Suzy Mink ’74 was the only woman to medal for Team USA during the 2022 World Triathlon Long Distance Championships, part of the 2022 World Triathlon Multisport Championships held August 18-21 at the Olympic Training Center in Samorin, Slovakia.
Athletes from 50 countries competed, with the largest teams coming from the United States and United Kingdom.
Mink, who serves as senior philanthropic advisor at Hollins. won the long distance triathlon in the 70-74 Female Age Group, which included a 2K swim in the Danube River (1.2 miles), a 79.8K biking trek through the Slovakian countryside (49.5 miles), and a 17.9K run (11.1 miles) through four loops on the Olympic Training Center grounds. She noted that the conditions she and other triathlon competitors encountered at the championships were formidable. “The Danube was exceedingly choppy, so much so that only small boats were allowed on the water instead of kayaks, and the current was really strong. Some folks were pulled out of the water early in the swim.” The bike course “was flat and beautiful, but the headwinds on the return trip were unrelenting for 25 miles, and even the best of the best felt it. The run was also tough with the wind.”
The victory at the championships is the latest achievement for Mink in her remarkable career competing as a triathlete around the world. Notably in 2018, she won her age group’s gold medal in the Long Distance Triathlon at the International Triathlon Union/Fynske Bank Multisport World Championships in Denmark. She was also part of the relay team that carried the Olympic Torch 900 miles to Lake Placid, New York, for the 1980 Olympic Games.
