Edward Trippas

BIOGRAPHY

After qualifying for his Olympic debut in Tokyo on the very last day, Ed Trippas would miss the Paris Olympics with injury. But he rebounded in 2025 to break the 32-year-old Australian 3000m steeplechase with an automatic qualifier for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.

He doesn’t usually leave things to the last minute, but Ed Trippas did in 2021 on this occasion qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games on the last day of the selection window. Competing in Valencia in Spain in June 2021, Ed’s 8:19.60 crushed the Olympic qualifying standard of 8:22.00, along with dropping his previous PB of 8:31.90 he set, when taking bronze in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2021 Australian championships. He had become only the third Australian to break 8:20. In Tokyo he placed 11th in his heat clocking 8:29.90 in the stifling conditions.

His 2022 campaign, largely with his college team at Princeton, yield only an 8:30 steeplechase. But he lifted in the NCAA final to place fifth in a very quick race clocking 8:20.29 to secure the standards and ultimately selection in the 3000m steeplechase for the world championships and Commonwealth Games. At Hayward Field in Eugene, where a month earlier he had run at the NCAAs, Ed placed 6th in his heat at the World Championships in a terrific time of 8:23.83. It was the second fastest ever time by an Aussie at the Worlds. He missed proceeding to the final by three seconds. At the Commonwealth Games three weeks later he placed 7th.

In 2023, Ed, now at the University of Washington, placed 9th at NCAAs and clocked a best time of 8:24.80 mid-year in Europe.  At the end of the year, he moved back to Australia and joined the ON Oceania team based in Melbourne.

Domestically in 2024 Ed was without peer in two steeplechase races, but tragically he fell at the Australian Championships in April in Adelaide. He fractured his calcaneus, the heel bone, with a little bit of bone broken off. He also suffered torn ligaments, swelling and bone bruising. Anxious to qualify for the Paris Olympics he returned to racing and running with pain in his ankle he competed seven and nine weeks after the injury. At the end of season he took six weeks off and then had an MRI and there was still issues. He then had a cortisone injection. He cross-trained until November/ December and started a slow build, running just 100km/week until Feb. Easing back into competition he was third at Nationals.

Overseas in 2025 he gradually progressed with 8:27 in May in America, then 8:23 in Nice and 8:21 in Belgium in July. Chasing the rare steeplechase competition opportunities, on August 9 he ended up in Oordegem in Belgium in a low-level meet, but with a stacked field. Although back in the field early, the pace was on from the start, and he placed fifth in a sensational time of 8:13.15. Ed’s 6.45 seconds PB took over three seconds from the Australian record of Shaun Creighton set 32-years ago. It also qualified him for the Tokyo world championships. Two other Aussies Ben Buckingham and Matt Clarke also smashed their PBs with Ben also under the old Australian record.

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Ed Trippas started running because his local public school had some success in Cross Country so his parents arranged for him to get involved in Little Athletics when he was around eight years old. “At the time I was ok but not amazing and really enjoyed it because of the social aspect of the sport,” recalled Trippas. He started running steeplechase at 15 and was impressive running a time of 5:55 (2000m steeple) at 17 and a brilliant 9:04 for the 3000m steeplechase a few months later. Both performances earned him national medals. In 2017 he made his international debut in the junior event at the World Cross Country Championships. Later that year, after graduating from Shore Grammar in Sydney, he commenced an Economics degree at Princeton University and is due to graduate in mid-2022.

In his first summer at Princeton he made a slight improvement to 9:00 minutes, but in 2019 in his second summer he ran three consecutive PBs including a 17 second drop to a stunning 8:33.90. He made the NCAAs but bombed out.

“At the time that was only four seconds away from 8:29, which at the time was the standard to make the world championships,” said Ed.

Biggest influences in your career: I would say that my high school coach Lindsay Watson and college coach Jason Vigilante. They both always believed I could be better than I ever thought. Lots of coaches can prescribe training but great coaches like the ones I’ve had teach you self-belief which is more important than any workout. Biggest inspiration growing up: Watching meets like Sydney Track Classic every year since I was young was inspiring to see Australia’s best compete with international world medallists who would come over to race such as Jeff Riseley racing world record holder David Rudisha. However, it was always the friends and training partners that made things fun and inspired me to get the most out of myself and progress in the sport. It is cool to see friends I have run with over the years start to have great success on the world stage and also qualify for the Olympics…. Hobbies: reading, watching cycling…Education: Bachelor of Economics at Princeton University (2017-2022), Masters of Entrepreneurship at University of Washington (2022-2023)

@ 8 Sept 25 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au