Meet Olivia, Amanda, and Coco: Up-and-Coming Triathletes, Paratriathlete

September is finally here! And top American women triathletes and cyclists will be competing in the ITU World Triathlon Championships in Chicago, Ill., from September 15-19 and the UCI Road World CyclingChampionships in Richmond, Va., from September 19-27.

American women have dominated the world triathlon scene this year. They are led by Gwen Jorgensen, the reigning ITU world champion, and Sarah True and Katie Zaferes. Paratriathlon, a multisport competition for those with physical challenges, will debut at the 2016 Paralympic Games, and U.S. contenders competing in the Windy City include Hailey Danisewicz and Melissa Stockwell.

While a few women have already qualified for a coveted spot on Team USA for next summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, others are still vying for remaining slots. Cheering them on are three sporty girls, Olivia, Amanda and Coco, who are coming up the ranks and chasing championship titles at the Youth and Junior level.

Olivia Wade, 14 and a freshman in high school in California, competed at the USAT Youth-Junior National Championship this past summer finishing fourth in the Youth Elite division. She began running in second grade and has found her niche in triathlon. Needless to say, the run segment of the race is her favorite. Olivia is a member of the Formula Endurance Team based in San Diego, California.

Do you have a favorite female triathlete?

I am always excited to see Gwen Jorgensen race because no matter how much pain she is in, she always manages to put a smile on her face. I look up to Gwen because her ability to run as well as she does which pushes me to try my best and conquer the run in all my races.

Olivia’s Favorite Books: My overall favorite book is WONDER by R.J. Palacio. I enjoyed this because it showed how everyone should be able to be happy and have friends who love them for who they are no matter what they look like. A couple of my other favorite books are BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruta Sepetys and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee.

Reading in general: A good sports book I would recommend is WITH WINNING IN MIND by Lanny Bassham. When I was injured [hit by a car four years ago] and couldn’t compete for a long time I remember reading a good book, A CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE by Ann M. Martin.

Amanda Becker is 10-years-old, lives in Wisconsin, and just started the 5th grade. In 2012, she joined the Chicago-based Dare2tri Paratriathlon Club and has competed in eight races to date. A highlight this past summer was representing the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association (GLASA) at the National Junior Disability Championships in the swimming competition.

What part of the race is your favorite?

Swimming. Even though I can bike and run in races, they make my leg and hips hurt more than swimming.

What female paratriathletes do you admire?

If I have to pick one favorite, it would be Melissa Stockwell [shown above in photo]! I want to be like her someday, and my dream is to go to the Paralympic Games, too!

Would you like to see girls in books who have a prosthesis like you?

I think it would be great to see more girls with prosthetics in all different sports. Maybe if there were more books or news stories about what we can do there would be more girls getting out and playing like me.

Amanda’s Favorite Books: I love all of the JUNIE B. JONES books by Barbara Park and DORK DIARIES by Rachel Renee Russell.

Reading in general: My mom was reading part of the Rudy Ruettiger story to me — he's the guy from the movie Rudy who played football at Notre Dame and overcame challenges. On our way to the National [Junior Disability] Championships in New Jersey, we stopped at Notre Dame and that was neat to see.

Courtney “Coco” Diemar is 11-years-old and in the 6th grade. She lives outside of Chicago and has already won national triathlon and cycling titles. In 2010, at the age of six, she won the IronKids National Triathlon Championship. Last month she was featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” for winning the 11-year old USAT Youth-Junior National Championship. Coco competes for the MMTT Mach II Triathlon Team and Junior Twenty16 Cycling Team. Her favorite part of the triathlon is biking.

Cycling races have different events – what do you like/dislike about them?

Overall, I like bike racing because I can draft [tuck in close, behind other competitors] and I have to think about what kind of moves I am going to make. I like criteriums the best because they are usually short, fast, and often have tight turns plus little hills that make them fun. In road races, it can be sort of boring if you are in a race in the middle of nowhere. Time Trials are hard because you are by yourself and if it's windy you cannot draft off of other people.

Since you live so close to Chicago, are you going to watch the ITU Triathlon events?

Yes, I can’t wait to see all the USA women compete since right now they are the best in the world. I have never seen a women's or men's pro race, it will be exciting!

The UCI Road World Championships are in Richmond right after the ITU Worlds – are you going to be following that, too?

I am so excited that my Twenty16 teammate Chloe Dygert will be racing in the Junior Time Trial and Road Race. She won cycling nationals and is really FAST! Kristin Armstrong is also on Twenty16 and competing in the Pro Women's Time Trial, she was a triathlete before being a cyclist, so she is like me.

