Karen Smyers

1961-

American triathlete

Endurance athlete Karen Smyers, who has participated in triathlons since 1984, has a never-give-up attitude. A seven-time U.S.A. Triathlon Elite National Champion and winner of both the Hawaiian Ironman World Championship and the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Triathlon World Championship in 1995, Smyers soon afterward became known for her brave battles against injury and cancer. In spite of daunting obstacles, which contributed to her failure to make the 2000 U.S. Olympic triathlon team, Smyers kept training, competing, and winning. In 2002, at age forty-one, she finished the Hawaiian Ironman—with its 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run—for the seventh time. Smyers said she hopes to continue competing for years to come.

Young Swimmer

Karen Smyers was born September 1, 1961, in Corry, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in an athletic family of eight children. She joined her older siblings on the town swim team at age eight. She swam competitively at Wethersfield High School and was named All-State. After graduation Smyers entered Princeton University and swam on the Princeton team, which won the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Conference Division I Eastern Championships three of the four years she was on the team. She has credited swimming with giving her the aerobic capacity and competitive drive that propelled her to success in the triathlon.

After graduating from Princeton in 1983 with a degree in economics, Smyers was looking for a sport in which she could nurture her drive to compete. Her former roommate was planning to enter a triathlon, so the two trained together. Smyers entered her first triathlon in 1984, although her only bicycle was the one she used to ride to work at a computer consulting firm.

From Amateur to Full-time Pro

Upgrading to a better bike, Smyers entered the Bud Light Series triathlon in Boston, also in 1984, as an amateur. She finished first in her division and second over-all but missed out on the $500 prize money because of her amateur status. From then on, she entered triathlons as a professional, although still working at the computer firm until it closed in 1989. She then turned full-time pro and by the early 1990s began earning a six-figure income, including prize money and product endorsements for shoe, sportswear, and bicycle companies.

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments

In 1989, Smyers placed fourth in the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Triathlon World Championships. Then in 1990 she began a six-year first-place winning streak in the U.S.A. Triathlon Elite National Championships. She also won the ITU World Championship in 1990.

In the early 1990s, Smyers had been entering the shorter triathlons—the World Championship consists of a.9-mile swim, a 24.8-mile bike ride, and a 6.2-mile run—but the longer and more grueling Ironman races began to intrigue her. First winning the St. Croix (Virgin Islands) International Half Ironman triathlon in 1992, 1993, and 1994, and placing in the top five in the Gatorade Ironman in 1993 and 1994, Smyers entered her first Hawaiian Ironman in 1994 and placed fourth. Her husband, film producer Michael King, also entered, as an amateur. Smyers's time in the 1994 Ironman was the fastest ever among women entering the race for the first time. She was hooked on the most challenging race in the sport.

Iron Woman

In 1995, Smyers returned to the lava fields of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, for the Ironman Triathlon. Close on the heels of seven-time victor Paula Newby-Fraser in the final event, the run, Smyers won the Ironman after Fraser collapsed short of the finish line. Smyers's total time in the event was nine hours, sixteen minutes, and forty-six seconds. (The total time allowed to finish the Ironman is seventeen hours.) In the same year, Smyers again won the ITU Triathlon World Championship and also won a gold medal at the Pan American Games. She was the first woman ever to win both the Ironman and the ITU championship in the same year.

By 1997, Smyers was looking forward to the 2000 Olympics, in which the women's triathlon would become an event for the first time. She again won the St. Croix International Half Ironman in the spring of 1997, but then in June a streak of ill luck befell her. As she was changing a storm window at her home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, the window fell and shattered, sending a glass shard through her left thigh and severing her hamstring. During the months of healing and rehabilitation, she and Michael decided it was time to start a family. Their daughter, Jenna, was born in May 1998, by Caesarian section. After a brief period of recovery, Smyers was training again in August, when another accident occurred. She was riding her bike on a narrow road with training partner Glenn Cunha when a passing 18-wheel truck hit her bike. The fall caused six broken ribs, a lung contusion, and a separated shoulder.

Four months later, at the end of 1998, Smyers resumed training. Racing again in 1999, she was proud to finish, albeit in 38th place, the ITU World Championships—she had bronchitis at the time. In September 1999, doctors told her she probably had thyroid cancer. Because this type of cancer is typically slow growing, she went on to finish second in the Hawaiian Ironman in October and to enter a race in Ixtapa, Mexico, in November, before having biopsies performed. At the Ixtapa triathlon, another cyclist overturned in front of Smyers, causing her to flip off her bike, breaking her collarbone. It was the first time in her career that she did not finish a race.

2000 Olympic Trials

Smyers's biopsies did show a cancerous thyroid, which she had removed in December 1999, just a few months before the Olympic trials began in Sydney, Australia. Back in training, she placed 22nd overall and fourth among American women in the Sydney competition to choose the first member of the U.S. team. She still had to compete in Dallas, where the other two members would be chosen. As the media began covering her Olympic hopes, in light of her bad luck over the preceding few years, Sports Illustrated called her "the Triathlete Most Likely to be Eaten by a Shark at the Sydney Olympics" (there had been nine shark sightings near the swim course). Always one with a sense of humor—she writes a column called "Laughter Is the Best Medicine" for a triathlon magazine—Smyers took it all in stride. But when it came time for the Dallas trials, she placed seventh instead of in the top two she needed to make the Olympic team.

