St. Lawrence Student Triathlete Competes for Team USA on the World Stage
For most people, running a marathon is a once-in-a-lifetime Everest-level achievement. For Sarah Peebles ’28, that’s often just the start of her workout.
Between attending classes, doing schoolwork, and spending time with her friends, the sophomore from Lowville, N.Y., also travels the globe competing in world triathlon championships. This October, Sarah represented Team USA—and captained her age group—in the 2025 World Sprint Triathlon Championships in Wollongong, Australia. The year before, as a freshman, she traveled to Torremolinos, Spain, to compete in the 2024 World Championships.
“I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to compete at the World Championships and am profoundly honored to have represented Team USA,” she says.
The triathlon consists of an 800-meter swim in the ocean, followed by a 12-mile bike ride and a 5-kilometer run.
A dedicated athlete outside the varsity arena, Sarah trains independently—building her own program and pushing herself toward world-class competition. “Coming from a small town with an even smaller triathlon community, training for such a major event without a coach or team often feels isolating, but the unwavering support from my family and friends is what ultimately carried me to the finish line,’ she says. St. Lawrence’s state-of-the-art athletic facilities—including the varsity pool, indoor and outdoor track, and miles of nature trails—help make that training both accessible and inspiring.
“I train about 10-15 hours per week in between classes, and a lot of that is just me swimming in the pool or running around the track or nearby trails, or biking on the roads around Canton,” she says.
Sometimes, she says, friends will join her on parts of her triathlon training, like on a run or a bike ride. But to be fair, you’d have to be a pretty good friend to accompany someone on a full triathlon training regimen.
Even though Sarah doesn’t play any varsity sports, her impressive feats have caught the attention of Franco Bari, director of intercollegiate athletics.
“While we often celebrate the accomplishments of our student-athletes, we don’t always get the opportunity to recognize those who excel outside of intercollegiate competition,” Bari says. “Sarah has proudly represented the Scarlet and Brown, and we are truly thrilled to celebrate her outstanding achievements.”
If competing in world triathlon championships as a sophomore isn’t impressive enough, Sarah also spent last summer competing in an Ironman in Lake Placid, N.Y. Those races, which consist of a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride and then a full marathon, make triathlons seem like a Sunday stroll. And it makes Sarah’s ability to juggle that training with her academic work even more jaw-dropping.
“It definitely hasn’t been easy balancing everything, but let’s just say I have a lot of early mornings and late nights,” she says.
Those long days won’t be ending anytime soon. If you hadn’t guessed, Sarah has no plans to take a breather. Having already crushed the world triathlon championships, she has her eyes set on the World Iron Man Championships in Hawaii.
“I definitely want to do another Iron Man in the near future,” she says, “but my long-term goal is to qualify for Hawaii, and I’m confident I can.”
