Shoemaker Takes 21st at World Intercollegiate Championships

Competing in an elite international triathlon is difficult enough when it’s only three stages long. But add on a grueling test of endurance—and patience—in an unfamiliar airport and the event transcends mere sport, as rising Harvard junior Jenna Shoemaker recently learned.

Shoemaker—en route to Palma de Majorca, Spain, for the World Intercollegiate Championships on July 3, at which she finished 21st—missed a connecting flight to the island from the mainland despite arriving at the terminal with time to spare, thanks to her airline’s unfamiliar ticketing and boarding procedure. Waiting at the wrong counter until just after her scheduled flight finished boarding, the Crimson freestyle swimmer was left to jockey for a standby seat, which, after two failed attempts—and seven hours—wasn’t materializing.

“I speak a little Spanish, but not enough to have a conversation,” Shoemaker said. “It was awful.”

With her chances of making a meeting with her U.S. teammates fading, Shoemaker booked a one-way flight on another airline, eventually arriving at her destination on Thursday evening, leaving little time to acclimate to the new surroundings.

“Once I got over that and got there, I said, ‘I’m never coming back to Spain,’” Shoemaker said.

Of course, once she’d conquered that challenge, Shoemaker found herself lining up alongside several internationally ranked triathletes, few of whom had as little experience as she did entering the race.

“It was a little intimidating,” Shoemaker said. “They announce your name and you’re kind of like, ‘Oh God,’ next to the girl from Switzerland. It’s like...there’s no pressure, but you don’t want to do poorly.”

And despite the offputting start, the resulting less-than-ideal race conditions and the caliber of her opponents, Shoemaker ensured that the journey was not in vain, turning in a solid showing across all three sub-events.

Shoemaker exploited course conditions early in the opening swim to grab the preliminary lead. While several of the other participants immediately started to paddle their way through the shallow waters, Shoemaker fell back on her lifeguarding skills, sprinting into first place.

By the time she reached the first buoy, however, Shoemaker had been swallowed up by the pack.

“I got smacked around a little bit,” Shoemaker said. “I’m not used to that. It kind of threw me off a little bit.”

Scampering out of the water in the second chase pack, Shoemaker and one of her American teammates tried to organize their fellow riders to advance on the group 20 seconds ahead. But with language dividing them from the already-reluctant competitors, the two lost seconds on the leaders.

Shoemaker made her way to the front of the pack before the transition to the run, but the damage was done.

Now on the weakest portion of her race, Shoemaker ran smack into the scorching Spanish sun, beating down on the long exposed track.

“There’s a water stop at one end and a water stop at the other end,” Shoemaker said. “There’s no shade and no water. You’re just running and [thinking] ‘Oh God, get me to the other end.’”

Even if she’d wanted to stop, with one of her U.S. teammates already out of the race, Shoemaker was left with no option but to continue unless she wanted to disqualify the American team from contention altogether.

With a quarter mile separating her from her opponents on both sides, Shoemaker had only herself and the Iberian heat to compete against.

“I cut another 1:30 off my best time,” Shoemaker said. “The improvement over the season was seven minutes. There’s only up to go from here.”

And, judging by her determination after the race, it seems likely that’s the direction she’ll be headed.

“After this race I’m going to try and get over the mental block I have with the run,” she said. “As my teammate passed me, I thought, ‘That’s okay. She’s a better runner.’ And I can’t do that any more.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.