Recent GPS graduate Johanna Gartman is one of five students chosen for the inaugural Elite Triathlon Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo.
Contributed PhotoChattanooga’s Johanna Gartman always will be one of the first five.
Whether that translates into an Olympic medal in 2016 or beyond remains to be seen, but it could. That’s the goal, anyway, of the Elite Triathlon Academy introduced at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Gartman, a recent GPS graduate, is one of the five initial choices for the “landmark program,” as it was billed. Fellow freshmen Kevin McDowell and Kelly Whitley from Geneva, Ill., and transfers Chris Wiatr from Long Grove, Ill., and Ryan Bice from Logansport, Ind., are the others.
They were identified by how they have done in triathlons on a national scale. They will be working out daily at the U.S. Olympic Training Center while attending the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on scholarship. The academy will get support from USA Triathlon and the U.S. Olympic Committed.
“This program will strengthen the United States as a competitor in international triathlon by giving young elite athletes the opportunity to train specifically for triathlon during their college years,” program director Keith Dickson said. “The Elite Triathlon Academy will help to solidify our Olympic pipeline. This program will encourage the top junior athletes to stay in the sport during their formative collegiate years, and they’ll receive a quality education while striving for the Olympic podium.”