Carol Montgomery

Carol Montgomery

SlowTwitch Special, October 13, 2000

Should one notice the date this interview is taking place, one realizes this is the day before the 2000 Hawaiian Ironman. Amid our feverish efforts to report on all aspects surrounding this event, we ran across Carol, newly back from her Olympic misadventure, and spectating for a change. Ironman coverage or no, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend some time with one of the world's top short-course triathletes. She's also, by the way, one of Canada's very best long-distance runners, and speculation has been brewing over whether she might eventually trade in the swim and bike for a simpler -- single-sport -- athletic lifestyle.

Carol is the Mary Slaney of triathlon. She's got more talent in her little finger... so on and so forth. But she'd have double the titles she has if it weren't for injuries, and mistakes caused by herself, her fellow competitors, or race organizers. Such mishaps only add to the legend of perhaps the greatest raw talent ever in women's short-course racing.

CM: No. I don't know. I don't really know where I'm at. I don't know if I want to go to the next Olympics. I'm 34, and then I'll be 38. I don't think I'm at a time where I want to have kids. I don't know if I will. Something may change between now and then. I think I'd like to try to make the Olympics in both triathlon and athletics again.

ST: That was a big deal in Canada. You created a big stir up there, going to the Olympics in both summer sports. Did that help you from a business point of view? Or was that simply an interesting piece of news that increased your public presence in the collective Canadian mindset?

CM: Business, it didn't help me at all, but maybe it will, because I did get a lot of media attention. But the media attention was a little bit because I was going in two sports, but more because I had a bit of a breakthrough year in triathlon. I was a definite shot at a medal. I think that's where the media attention came from. It was an added bonus that I set out to make it in two sports, but it just happened that I was running well and doing well in triathlon in the same year.

CM: I can't train right now, and I love the sport of triathlon, and I came out [to Kona] this year to hang out.

ST: The reason I ask is that I'm thinking about your year this year, realizing that you were absolutely at the top of your game, and the two biggest short triathlons of this year were scenes where a world championship was taken away from you, and an Olympic medal was also arguably taken away from you. The first was because of the inability to properly measure the course, the second because of the format inherent in Olympic-style racing. Here you are, watching the Ironman. I'm putting two and two together and wondering whether this kind of racing might become more appealing to you, especially because it's four long years until the next Olympics.

CM: No. No. Not at all. I can legitimately say no, it doesn't appeal to me at all. I don't have the attention span to do the training -- the patience -- and I'm lucky enough that God has given me -- my parents, maybe God, I don't know -- the ability to go fast. I still have pretty good speed, and I'm going to keep racing the fast stuff. I've always had a problem with injury, and part of it's been the artery thing with my leg. I just don't even think I could stay healthy enough to do an Ironman event.

ST: ...just starting out in triathlon, we were fitting you up on bikes, and all that stuff.

CM: I still enjoy it as much as I did back then. I'm lucky enough to love what I do. I mean I haven't made a lot of money at it. But I still want to keep doing it. I feel like I'm so lucky to be able to make enough money to get by, and do something that I love. I'm so lucky. So lucky.