Marta Menditto: On The Rise

Climbing the Ranks

Currently sitting second in the 2024 XTERRA World Cup Series, Marta Menditto from Italy is making moves. Starting with third place at the Junior Cross Triathlon World Championship in 2017 and progressing into the senior ranks, Menditto was fifth in the XTERRA World Championship in 2022 and then fourth in the inaugural XTERRA World Cup Series in 2023. In 2024, Menditto is now challenging for a podium finish, currently in second place overall. She’s fully committed to racing and has invested in herself to achieve the next step.

Full-Time Focus

At the end of 2023, Menditto decided to go full-time and commit to her training and racing. Previously, she’d been balancing XTERRA with studying and completing her degree. While it often provided more variation and change to life, it made training through the winter difficult, as it often coincided with key times for her studies, including finishing her degree in April last year. However, going into 2024, Menditto has had a full, uninterrupted winter block of training, and the results have been showing.

‍

She’s been able to consistently train for 28–30 hours a week, compared to just 10 hours a week during her exam schedule. But it’s not just about logging more hours; it’s the additional work she can put in around stretching, mobility, recovery, and rest too. She is also able to study again, but this time focusing on topics that support her training and performance—nutrition, heart rate variability, and more.

Shifting Mindset 

In her first few years as an XTERRA elite, Marta lacked confidence and had imposter syndrome, not feeling worthy to be there. While it’s still something she’s working on, having had a good winter block of training this year, her confidence and mindset have grown and changed. Previously, she might have been happy finishing in fifth place, but now she’s not. She has higher expectations of herself in all aspects of training and, of course, racing. At Stop #2 of the World Cup in Greece, she finished fifth overall in the women’s Full Distance Race.

‍

“In Greece, I didn’t have a good race, and I felt really bad. Maybe it was just a bad day; I don’t know what happened. I was really sad after the race. I remember that I wrote a message to my coach because he was calling me and I didn’t answer my phone. I said to him, ‘give me some time because I don’t want to talk now. I’m so sad. I’m so angry with myself.’”

"I said to [my coach], ‘give me some time because I don’t want to talk now. I’m so sad. I’m so angry with myself.’”

But she’s pragmatic too, now understanding that sometimes in sports, you can just have a bad day and it’s not necessarily explainable. She also understands that she still has a lot of things to improve, particularly on the bike. This is pretty exciting for this young Italian, second in the World Rankings, and still seeing more opportunities to continually learn and develop.

Marta is also developing the mental toughness needed to stay in the game over a three-hour race. She attributes part of this to the years she spent studying for her degree and balancing that with training and racing at an elite level.

‍

“I think that doing my studies and the sport together helped me to be strong. There were some times when I was so tired when I had to do both. I had to be strong, so I think this helped me a lot to become who I am today.”

‍

Recognising she still has areas of improvement, she wants to become better in these areas and work with a sports psychologist or mental coach, in addition to working out her emotions and energy levels with her menstrual cycle.

‍

“And I think for me, it depends also on my menstrual cycle because in the last phase of my cycle, I'm so bad. I'm so sad also. And the first days of my cycle, I'm so happy, so confident.”

Consistency is Key

One of Marta’s goals for 2024 was to deliver consistency in her racing. So far, with a third, sixth, fourth, and second, does that tick the consistency box for her?

‍

“In triathlon, you have to be patient; our body needs some time to be able to understand the training (volume) and everything you are doing—the recovery, the nutrition. But yes, I think I am consistent.”

‍

Marta also knows her consistency over winter in her training and patience is part of a longer-term plan, where she’s looking at 2-3 years before she’s ready for the top prize.

‍

“I want to perform at my best for the World Cup and be consistent during my season. I know that all the women will be really strong at the European Championship in the Czech Republic. For the moment, I try to stay focused on myself and on my performance, knowing that I'm not at the top level like Solenne [Billouin] and Sandra [Mairhofer].”

Strong Off the Bike

As well as the consistency of winter training leading into this year and the full-time commitment, Marta has also been working on a few elements of her racing. Again, she knows she still has a lot of room for improvement, which is always exciting and motivating to build on.

‍

Last year, Marta was many minutes behind on the bike, but this year, it’s much less.

‍

“The first 10 minutes on the bike they (Solenne and Sandra) were so strong, and I wasn't able to stay with them. I saw in Belgium and in Taiwan that last year I was taking maybe ten minutes (longer) on the bike, and this year it’s only three.”

"I saw in Belgium and in Taiwan that last year I was taking maybe ten minutes (longer) on the bike, and this year it’s only three.”

While she knows three minutes is still a lot, if she can arrive just one or two minutes behind and have a good run, she can be at the front.

‍

About her run, Menditto says, “This year, I feel I’m better at having a good run off the bike. I’m pretty good when I just run, but when I was off the bike last year, I wasn’t able to do what I could do. I would say, OK, I can run well, I know I can do it, but last year I was so dead coming off the bike. I know I can do it, but I didn’t arrive in T2 able to get it done.”

‍

“I think I showed in Belgium, Quebec, and Oak Mountain that now I can have a pretty good bike and then after I can run.”

Big Goals and Aspirations

Marta has big plans for the second half of the year, hoping to target three separate World Championship races, as well as the XTERRA European Championship in the Czech Republic, which is also the next stop on the XTERRA World Cup series. Then it’s all eyes on the XTERRA World Championship in Trentino, Italy, where, as an Italian, she'll be hoping to use the home crowd to power her to a big result.

“I'd like to do a really good race in Molveno because it's in Italy and the race fits me so well.”

But she’s also adding the ITU World Championships in Australia, where she’ll compete in the Duathlon Cross and Triathlon Cross.

‍

“In one month, three World Championships, yeah, it's super cool! I hope to be at my top for the Australia races, but I'd like to be consistent during the World Cup, so I'm also looking to do a good race in the Czech Republic.”

The Sky’s the Limit

Marta Menditto has youth on her side and a passion and drive to fully commit to becoming the best athlete she can be. Learning from her competitors (some of whom are close friends), her years studying have given her an inquisitive mind, where she feels capable and committed to developing not just her weaknesses but also continuing to build on her strengths. 

‍

Now taking the leap to go full-time as a professional athlete, building the consistency in her training, and as her confidence continues to grow, she feels she truly belongs amongst the top-ranked cross-triathletes in the world, and is likely to continue on her trajectory of recent years to sights unseen.

‍

Starting with the European Championship and the livestreamed Short Track race in Czech, you can you can follow Marta Menditto’s progress through the World Cup series page, select livestream races, and race previews and recaps on the XTERRA YouTube Channel.