More College Athletes Are Trekking to Ironman

One common thread, though, was a fascination with pushing the limits of endurance, at younger and younger ages, thanks in part to the success of Norwegians in long-distance running.

“The Norwegians are dominating,” Roshak said. “They’re young, and they’re rewriting the rule book in terms of what your body needs to be.”

Peyton Thompson, 20, the youngest male qualifier, said he marveled at the Norwegians’ obsession with data analysis, science and nutrition.

Thompson had once been a promising point guard in northern Florida, playing on top youth basketball teams. But after sustaining serious knee injuries, he gave up his dream of playing college hoops and enrolled at Duke with pre-med aspirations.

Then the pandemic hit. And although he lived on campus while taking online classes, he was unable to join a slew of clubs, as he had originally hoped. So voilà, triathlon.

“I had to learn how to swim,” said Thompson, a neuroscience major.

Thompson is one of three Ironman students from the Research Triangle. Andrew Buchanan, from Redondo Beach, Calif., is a senior at the University of North Carolina. Corinne Mouw, a native of Pittsgrove, N.J., is a senior at North Carolina State, and active in the school’s triathlon club.

Even though Mouw’s classmates were sent home in March 2020 because of the pandemic, she stayed in Raleigh, working in a co-op job that was part of her mechanical engineering major. But everyone stayed connected through Strava, an online exercise-tracking tool.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/sports/ironman-college-athletes.html