With a season that lasts all year round and events to prepare for that create goals and inspire dreams, there is not much time left in a day to think, let alone work or study.
But focus in on paratriathlete Kendall Gretsch and she manages to do just that. Having just graduated from college last spring, where she was enrolled as a full-time student studying biomedical engineering, Gretsch now works full-time for Epic Systems in Madison, Wisconsin, USA all while still finding the time to compete full-time in paratriathlon, where she holds the back-to-back World Championship title for the women’s PT1 sport class.
Gretsch grew up as a very active and athletic child. While she was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that affects the spinal cord, she spent much of her time involved in sports. An involvement that would eventually lead her into paratriathlon.
“I grew up swimming as my main sport, but when I was really little I played softball and basketball also. In high school I swam for my school team, but I wasn’t super competitive about it. I stopped competing when I went to college and that is kind of how I first got involved in triathlon,” said Gretsch about her start in the sport. “The summer after my sophomore year, I decided I wanted to get back into sports, but I thought I would do swimming. I went to a swim practice and it just so happens that it was the very last practice of an adaptive sports group where I met an individual who helped found Dare2Tri. They invited me to a triathlon practice and a camp, so I started going to those practices after that camp and did my first triathlon and got hooked after that.”
And getting hooked was just the beginning. After competing in that first triathlon, she went on to compete in some local races. When she noticed that her times were nothing short of impressive, she realized that she may have a chance to take it further.
“Looking at my times, I knew I was pretty competitive and having that connection through Dare2Tri was huge because a lot of them were already competing, so they would support me and help me with knowledge that allowed me to make my job that much easier. I decided in 2014 that I could not stay in local races forever so decided to…