Contact CU Independent sports staff writer Kevin Pankow at kevin.pankow@colorado.edu
Ten-time 70.3 Ironman Champion and professional triathlete Angela Naeth stopped at the University of Colorado Boulder this week to train student-athletes.
Naeth started competing professionally seven years ago and began coaching athletes soon after. This is her first time working with student athletes, and she says she wants to give them the opportunity training with a professional athlete, a privilege that she didn’t have.
During her stay in the Centennial State, Naeth is working with the very successful CU triathlon team on their techniques, diets and various performance tests to refine their skills. The CU triathlon team, which competes at the club level, has won 16 national championships, more than all other schools in the country combined.
By bringing her own experiences as a student and professional athlete, Naeth hopes to give this CU team an outside perspective to help them move into next season and perhaps a professional career.
“You can’t step ahead or think backwards. You have to think now, and that is what sports do for me,” she said.
Naeth also values education. After receiving a track scholarship, she earned a master’s degree in Physical Therapy and a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences from the University of Missouri Columbia. After college, she became a pediatric and orthopedic physiotherapist for three years.
However, she began cycling and swimming after college and it didn’t take her long to discover and fall in love with triathlon. Naeth entered her first triathlon in 2007 and won the race. Since then, her educational background has helped shape her perceptions of her athletic discipline and her training approaches.
“I’m just always learning. Even now professionally I get swim lessons and have a coach myself,” she said.
Naeth is committed passing on her knowledge, experience, and skills to younger athletes with big dreams.
Her next visit stop will be in Fort Collins, at Colorado State University, though she made sure to mention Boulder was one of her favorite places to visit in Colorado.
