Athletic Dilettantes Get Event of Their Own
Most Olympic triathletes were not always adept at the grueling blend of swimming, biking and running. Many began as cross-country runners or swimmers. They were good but eventually realized that they were better doing three things than one or two.
It is an uneasy riddle, then, to determine just where triathletes fit in the complex matrix of athleticism. Can they be considered the world’s greatest athletes, a recognition often handed to decathletes, because of their disparate mix of talents? (Can a decathlete swim? Can a triathlete jump or throw?)
Or are triathletes athletic misfits, people not quite good enough in their chosen disciplines who found a way to capitalize on their well-rounded ability?
But what of endurance? The triathlon’s odd yet simple combination of three events — at Olympic distances, a 1,500-meter swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run, with equipment transitions in between — will put those questions on worldwide display here on Monday, when the women compete, and on Tuesday, when it is the men’s turn.
With a 10,000-seat spectator grandstand and a kilometer-long running and biking platform built against the incline of the dam at Shisanling Reservoir, and with the green mountains and a large pagoda serving as a backdrop, the course is pleasing to the eye.
The view should be relatively clear, too. Months of concern about Beijing’s sometimes-wicked mix of heat, humidity and smog have evaporated. Triathletes had grown accustomed to Beijing’s difficult conditions during annual World Cup races, and the American contingent fretted when it arrived for the opening ceremony on Aug. 8. But after leaving for a week to train in South Korea, the Americans returned this weekend to find blue skies and dry air.
The biking and running portions wind around the dam and up and down the surrounding hills. Australia’s Emma Snowsill and Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes — at age 23, the career leader in World Cup victories, with 20 — are the top contenders among women. Spain’s Javier Gómez, who has finished in the top three in his last 16 World Cup events and lost only once in the last year, is the favorite among men.
Swail Ertel played water polo and was part of the Olympic silver-medal team in 2000. Shoemaker ran track for Dartmouth, finishing 12th at the 2004 N.C.A.A. Division I championships in the five-kilometer race.
Reed, who grew up in New Zealand and became an American citizen last year, was an all-around athlete — cricket, basketball and rugby are among his favorites — who began doing triathlons at 15. Kemper began focusing on triathlons at 10 and was featured in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd feature as a 13-year-old.
None of them have a cycling pedigree.
It leaves open the question of how triathletes should be categorized within the Olympic program — whether they can be compared to swimmers, cyclists and runners. Generally, they are viewed as something completely different.
Shoemaker found himself on the plane to Beijing with several Olympic distance runners, including some he competed against in college. He said on Saturday that he was not sure how he was viewed by them.
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