Continuing Competition

In August, Smyers had another surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes and then began radioactive-iodine therapy, joking, "I will be able to read in bed without a night light." After the surgery, her daughter, Jenna, wore Band-Aids on her neck just like her mother.

Smyers continued to train and compete throughout 2001, bringing home several wins, including her seventh U.S.A. Elite National Championship and first place in the 2001 U.S.A. Triathlon pro championships at the first New York City Triathlon. She also took fifth place at the Hawaiian Ironman. Trek Bicycles gave her the Trek Arete Comeback Athlete Award, given to athletes who have overcome tremendous obstacles while pursuing their goals.

Tips from the Top

A triathlete since 1985, Karen Smyers came into her own in 1990. After winning races in Ohio and Massachusetts, she beat a field of America's best women triathletes and qualified for the U.S. team. Racing at the Worlds in September, Smyers shocked everyone, winning with a come-from-behind run. Though she has developed into a strong cyclist, Smyers came from a swimming and running background. At Princeton University, she competed on both the track and swimming teams, a "double major" that gave her a good perspective on the difficulties that bedevil novice swimmers.

"One of the most important things is to get some coaching, and the best way to do that is to join an organized group. Technique is important in swimming, and it's a hard thing to pick up yourself. Joining an organized group also makes you swim harder. If you get in the water by yourself, you tend to just put in the distance, and you don't push as hard. It's also a lot more fun with a group."

Source: McAlpine, Ken. Runner's World, June 1991, p. 46.

In December 2001, Smyers's annual checkup showed no cancer, to her great relief. She told Swim Magazine that it was immensely helpful to her as she battled cancer to hear about others who have survived serious illnesses and are thriving and competing. She now participates in such events as the Against the Tide swim, which raises money to fight breast cancer.

At age forty-one and still competing in 2002, Smyers had a bladder problem during the final leg of the 2002 Hawaiian Ironman, although she did finish the tough race when many others could not; she placed 27th. Her older sister Donna, also a triathlete, set a record for the event in the women's 45-49 age group.

Karen Smyers is truly an Iron Woman, one who has proven her strength and endurance in both the triathlon and in her personal life. She told Runner's World Magazine, "If there's one thing I want to pass on to my daughter, it's the strength of perseverance." She also said, "I'd feel incomplete if I didn't have sports. I absolutely love competition. It's been my life."

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: c/o USA Triathlon, 616 W. Monument St., Colorado Springs, CO 80905. Email: Karen.Smyers@triathloncentral.com.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Great Women in Sports. "Karen Smyers." Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996.

Periodicals

Cazeneuve, Brian. "A Few Bumps in the Road: Hit by a Truck, Flying Glass, and Cancer, Triathlete Karen Smyers Rides On." Sports Illustrated (May 1, 2000): 83.

Gordon, Devin. "The Iron Woman: The Triathlon Is a Bitterly Grueling Event, but Karen Smyers Is Used to Tribulation." Newsweek (May 22, 2000): 65.

McAlpine, Ken. "Tips from the top." Runner's World (June 1991): 46.

Volckening, Bill. "Amazing Journey" (interview with Karen Smyers). Swim Magazine (September-October 2002).

Wischnia, Bob. "Karen Smyers." Runner's World (October 2001): 56.

Other

Carlson, Timothy. "Karen Smyers, Hunter Kemper Win U.S. Titles at New York City Triathlon." Inside Triathlon.com. http://www.insidetri.com/ (August 12, 2001).

DMSE Sports.com. "Profile: Professional Triathlete Karen Smyers." http://www.dmsesports.com/ (January 14, 2003).

Facteau, Shane. "Smyers & Van Lierde Added to St. Croix Field." http://www.duathlon.com/ (April 22, 2002).

Facteau, Shane. "St. Croix Women's Preview." http://www.duathlon.com/ (May 1, 2002).

Fraiegari, Priscilla. "Ironman Hawaii on TV Saturday." http://www.duathlon.com/ (November 19, 2002).

Gandolfo, Christina. "New England Triathlete Donna Smyers Triumphs in Hawaii." From Triathlete Magazine. Transition Times.com. http://www.transitiontimes.com/ (January 15, 2003).

Outside Online.com. "Karen Smyers." http://web.outsideonline.com/events/ironman/ (January 14, 2003).

TrekBikes.com. "Karen Smyers Captures Comeback Athlete Award." http://www.trekbikes.com/news/ (January 14, 2003).

TrekBikes.com. "Trek Triathlete Karen Smyers—Sports Mom of the Year." http://www.trekbikes.com/news/ (January 15, 2003).

Triathlon Central.com. http://www.triathloncentral.com/ (January 14, 2003).

Triathlon.org. "Karen Smyers." http://www.triathlon.org/profiles/ (January 14, 2003).

USA Triathlon.org. http://www.usatriathlon.org/ (January 14, 2003).

Sketch by Ann H. Shurgin