For a triathlete, a transition can make or break a race, and one of the greatest triathletes in U.S. history is about to make his biggest transition yet.

Four-time Olympian Hunter Kemper recently announced he is ending his quest for a record-setting fifth trip to the Olympics. He joins Growing Bolder via Skype from his home in Colorado Springs near the Olympic Training Center to explain why he made the difficult decision and how it feels to start thinking about a new future at the age of 40.

See why he’s looking toward professional athletes who are his contemporaries, including Peyton Manning and Tim Duncan, his classmate from Wake Forest, to see how they handle retirement as well.

Hunter also explains why his wife and four young children are making this difficult decision easier. In fact, Hunter’s wife, Val, a former member of the U.S. national volleyball team, joins us for a portion of the Skype to talk about Hunter’s transition to life after professional athletics and what it means for their family.

Find out the touching message their 9-year-old son had for Hunter when he shared his decision with him, even though it meant his son wouldn’t be accompanying his dad to the Olympics as he’d planned.