfly and freestyle events, thus showing brilliant promise in the pool.
He soon found that the cardiovascular fitness associated with swimming coincided with running. As a result he started to also pursue running, and went on to win several state and national medals in primary and high school competitions, for both cross country and track and field events.
At 14-years-old Royle made the decision to focus on Triathlon. This came when his parents asked him to choose between running and swimming. Triathlon meant he could keep on with the two sports he loved, as well as add another sport (cycling) in the mix. From here and until the end of his time in school Royle went on to win Gold and a couple of Silver medals at the Australian All schools triathlon championships.
In 2007 Royle finished year 12 and decided to dedicate his life to triathlon, with hopes of becoming an elite success in the sport. He moved to Wollongong where he could train at the NSWIS base alongside coach Jamie Turner. This move being a pivotal turning point in Royle’s young professional career.
In 2009 he represented Australia for the first time. He competed in the Youth Olympics and then at the Junior World Championships. Since then, Royle has been competing around the world on the ITU circuit.
Royle’s first year as a senior triathlete was in 2012, where he strode ahead to become the U23 World Champion. 2014 saw him take Bronze at the ITU World Triathlon Series in Auckland and at the Commonwealth Games for the mixed relay. In 2015, Royle took third at the Stockholm ITU World Triathlon Series.
2016 saw Royle's Olympic debut at the Rio Games after he secured Australia’s first Triathlon quota spot having finished 6th at the 2015 Rio Test Event. His performance at Rio placed him 9th in the end.
Since the Olympics Royle has placed 8th at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Stockholm and went on to win gold at the 2018 ITU World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Edmonton. He also placed 8th at the 2019 Miyazaki ITU Triathlon World Cup.
Aaron would make his second Olympic appearance at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games. He would earn himself a 26th overall placing at the culmination of the event with a time of 1:47:57.
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