Harvard Triathletes Find Camraderie in Club Team

When Michael Silva and Samir Faza set foot in Harvard Yard in the fall of 2011, they brought with them passion for a sport the school had yet to offer—triathlon.

“I was honestly shocked that there wasn’t a [triathlon] team,” Silva said. “All the other local schools have teams—BU, BC, MIT. When I was looking at schools, I was certainly looking at which schools had triathlon teams, and Harvard didn’t have one, which was really shocking.”

To resolve this issue, the duo wasted little time in getting to work. Silva and Faza founded the Harvard Triathlon Club Team their freshman year, and the two found members of the student body who shared their interest. Currently, five members serve as co-captains of the Triathlon team—Silva, Faza, classmate Joseph Brennan, graduate student Andrés Onetto, and sophomore Caitlin Begg. They joined the team with mixed backgrounds and differing levels of prior triathlon experience, a diversity that still defines the organization.

“The past experiences of our members have are hugely varied,” Faza said. “We have people involved with our shortest race [who] can barely run a 5K, or those who struggle with any distance of open-water swimming… On the other hand, we also have competitive [Iron Man competitors]…[and] an athlete from the Navy team who was one of their fastest racers.”

Regardless of whether they have been competing in triathlons for several years or are simply trying their hand at the sport, members of the club share one common theme: a draw to the sport’s combination of three different athletic components.

DIVERSE ROOTS

“I played football through high school,” Brennan said. “I stopped playing football [after] my senior year of high school, and started doing distance running… I have always been interested in doing triathlons. I have thought that it would be more interesting to do three sports instead of one.”

Silva is one of the most experienced triathletes on the team, with several years of experience already under his belt.

“I started [triathlon] in high school,” Silva said. “[I] got more involved in it senior year. Moving into college, I really got serious about it…[Triathlon] was a perfect balance with school, and a lot of people I’ve met here have found the same thing.”

Over the past two years, the team has grown from its two co-founders to a roster that boasts over 100 members. Roughly a dozen athletes regularly participate in competitions.

“Soon after we founded the team, we got Joseph, Andreas, and Caitlin,” Faza said. “The five of us are the co-captains. Last year we had our first race in May—we had 15 people come out, and it was really amazing to see the response that we got. We recently broke 100 [members] on our e-mail list, which is very exciting.”

COMPETITIVE CAMRADERIE

“Having 15 people on our first race was no small feat,” Silva said. “There are very established teams that bring fewer, and we were one of the two biggest teams there. We fielded more racers than BU, which competed at Nationals last year. Such turnouts bode well for our team’s future.”

The team finds support not only from its own athletes but also from the collegiate triathlon community as well.

While the triathlon is not an NCAA-sanctioned sport, USA Triathlon—the national governing body for the sport—has a collegiate division comprised of several regional conferences. Harvard is a member of the Northeast Collegiate Triathlon Conference.

“Everyone had a ton of school spirit,” Silva said, reminiscing about the team’s first race last season at the Lake George triathlon. “Everyone was rocking their school gear—Boston University, Boston College, West Point.”

“We were miserable trying to beat them during the race,” Silva said. “But after we all finished, the Boston University team came over and said, ‘Awesome race, welcome to the conference.’ Their coach also introduced himself and invited us to work out with his team in the future. Such camaraderie, I believe, is what makes triathlon a lot different from other collegiate sports.”

TRAINING DAY

While it is a club sport, the triathlon team takes training very seriously. Members often train every day, and the programs vary from swims at Blodgett Pool and spinning sessions to lifts and group runs. “Sunday runs are our signature runs,” Faza said. “We meet in Winthrop courtyard, stretch as a group, then run in several different pace groups. As the year goes on, we begin holding specialized practices.”

While staying true to their commitment to the sport, the team also recognizes the tight schedule of Harvard student-athletes.

“We are really flexible—a lot of people on our team participate in other sports or extracurriculars, and we want to make sure these people can make it to as many practices as possible,” Silva said.

The team aspires to provide its members with a close community of triathletes, while supporting their efforts to balance the sport with academic and extracurricular commitments.

“The triathlon is incredibly intimidating to a lot of people,” Faza said. “A lot of it comes from the swimming portion and the long distances, in addition to the financial and logistical barriers. That’s why we are here. We can give people the opportunity to train on their commuter bikes or give them a spinning lesson, go on a group run, and lift together.”

A COMMUNITY OF ATHLETES

“The biggest thing that we can provide is the community of people,” Silva said. If anyone is actually interested in running a triathlon, we will do our best to make it happen.”

In terms of competition, the team hopes to solidify its presence in the Northeast Regional Conference. They will have their chance this April as the squad heads west to Arizona to compete at the USAT Collegiate Triathlon Championship in search of a national title.

Above all, just like any other varsity or club athletic team, the Harvard Triathlon Team proudly wears the “H” on the collegiate scene.

“At our first race of the season, when the teams gathered around the starting area saw our Harvard racing gear, their eyes open up,” Faza said. “[Our arrival] has become news around the conference, and people have become very receptive and welcoming of us. We feel a lot of weight on our Harvard shield.”

—Staff writer James Lim can be reached at jameslim@college.harvard.edu.