Adapt (Ability): Tristan Wendel
(FIFA Master 25th edition)
As a child, Tristan Wendel was always the one asking questions. It was a characteristic that his parents described as inquisitive. But there was another reason behind his constant questioning.
At the age of five, Tristan was diagnosed with hearing loss in his right ear, a condition that would shape much of his childhood. His repeated use of the word “what” wasn’t just harmless chatter; it was a sign something wasn’t quite right. “I was saying ‘what’ a lot,” Tristan recalls. Concerned by this, his parents took him to a doctor, who revealed that he had only 12% effective hearing in his right ear.
This diagnosis would go on to impact more than his hearing. It has influenced his approach to his life, where, from a young age, he became skilled in the art of adaptability. At the start, this involved daily adjustments to life, many of which others may often take for granted. “When I first went to school, the teacher wore a microphone so that sound came right to my ear. The whole experience definitely shaped my early life.”
But Tristan’s experience in adaptability didn’t stop with this hurdle. As he navigated modifications to his everyday life from his hearing deficit, another challenge emerged: a delay in his ability to read. “I don’t know if it was related to my hearing loss, but I was illiterate until the first grade.” Despite early struggles with literacy, Tristan’s love for learning and reading blossomed in elementary school. “Do you remember that book, Eragon? I read it in one day.” Tristan's growing passion for reading became a turning point, helping him overcome his earlier literacy struggles and sparking a lifelong love for learning. “It’s not even necessarily an escapism thing,” Tristan reflects. “I think I’m an information sponge. I just love learning. So, I think I just wanted to process everything I could.”
Despite Tristan’s drive to soak up as much as he could, he would soon face yet another challenge: his struggle to retain information in school, which eventually led to an ADHD diagnosis. “I wasn’t doing very well in school and I was frustrated because I knew I could do better. I was in class and I would listen and then the information just wouldn’t stay in my head for the test. I knew how capable I was, but it just wasn’t translating when I needed it to.”
But, as with his hearing diagnosis, subsequent awareness and planning for this next challenge meant that Tristan excelled in a now unencumbered fashion. “It was a really awakening moment,” Tristan says of that time, remembering how he quickly shined in school shortly thereafter. “It gave me a much greater appreciation for myself and what I can do.”
And yet with all that life threw at Tristan from a young age, he’s found a way to spin these experiences into something positive. “Everyone has their own struggles, and not only their own limitations, but also their own superpowers in a way,” he says as he jokes about his hearing loss: “I mean, it's nice that I can fall asleep pretty much anywhere just by covering up my left ear. It’s great.”
Growing up in the suburban town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Tristan’s environment didn’t exactly lend itself to easy connections. The layout of the area, with its lack of walkability and spread-out nature, left him feeling somewhat isolated. Yet, this forced solitude ultimately led him to develop an important skill: learning how to connect with others despite the challenges. “When I was younger, I wasn’t someone who liked to necessarily go out of my shell or put myself out there. But I learned that if I didn’t do that, I was going to be missing out,” he reflects.
It wasn’t always easy, but his circumstances and environment taught him how to assert himself and form meaningful relationships. This form of adaptability was further nurtured by his mother, a woman whose larger-than-life personality earned her the affectionate nickname “the mayor of everything” from her family. Known for her enthusiasm and her gift of connecting with everyone she meets, Tristan attributes much of his own social approach to the traits he has inherited from her. “She’s always talking to everyone, engaging them in conversation, making them feel important,” he says. From her, he learned how to embrace new social situations and make people feel special.
As Tristan navigated his childhood and early academic years, his interests began to take shape in ways that would later influence his career path. A passion for cars led him to seriously consider a career in automotive design, and he even went so far as to study German in high school, believing it would be an essential skill for a future in car design. “That’s why I studied German in high school. I thought to myself, ‘Hey, if I’m going to go work in the car industry, German is a pretty valuable language.’”
His curiosity took him further when he spent a summer in Germany, an experience that not only honed his language skills, but, as his first trip to Europe, also broadened his perspective. “It gave me an appreciation for a different culture that I hadn’t been in before,” and it was likely also the birthplace of his life goal to travel to every country in the world.
However, by the end of high school, Tristan’s passion began to shift. He realized that while car design intrigued him, it perhaps wasn’t the right time to pursue this passion. “I realized I am decent at drawing, but I’m not good with all the math involved in aerodynamics. I had researched requirements to get into automotive design school and I did not have the portfolio nor the skills to build the portfolio.”
But around the same time, Tristan’s newfound love for soccer, combined with his fascination for how sports connect people across the globe, led him to explore the world of sport management. “I got really into soccer in early high school. At the end of eighth grade and early ninth grade is when I started really following it.” The more he learned about the industry, the more he felt drawn to it, and he soon began researching universities with strong sport management programmes, setting the stage for his next big step, one that focused on sports. “At that point I just knew I wanted to be in this universe.”
At Syracuse University, Tristan’s university experience was a blend of academic undertakings and hands-on involvement, both of which allowed him to deepen his understanding of sport management. A class on esports helped challenge his own assumptions about the industry. “I think there’s always that stigma of a bunch of gamer guys in their mom's basement eating Cheetos, and that’s the demographic. But when we went to see a tournament, every demographic was at the esport event, and it was amazing to me because it was so interactive as someone who knew nothing.” Outside of class, Tristan played a key marketing role as part of the university’s sport management club, where, during his four years, they raised $200,000 for local charities. “I think it was a very formative thing for me because it allowed me to have that kind of work experience while I was still in school.”
That work experience – among many other formative experiences throughout university – led Tristan to an internship at the United Soccer League (USL), where he consulted on best practices and developed key documents to standardize operations across the league as part of the club services department. It was also there that Tristan first heard about the FIFA Master after meeting alumni, Court Jeske, who provided valuable advice on the programme and how to make the most of his experience. “He was a great sounding board for me – and it definitely inspired me – but it was clear that, to be a more competitive candidate, I needed to gain more experience.”
Tristan’s subsequent roles taught him how to use sports as a “social campfire” to create meaningful connections and stir conversations at SPORTFIVE; the power of influencer marketing and how to balance modern engagement with traditional brand messaging at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee; and the importance of agency in creativity during his time at Bleacher Report. “I got to flex my creative muscles there more than I could anywhere else because of the resources I had.”
Now, as part of the 25th edition of the FIFA Master, Tristan is not only honing new skills, but he also brings his own charisma, adaptability, and professional learnings to the cohort. And through his journey overcoming challenges, Tristan has not only discovered his own voice but is now equipped to help others find theirs. Looking ahead, Tristan envisions a career where he can help organizations craft their narratives, build meaningful connections with fans, and use creative strategies to drive business growth. “I want to be able to help craft a narrative or set the narrative story for an organization and help an organization find its voice.”
By Geneva Decker
FIFA Master 25th edition student
FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked Europe's No.1 course a record 12 times by SportBusiness.
FIFA Master - 25 years of Excellence in Sport Business Education - organised by CIES in partnership with De Montfort University (UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland).
