April 26, 2007
Triathlon Finds a Fountain of Youth
By RAY GLIER

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.

THE swimmers burst out of the water to become cyclists, and it looked like
any triathlon transition until the athletes started peeling off their
generic black wet suits to reveal bright school colors.

As fans — mostly family and friends — recognized the hues of the
bike-and-run uniforms, the cheering started. The blue and orange of the
University of Florida prompted yells of “Go Gators.” The blue and gold of
the Navy prompted (what else?) “Go Navy.”

The event, the 2007 Collegiate National Championships, was a yardstick for
triathlon growth in the United States. Because triathlon is a club sport on
the college level, it does not fall under the umbrella of the National
Collegiate Athletic Association. But though a sport on the margin on campus,
the national championships, on April 21, drew 1,000 competitors from 77
institutions. That is almost double the draw at the 2005 championship, which
featured 555 competitors from 58 schools.

The available spots for the 2007 contest were filled in February, and some
clubs, with as many as 100 active members, had to hold tryouts for the
official team traveling to the championship, which the Navy won.

“We thought collegiate triathlon had potential, but we didn’t think it would
double in numbers in just two years,” said Tim Yount, the vice president for
communications for USA Triathlon, the governing body of the sport. “Once we
got the support of coaches and team leaders from schools around the country,
we were able to put on some good events to draw people into the sport.”

In recent years, triathlon has been regarded as the domain of 35- to
44-year-old overachievers. But at the USA Triathlon dinner for athletes the
night before the collegiate championships, the pasta ran out. It could have
been poor planning, but the culprit also could have been the sudden
popularity of the sport among the 18- to 24-year-old demographic.

Mr. Yount said universities and colleges fielded 95 club triathlon teams
last year, up from 80 in 2005.

Still, triathlon is not to be confused with mega-sports on campus like
football or basketball.

Last October, when Florida’s football team traveled to Jacksonville to play
the University of Georgia, the Gators stayed in a luxury hotel the night
before the game. The night before he won the national triathlon men’s title,
Kevin Collington, a junior at the university, and the other 43 members of
the Gators team slept in tents at a campground.

Such is the life of even the most talented college triathletes. They wear
uniforms emblazoned with their school colors (for which they pay $85 to $100
each), but they remain second-class citizens on campus.

“I don’t think there is going to be a crowd waiting for me when I get back
to Gainesville like there was for the football and basketball teams after
they won national titles,” said Mr. Collington, a mechanical engineering
major.

He shrugged. “I see a lot of those guys on the basketball team when I run
around the coliseum, and they wave, but they think I’m on the track team,”
he said.

Most college triathlon teams can afford to stay in hotels for meets; they
just have to raise most of the money themselves. The night before the
triathlon championships, the team from the University of California, Santa
Barbara, slept four to a room in a Hampton Inn in Bessemer, Ala., an hour
from the Tuscaloosa start point. Except for Matt Elke, a graduate student.
He slept in a van near the race start to make sure the bikes were not
stolen. To cover expenses, the team held a fund-raiser — a triathlon, of
course. The event attracted 500 participants at $40 each.

Santa Barbara’s coach, Mateo Mercur, 33, is paid $24,000 a year by the team
members out of dues and other fund-raisers; he also has a private training
business.

Some triathlon club teams do receive money through student fees. This year,
the University of Alabama started a triathlon club, and received $1,200 for
its 42 members, said Kendrick Gibson, the club’s president.

The team, called, of course, the Crimson Tide, is working through a
probationary period; the university requires that members do a certain
number of hours of community service and keep a log of volunteer hours. As
the club matures, the university will contribute more.

Even established triathlon teams scramble for money. Kirk Nelson, the coach
at the University of Colorado, regarded as one of the superpowers in college
triathlon, said his athletes work in the concession stands at football
games. Triathletes also send “beg letters” soliciting donations.

Yet, with three sports to master between classes, many college triathletes
don’t train any less hard than varsity sportsmen.

Josh Matter, who was on the dean’s list for chemical engineering at Michigan
State, said he practices his sports roughly 20 hours a week. Varsity
athletes, according to N.C.A.A. regulations, are allowed to practice 20
hours a week at most.

The difference between the Haves and the Have Nots could not have been more
vivid last Saturday at the finish line on the grassy quadrangle of the
University of Alabama campus.

As the triathletes walked off their muscle burn munching a banana or bagel,
two men in crisp white shirts and black aprons hoisted platters of food on
their shoulders and snaked through their midst. They were caterers taking
food to the football fans tailgating on the quad before the spring football
game.

The football game, a mere scrimmage, drew more than 92,000 people, some of
whom walked to the finish line to gawk at the multisport stars.

“They don’t know what to make of us,” said Lauren Helton, a member of the
Crimson Tide triathlon team. “Maybe they’re mad we’re taking up their
tailgate space.”

The surge in the number of college triathletes has inspired a debate about
whether triathlon should become an N.C.A.A. sport, or remain a club
enterprise governed by individual schools and the national triathlon
association.

Fifty institutions would have to agree to sponsor triathlon on the varsity
level before N.C.A.A. member schools would be able to vote on adding it as a
sport, said Gail Dent, an N.C.A.A spokeswoman.

At first glance, it would seem that athletes would prefer varsity status
because it means official university recognition and funding.

But for graduate students now competing on club teams, varsity status may be
unwelcome. Under N.C.A.A. rules, many graduate students would not be
eligible to compete if triathlon becomes a varsity sport. Some would have
used up their four years of eligibility and others would be too old.

“I wouldn’t be here,” said Dave Holder, 25, who is studying medicine at Ohio
State. “The majority of the graduates who are in this race don’t want
varsity status because we couldn’t compete for a national championship.”

Mr. Nelson, the Colorado coach, worried that going varsity would mean
devoting his time to a handful of recruits. “We have 130 paid members of our
club,” he said. “I can’t imagine, as a varsity sport, limiting our team to
10 or 15 athletes because of scholarship requirements.”

Others worry that male triathletes would suffer. “You would see the men’s
club teams disappear,” said Mr. Collington of Florida. “The women would be
getting all the money because of Title IX.”

On the other side of the argument, Ms. Helton, a freshman at Alabama, said
the Crimson Tide triathlon team would welcome varsity status because it
means more financial support.

“The school could pay for entry fees, maybe some coaching,” Ms. Helton said.

The national triathlon association is lobbying the N.C.A.A. to include
triathlon as a varsity sport, Mr. Yount said. Varsity status would create
scholarship opportunities for triathletes, he said.

“The N.C.A.A. is going to have to look at us because of how rapidly
triathlon is expanding,” Mr. Yount said. “Triathlon has outlived its life as
a club sport and we need to take that next step.”

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