Titles Crowned at 2026 Olympic Distance National Championships, Mixed Relay National Championships

MILWAUKEE — Triathlon racing continued on Saturday, Aug. 8 at USA Triathlon Nationals in Milwaukee, as thousands of the country’s top age group athletes raced for national titles in the Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championships and the Mixed Relay Triathlon National Championships.  

USA Triathlon Nationals is USA Triathlon’s largest and longest-running National Championship event, held annually since 1983. With more than 4,500 athletes competing in Milwaukee this year, the event expanded into three days, with the addition of Friday’s Draft Legal Sprint Triathlon National Championships and Saturday’s Mixed Relay Triathlon National Championships. Milwaukee has hosted USA Triathlon’s Sprint and Olympic-Distance National Championships several times, including from 2013-2015, 2021-2023 and again in 2025. 

Athletes from across the country will race this weekend in Milwaukee for national titles in their respective age groups, and for the opportunity to represent age group Team USA at the 2027 World Triathlon Age Group World Championships in Hamburg, Germany. 

Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championships 

Heather Lendway (St. Paul, Minn.) won the overall women’s Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championships national title, while Emerson Kiefer (Salisbury, Conn.) won the men’s title. 

Athletes raced a 1,500-meter swim in Lake Michigan, near Discovery World, a 40-kilometer non-drafting bike along Lincoln Memorial Drive, and a 10k run through Veterans Park, finishing along the shoreline.

Lendway, 41, was the top women’s finisher on Saturday, completing the Olympic distance triathlon in a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 9 seconds. 

A strong swim-biker, Lendway is no stranger to the overall national title podium at USA Triathlon Olympic Distance National Championships. The Minnesota native won back-to-back national titles at Olympic Distance Nationals in 2013 and 2014 in Milwaukee, the first two years USA Triathlon hosted its National Championships in Milwaukee. Then, 10 years later, she won the women’s Olympic Distance National Championships title in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2024. 

Saturday’s win gives her a fourth title, but more importantly to her, she enjoys the camaraderie of the multisport community. 

“Every time I do a triathlon, I meet somebody new or make a friend," she said. “This morning, someone needed a part to pump up their disc wheel. People share. People are nice. Somebody didn’t have their bike, I was like ‘I can get you a bike tomorrow.’ It’s just friendly people. People are happy for each other and supportive.”

Kiefer, 25, won the men’s overall title, cruising to victory in a time of 1:53:14. A former NCAA swimmer at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Kiefer used his swim background to build his lead in the swim (a field-best 18:45) then powered on the bike then joined the school’s club triathlon team in his first year of graduate school.

“I’m stronger on the bike than on the run, so I just had to hit it hard from the start and build my lead. The run was survival mode,” said Kiefer, who did his first triathlon when he was 7-years-old, but picked up the sport again recently, joining University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s club triathlon team in his first year of graduate school. “Triathlon is a branch off of swimming, which I like. And it offers more opportunities to get other sports involved and train with other people.”   

Notable athletes who raced on Saturday included 26-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 and his teammates will race in Sunday’s Sprint Distance National Championships.

Mixed Relay National Championships 

Saturday evening featured the Triathlon Mixed Relay National Championships, the first time this fast-paced, spectator-friendly event has been contested as a part of USA Triathlon Nationals. 

In the Triathlon Mixed Relay, teams of four (in the order of woman-man-woman-man) compete, with each team member completing approximately a 250-meter swim, 5k bike, 1k run triathlon before tagging their teammate. On Saturday, spectators and teammates lined the race’s tag zone, along the shore of Lake Michigan near Discovery World, cheering as athletes finished their leg to tag their teammate. 

The team, The Good, the Bad and the Sweaty, made up of athletes Michelle Christine, Jason McCormack, Kirsten Sass and Elliot Feng, crossed the tape for the national title in the Triathlon Mixed Relay. The foursome of champions combined for a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes, 47 seconds to take the win among the 60 teams to compete. 

Additional information about USA Triathlon Nationals is available at USA Triathlon’s website.