When Chiara Rebecchi toes the start line, she feels focused. Excited. Her competitive electricity kicks in and she’s ready to race.
“Every triathlon, it’s: How is gonna be the water? Is it choppy, is it not?” the 30 year-old from Argentina says. “But then I just let it flow, focusing on the now. It’s always super exciting, and super fulfilling once you completed that goal you had in your mind.”
She’s got an A+ mental game, honed over years of competing as a professional tennis player who won two NAIA National Champion titles while earning a finance degree at Georgia Gwinnett College.
And while she says tennis and triathlon training are totally different, the grit, perseverance, and willingness to struggle and work hard that she learned on the court have clearly given her an edge in tri: In her first-ever 70.3 last year, she qualified for 70.3 Worlds and raced in Marbella.
“It was just amazing. To see the very best athletes right next to you, it puts a whole lot into perspective,” she says. “I want to do it again!”
Below, the ROKA STNDRD Racing team member shares her goals for 2026, and the life moments that taught her early on to train and compete with gratitude.
2026 GOALS
Chiara’s kicking off the year racing the Tokyo and Boston Marathons. “I want to be close to breaking 3 hours,” she says. (Her current PR: 3:16.) The races will be her 4th and 5th stars on the way to completing all 6 world marathon majors. London’s the only one left!
Then it’s all in on IRONMAN 70.3 Cap Cana, in the Dominican Republic this May. The goal: Qualify for 70.3 Worlds again. “I really want to get way faster at the bike than I am right now,” Chiara says. “I will try to break 5 hours in the 70.3 distance.”
Looking ahead, she wants to race a full IRONMAN in 2027.
RACE MANTRA
“If I finished my race and I looked back and thought I only gave 85 percent, I’d totally be frustrated and mad at myself,” she says. “So I tell myself all the time the same thing: Don’t look back and wish you did more.” If she gave 100 percent and didn’t get the result she wanted, that’s ok.
ON GRATITUDE
When Chiara was 17, she had surgery on her lower spine to remove a benign tumor. “It was the worst year of my life!” she says. She was a rising tennis star, used to working out and competing, and looking forward to playing tennis in college.
“On a positive side, it’s better that this happened early, so I really appreciate what I have right now,” she says. “When you find out you can’t do anything, obviously it puts a lot in perspective. You’re gonna be be very grateful for going for a run. Very grateful for playing tennis. Very grateful for doing these races.”
The surgery was successful, but Chiara had to wait for the opportunity to come to the U.S. for college. In the meantime, she competed in tennis tournaments in Europe, honing her skills, until she was able to enroll in college in 2016, at the age of 21.
“In Argentina, you really have to be very good for someone to support you or give you some type of sponsorship,” Chiara says. Her parents, who are not athletes, always made a huge effort to help her train. “I always had that in that back of my mind, so I always knew, ‘I have to do something with this, no matter what!’ You have to be very hungry to make it work.”
Her experiences growing up, she says, make her grateful for the opportunities she has now to train and race.
CHIARA’S FAVORITES
WORKOUT: “I love long ones!” she says. Saturday bricks with a 4 hour ride and a run. “It’s a mindset. You’re building the mental endurance and braking a mental barrier every single time that you do one of those.”
SWIM WORKOUT: “The ones when I’m totally out of breath. Barely can speak. But I know it’s working.”
An example of her fave main set:
3x:
5 x 50 hard
5 x 100 hard
When she started swim training last March, she was doing 100s on 2:02 pace. By November, she dropped that to 1:36, thanks to swimming about 3,500 yards 3x per week, mixing up tempo, threshold, and V02 sets like the one above. “The key to get better,” she says, “is consistency.”
PLACE TO WORKOUT: Chiara splits her time between the Key Largo and NYC working as a tennis pro. “When I go to Central Park—even if it’s the 5 mile loop with my bike like 20 times—I love it!” she says. “You see so many people running, cycling, doing their sports, so there’s always this amazing vibe.”
Follow Chiara's journey on her insta @chiararebecchi.
We’re so proud to support Chiara and the incredible RSR Team as they tackle their goals this year. LET'S GO.
