The following is an excerpt by Style of Sport from the article titled The IRONMAN:
When Special Olympics Florida introduced triathlon training in 2019, Chris was eager to try it. He immediately took to the sport. His father Nik Nikic, Managing Partner of Sales Optimizer LLC, formulated a training program with Chris’s Unified Partner coach, Dan Grieb. They utilized a 1% Better sales performance tool, and adjusted it for Chris’s exercise to get 1% better, stronger, and faster every day.
In August 2019, Chris completed his first triathlon, a sprint distance (.5 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) in 1:41. He followed that in January 2020 with an Olympic distance triathlon (roughly double the sprint ) in 4:25. In May, he completed a 70.3 Half Ironman in 8:25, leading up to the Ironman 140 that November in 16:46.
Says Nik, “Chris has been the best student I’ve ever had in my life. He just follows the plan to a T”. Chris received a number of prestigious awards in 2021 including the Laureus Sporting Moment of the Year Award and ESPY Award for Best Athlete with a Disability.