Coco’s favorite books: LAND OF STORIES Series by Chris Colfer, THE SELECTION Series by Kiara Cass, and MORTAL INSTRUMENTS Series by Cassandra Clare.

Reading in general: I like "fantasy" type books. I love to read before I go to bed. It gives me a good a break before I go to sleep. We also have a subscription to Sports Illustrated Kids that I read every month. My swim coach sometimes will send emails with articles he would like us to read, but usually my sister, brother and I ride our bikes to the library or bookstore and pick out our own books. I also have a Kindle, so I am always downloading books.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

USA Triathlon KidZone

http://www.usatriathlon.org/audience/athlete-resources/kid-zone.aspx

and

USA Cycling

https://www.usacycling.org/juniors

Author Interview: Christina Fernandez-Morrow on Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts

When your father is Puerto Rican boxer José “Cheo” Fernandez, you learn to box. Christina Fernandez-Morrow threw punches and learned how to dodge the training pads her father swung her way. She learned along side her brothers and their friends in their Chicago neighborhood but it was Christina and her sister who outlasted all the boys.

In her currently unnamed Young Adult novel, the main character Zulima Diaz, Zuli, lives in a rough area of Chicago with her mother. It’s clear that Zuli does much of the caretaking. Zuli makes grocery lists, and makes decisions about which one or two items they might afford that week. While she eats mayonnaise sandwiches, she cleans up her mother’s messes from the night before– messes that include drug paraphernalia and sexual encounters.

Zuli is angry about her situation. She fights in school and has been suspended more than once. Is it synchronicity when Zuli keeps seeing the same poster – an open call for a mixed martial arts reality show– throughout the city? If she were to win, the prize money and scholarship possibilities would give Zuli a future she never thought she could achieve. Zuli gets onto the show and trains for the grueling and often violent mix of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, and other unarmed combat sports.

Christina’s own boxing training lay dormant for many years while she pursued a college degree. Even though she liked creative writing, she knew that a business degree meant financial stability and as the oldest in her family she was the role model for her younger siblings. After college she married and started a family. She worked in corporate marketing for her day job and often helped other Latina writers market their work. She was thrilled that someone was writing about the Latina experience in the US. Along the way, she wrote the Iowa Latina Lifestyle section for Examiner.com. When she took writing classes, she wrote about teen characters. She made photo books for her foster children that included their creative writing. Her husband saw her as a writer, but that’s not how she saw her self. She was a business major and business majors went on to get MBA’s. However, when she entered a five-minute fiction writing contest, and her winning entry was published in Juice Magazine, she applied to Vermont College of Fine Arts.

In 2012, Christina’s husband died unexpectedly and his funeral coincided with her acceptance to VCFA. Would she go? Could she leave her daughter to further her writing career? She had to. Her husband had been the one person who saw her passion and calling.

The emotional pain of his death was overwhelming and, to help with her grief, she turned to writing. After a few semesters, she realized she missed boxing and found a trainer to help get in shape through boxing. The return to training was difficult. Still, the physical pain was easier to handle than the emotional pain of her loss.

“I could put physical pain into words, something I couldn’t do with what I felt inside. Writing about sore muscles, swollen knuckles, bloody noses and broken ribs became therapeutic for me, as was stepping out of my reality and into one that I could control.”

Soon, Zuli’s character came to her. Growing up in Humboldt Park, in Chicago, Christina had known girls like Zuli and families who faced similar challenges. As Christina faced her own training, she was researching Zuli’s.

Five minutes in the caged octagon might not seem like a lot but Zuli had to have amazing endurance. When Christina jumped with a leather rope for 15 minutes she knew what was like to have legs like cinder blocks. She studied videos of MMA training and read memoirs of women fighters. She learned about the fast, often bloody sport that had so few limitations its practitioners felt glory in just getting through. Her character, Zuli, wasn’t the only one who turned to combat sports when things were rough. Many of the real girls and women that Christina learned about were abandoned or neglected. They were scrappy fighters like Zuli whose anger and pain got them into trouble until they got into the cage.

Christina found that many fighters went on to college, that there was a movement to make MMA a college sport, that as a recognized collegiate sport there would be scholarships. She knew then, that MMA was Zuli’s way out of her bad situation and into a better future.

Christina Fernadez-Morrow was saluted as a Next Generation Latina at Latina.com in 2012 and featured in the Des Moines Register's article, 13 People to Watch in 2013.  With a finished manuscript and a newly minted MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Christina Fernadez-Morrow is looking for the right agent. She wants to get Zuli’s story into the hands of girls everywhere. Christina’s writing and boxing training makes her specially qualified for the grueling road ahead.