Competing in possibly the most grueling sport around today, Jarrod Shoemaker '04 has, in all senses of the term, made it. A triathlete and a former runner for the Dartmouth varsity track team, Shoemaker will be representing the United States in the triathlon at the 2008 Olympic Games this summer in Beijing.
Shoemaker, from Sudbury, Mass., has had a short but outstanding career as a triathlete. He decided to compete in triathlons in 2003, his senior year at Dartmouth, and after only four races, he turned professional. After winning the Under-23 National and World Championships, Shoemaker's career has continued to skyrocket.
After amassing nine top-10 finishes in the past two years, Shoemaker's path to stardom has culminated in his selection to the 2008 U.S. Triathlon National Elite Team this year. As the first member to make the team, Shoemaker will lead the U.S. in the competition in Beijing.
Shoemaker himself, a modest man, has been taken aback by this honor.
"It's interesting," he said. "I don't know if it'll sink in until later. It's something I've been training for and working towards, but I still don't realize the full weight of it, I think -- I don't think it will sink in until I actually get to Beijing."
The triathlon is one of the most demanding athletic competitions in the world. Athletes race in three different events -- swimming, biking and running -- and all three events are performed consecutively as part of one complete race.
Triathlons vary in distance, and the Olympic triathlon is set at 1.5 km of swimming, 40 km of biking and 10 km of running. However, full distance, or Ironman, triathlons can include as much as 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking and 26.2 miles of running.
Shoemaker has also been given a coveted award for any athlete: Wheaties cereal is honoring him with a limited-edition package featuring him on the cover. He is only the second triathlete to be featured.
The Wheaties box cover has become something of a legend in the sports world; over the years, it has been adorned with the likenesses of the finest and most famous athletes in the world. Shoemaker is now a part of this exclusive club.
"It's still really funny," Shoemaker said. "Honestly, when I got the first phone call about it, I thought it was going to be a joke. It's something that you never think is actually going to happen. Until I saw it done and finished, and even then, I still couldn't believe it. It's very cool and very weird to see yourself on the Wheaties box."
For all his success, Shoemaker didn't start his career wanting to be a triathlete.
"I was a runner," he said. "I always wanted to run at an Olympic level, but I realized at some point that was not going to happen for me. So I started learning about triathlons and decided that I would pursue them my senior year."
After a successful high school career at Lincoln-Sudbury High School, Shoemaker was a standout runner in the Ivy League while at Dartmouth.
Even today, he credits his coaches at Dartmouth for helping him develop as an athlete.
"I ran under Barry Harwick , who's still around," Shoemaker said. "The program that he had in place really helped me to understand more and learn about myself as an athlete. I had some troubled times, but in the end everything I did there made me a much better athlete."
Shoemaker also credits Dartmouth's education for helping him deal with the increasingly complicated world of professional athletics.
"All the academics, everything about Dartmouth has made me much more knowledgeable," he said. "One tough thing about being a professional athlete is all the business. Dealing with all the contracts and sponsors is tough sometimes, and having the whole Dartmouth experience helped me immensely."
Qualifying for the Olympics, however, has redoubled Shoemaker's motivation, he said, although his training regimen has remained the same.
"I have the same quality and intensity of workouts; that hasn't changed at all," he said. "But knowing now the specific race that I'm training for is cool -- I've never had that. Knowing that August 19th is the day I'm training for, instead of just training race to race, has really helped me stay motivated."
Shoemaker trains between 20 and 24 hours a week -- swimming around 20,000 yards, biking eight to 10 hours, and running 35-50 miles.
As for aspiring athletes here at Dartmouth, Shoemaker has wise words.
"It's a lot about learning who you are and what you are, who you are as an athlete and how far you want to take it," he said. "It takes a lot of energy, a lot of commitment to wanting to be the best and wanting to train to be the best."
