Wedding rings to Olympic rings: Birtwhistle cements his 2024 engagements

Tasmania's top triathlete married long-time partner Millie Wyllie on Saturday but said even a honeymoon will have to wait until his other pressing engagement for the year.

With a COVID-hit crowd-less experience behind him in Tokyo, the 29-year-old is hoping Paris will fully tick the Olympic box before he looks to switch to longer-distance triathlons.

"Paris will be a great event. I did the test event last year and it's an amazing place for a race so would be really cool to race there under Olympic conditions," he said.

"And with the crowd it will be a nice change. That's one of the big motivators and has been for the last couple of years.

"Tokyo was part of the childhood dream but with all the disruption and COVID was not quite what we all expected so the big thing pushing me to get to Paris is to get that full Olympic experience."

With a complete set of medals from the Gold Coast and Birmingham Commonwealth Games plus nine podium finishes in the World Triathlon Championship Series, Riverside's former junior world champion has plenty of runs on the board but would love to cap his career on the biggest stage.

"If I'm switching (distances) then there is not really any likelihood of going again after this, so Paris would be my last Olympic Games which is motivating and exciting in itself," he said.

"So it's cool to see the finish line and know I just need to do everything up to August and everything else can come after that.

"I've done well at other events and was not overly happy with my Tokyo performance (16^th, 1:28 behind the winner) so would love to go and get a result on the board that I'm proud of."

In addition to getting married and deciding whether to defend his Greens Beach Triathlon title this weekend, Birtwhistle said he has loved the Tasmanian summer before heading back to Europe at the end of this month for another hectic schedule of international competition.

Basing himself in the Spanish city of Girona and the French ski resort of Font-Romeu, 1800 metres up in the Pyrenees, he will join his usual training group before kicking off WTCS commitments in Abu Dhabi (March 2-3).

Returning home to defend his crown at the Oceania Sprint Championships in Devonport (March 16-17) followed by the continent's standard distance champs in Napier, New Zealand (April 14), Birtwhistle will then return to the WTCS in Yokohama (May 11) where a top-eight finish would qualify him for Australia's second Olympic spot alongside Queenslander Matt Hauser.

"Yokohama has been in the series as long as I've been racing and I think I've raced there seven times. I love racing there and have had some good results so I know it well and hopefully can go there and do something good this year.

"I'm feeling pretty confident going into this. I'm going back to the plan of a few years back where I spend the early part of the season in Europe with my coach.

"Hopefully I can get an early training block in to lead into the first race and then maintain that through, get results on the board and secure a spot for Paris.

"I need to put a couple of results together to stand out. It's going to be quite a big year with Paris the focus."

Whatever eventuates around the Olympic triathlon events (July 30-31 and August 5), Birtwhistle said he is likely to switch distances to focus on 70.3 half-ironmans, having won his only attempt at the distance in Hobart last year.

"I've been racing in the World Series for about 10 years now and I'm ready to switch things up a bit," he said.

"Half-ironman distance is more of an individual effort across the race and I can spend a lot more time at home which I'm definitely ready for. It means I can travel from here to races rather than be away for months at a time.

"But I have not really done any planning for after Paris. Whether I continue with the World Series or come home and get ready for 70.3s, it'll depend what I feel like."