Rebecca Stephenson, the Race Director of what is now ConnectiCare Kids Who Tri Succeed MultiSport Series, has been a triathlete for almost 33 years competing at every distance from the sprint triathlon to the Ironman. Last year she won an All-World Gold Award for her best distance 70.3 (1.2m swim/56 m bike/21.1m run) and was the women’s winner of the Burlington to Collinsville 10k race. She has won the Pat Griskus Olympic Distance Triathlon, both the Winding Trails Women’s triathlon and Park City Triathlon twice and the Shamrock Duathlon three times. In 2017 she was the CT State Master’s Half Marathon Champion. Rebecca has also competed in a number of international triathlons, including several in Brazil which she won in her teens. At the age of sixteen, she was the top placed Latin American in the first World Triathlon Championships. Now 46, she runs a coaching business called Conquering Challenges, coaches the Farmington branch of The Nutmeg Youth Triathlon Team and is often asked to coach groups training for specific events.
Besides being an accomplished athlete, she is a certified triathlon coach, holds a masters’ degree in psychology and has three very athletic teenage kids. In fact, it was the desire to give her children the opportunity to experience the joy she found in triathlons from an early age that, fourteen years ago, while living in Mansfield, and working towards a doctorate in psychology, she decided to organize her own triathlon. Using her own money and efforts, she produced a children’s triathlon at Mansfield High School/Bicentennial Pond, and twenty-five kids took part, including her four year old Timothy and six year old David. She had now introduced her own kids to the triathlon as well as some other Connecticut kids, who would later include Chase Kowalski of Sandy Hook who won an award, and later inspired the Race For Chase series.
Twenty- five kids grew to 150 as she recruited friends to help with the organization, KWT became a non-proft and finally attracted some local business sponsorship and donations. Professionally organized triathlons offering timing, medals, t-shirts, swim caps and goody bags can be a big expense, and then there is USA Triathlon sanctioning, venue fees,, lifeguards, portable toilets and, when using public roads, policing. Even relying on volunteers for race-day and pre-race organizing (which takes most of the year), it is impossible to keep registration fees as low as KWT endeavors without the support of sponsors. ConnectiCare stepped in as Title Sponsor a few years ago, which meant that Kids Who Tri Succeed could keep going without cutting corners, and was able to offer the occasional race scholarship to families unable to pay even the low fee.
Kids Who Tri Succeed Triathlon is now in its 14th year and has been chosen to be part of USA Triathlon’s 2019 Youth MultiSport Series which, no doubt, will attract even more children from further afield. Three years ago KWT added a children’s duathlon in Farmington to its race calendar, which is especially appealing to children who do not like to swim, and a stepping stone for the triathlon for those who do. Last year was the first Kids Who Tri Splash & Dash at Winding Trails - swim and run, which does not require a bike.
Two of Rebecca’s own children have aged out of Kids Who Tri Succeed events and are now volunteers. Only Hannah will compete this year. All three children have participated in both team and individual sports and have graduated to adult triathlons. Last year two of them took part in the same events as their 82- year- old grandfather and 73 -year -old grandmother who had competed in the Ironman in the early ‘80s. Both grandparents still participate in Age Group Triathlon World Championships.
For more information on ConnectiCare Kids Who Tri Succeed MultiSport Series visit www.kidswhotrisucceed.com