Sylvania woman heads to Games again
7/31/2012
Joyce Donaldson is heading to the Olympics to officiate a triathlon.
Joyce Donaldson was part of the early years of the triathlon boom.
An avid cyclist, she met her husband, Jim, in 1981 at a triathlon, and as she watched him transition from swimming to cycling and then to jogging, she had one thought.
"I thought, ‘oh my God, I've got to do this,' " the Sylvania resident said.
Jim Donaldson eventually encouraged his wife to parlay her passion for competitive cycling into competing in the triathlon, a discipline made up of swimming, cycling and running. A confessed tomboy, Donaldson took to the triathlon immediately and made it into a lifestyle of sorts.
She and her husband co-own Elite Endeavors, a race-management company that organizes the annual Sylvania Triathlon, and in 1995, she got involved in officiating triathlons. She departed Monday for Great Britain to serve as an international technical official in the triathlon for the London Olympics.