Nation’s Fastest Age Group Triathletes Race in Milwaukee at 2025 USA Triathlon Olympic Distance National Championships

MILWAUKEE – Thousands of the nation’s fastest amateur short-course triathletes swam, biked, and ran on Saturday, Aug. 9 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the 2025 USA Triathlon Sprint and Olympic Distance National Championships, USA Triathlon’s largest and longest-running National Championship event.

Milwaukee resident Jacob Capin won the overall men’s Olympic-Distance national title, while Jenna Campbell (Boulder, Colo.) won the women’s title. The race featured a 1,500-meter swim in Lake Michigan, outside of Discovery World, a 40-kilometer bike traversing over the Hoan Bridge and along the Lake Freeway, and a 10k run through Veterans Park, finishing along the shoreline.

Athletes from across the country raced in Milwaukee for national titles in their respective age groups, and for the opportunity to represent age group Team USA at the 2026 World Triathlon Age Group World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain.

Racing action continues Sunday with the Sprint National Championships and the Paratriathlon National Championships, both races featuring a 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run course. This is the first time Paratriathlon National Championships are being held in conjunction with the USA Triathlon Sprint and Olympic Distance National Championships, creating an inclusive, world-class racing environment in Milwaukee that unites triathletes of all abilities for an unforgettable weekend of racing.

Some of paratriathlon’s biggest stars will race on Sunday, including Paris 2024 Paralympic medalists Grace Norman, Hailey Danz, Chris Hammer, Carson Clough, Kendall Gretsch, Mark Barr, and Allysa Seely. Paratriathletes will be competing for a $36,750 prize purse on Sunday.

Capin was the top men’s finisher on Saturday, completing the Olympic-distance course in a time of 1 hour, 58 minutes. He had the day’s 24 th ranked swim, the second-fastest bike, averaging 26.37 miles per hour, and the ninth-fastest run, averaging 5:52 per mile on the 10k. He narrowly beat Logan Thralls of Denver by 21 seconds for the overall national title.  Mirco Fuhrmann (Anne Arbor, Mich.) was third in 1:59:22.

A professor of physical therapy at Marquette University, Capin is a USA Triathlon Level II Certified Coach and former college basketball player at Christopher Newport University. Capin is also an accomplished IRONMAN triathlete, with several 70.3 wins. In June in Omaha, he won three national titles at the 2025 USA Triathlon Multisport National Championships Festival Presented by Mutual of Omaha.

“This is absolutely amazing. Winning on my home course. This is a dream come true,” Capin said. “I’ve been mostly focusing on and racing IRONMAN 70.3s, but when USA Triathlon announced this race was coming back to Milwaukee I was like ‘I’ve got to go win this title.’ I’m here in the hometown and have a ton of people here supporting. This is truly amazing.”

The women’s race for the overall national title belonged to Campbell, who is a former NCAA Division I swimmer at the University of California Berkeley. She completed the course in a time of 2:11:34.

Based in Boulder and training under former professional triathlete Julie Dibens, Campbell trains with Thralls, the men’s overall runner-up. Their group training days in the pool in Boulder often also include Paris 2024 Olympic medalist triathletes Taylor Knibb and Morgan Pearson.

“I’m a big believer that training with people makes you better. Triathlon has a tendency to be very individual and you have your own races and you have to do your specific training sometimes, but as much as I can I like to train with people because it brings the energy up. Having a group of people with a good attitude just makes everyone better,” said Campbell, who had the day’s second-fastest swim, clocking 20:14. She averaged 24 miles per hour on the bike. “I’ve been thinking about this race for a while. I wanted to give this race a good shot. I was excited about the non-wetsuit swim, so overall I’m really happy.”

Many-time USA Triathlon national champion Kirsten Sass (McKenzie, Tenn.) placed second with a time of 2:13:39. Fiona Davoudi (San Jose, Calif.) rounded out the top three, finishing in 2:17:37.

Notable athletes racing on Saturday included 25-year-old Chris Nikic who made international headlines in 2020, becoming the first person with Down syndrome to finish an IRONMAN triathlon. Nikic was awarded the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance as part of the 2021 ESPY Awards. He’d then go on to compete at the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, in 2022. He finished Saturday’s race to triumphant applause and cheers from spectators.

Nikic is among more than a dozen athletes with intellectual and developmental disabilities racing this weekend. Each athlete is supported by and is representing his nonprofit, 1% Better, which has a goal of making physical activity obtainable for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities so they can reap the benefits of regular exercise and lead longer, healthier lives. Nikic’s teammates will race in Sunday’s Sprint Distance National Championships.