April 17, 2008 12:44 pm
—
Staff Report
Former Cooperstown resident
Sarah Groff is one of 22 U.S. athletes,
and 12 American women,
who have qualified to compete in
the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials
Triathlon, scheduled for this Saturday,
April 19 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The Trials Triathlon is the second
event in the 2008 Olympic
Team selection process that will
field the three American men and
three women who will represent
America in Beijing in August. The
top American woman and top
American man at Tuscaloosa will
each secure spots on the team.
USA Triathlon requires athletes
be ranked in the top 125 in the
world the week before the Olympic
trials in order to compete, and Groff
is currently ranked 120th worldwide.
Groff is originally from Cooperstown,
and trains in Colorado. She
turned professional in 2004.
Groff showed athletic promise
at an early age, setting the record
for the fastest swim of Otsego Lake
as a 14-year-old in 1996. She completed
the nine-mile swim in three
hours and 49 minutes, a record
that still stands today.
After attending Cooperstown
through middle school, she left for
a private school, Deerfield Academy,
for her high school years, where
she was a standout runner and
swimmer, earning All-New England
honors in both sports.
After living in Valencia, Spain
for a year after high school, Groff,
now 26, attended Middlebury College,
a small liberal arts college in
Vermont. While at Middlebury,
Groff was a member of the swim
team and competed in middle distance
and distance freestyle events.
Groff was named to the All-NESCAC
and All-American teams for
her successes.
Groff said qualifying for the
Olympics is her main goal, but developing
into the best triathlete
she can be is even more important.
``For those of us trying to qualify
for the Beijing Olympics, these next
few months are a critical period for
growth, both physical and mental,’’
Groff wrote in a blog on her website,
sarahgroff.com. ``While this
period will be highly challenging
(or ``character building’’, as my
coach might say), I recognize that
the process is just as important, if
not more so, than the outcome.
Whether or not I qualify for the
Olympic team, I am confident that
someday I will draw upon the lessons
that I’ll learn.’’
The first Olympic triathlon selection
event was held at the ITU
Beijing World Cup last September,
with Laura Bennett and Jarrod
Shoemaker qualifying. The final
event will be held in Des Moines,
Iowa at the Hy-Vee Triathlon on
June 22. The last male and female
athlete will be selected after that
race based on a points system that
calculates the best two of three races.
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