DP grad Ortiz may be best hope in triathlon
The sand barely had begun collecting between Luis Ortiz’s toes before he knew.
As Ortiz, 12 at the time, emerged from the water at Clermont’s Waterfront Park, he searched for his parents. Wet behind the ears during his first triathlon, Ortiz found them in the transition area.
“I’ll never do the triathlon again,’’ Ortiz told them. “This is terrible. I can’t even breathe in the water.’’
In a span of six years, Ortiz — a 2018 Dr. Phillips High School graduate — has gone from breathless to an endurance athlete that USA Triathlon, the sport’s national governing body, sees with the potential to ascend to an altitude never achieved by an American man.
Since triathlon first became an Olympic sport in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, no U.S. man has finished higher than the seventhplace showing that Central Florida native Hunter Kemper produced 10 years ago in Beijing.
USA Triathlon aims to snap that medal drought through Project Podium, which is based at Arizona State. Ortiz was one of six triathletes announced for the developmental program’s initial class last month. And the youngest. “A couple of years ago, Luis’ name really wasn’t in the mix among the top juniors, and now he’s had the most successful junior season out of anybody in the country,’’ Project Podium coach Parker Spencer said. “It was a no-brainer to give him an offer.’’
Before Ortiz heads to Tempe, Ariz., he is entered in the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final on Australia’s Gold Coast. He will compete in the junior men’s division on Sept. 15, beginning with a 750-meter swim that is followed by a 20-kilometer bike ride and 5K run.
“I like the diversity [of triathlon],’’ Ortiz said. “Somebody can be stronger on the swim while others [are better] on the bike and others on the run. Others have a good balance.’’
Originally from Puerto Rico, Ortiz — an only child — moved with his parents to Miami when he was 9. He was in fifth grade when the family relocated to Orlando.
Ortiz started as a tennis player. Because he swam and run to improve his conditioning, Ortiz’s father suggested a triathlon.
It didn’t take long for his first impression of the sport to change.
“I came back from the bike for the second transition, and I loved it because I passed, I would say, about six people on the bike,’’ he said. “I kept on passing people on the run.’’
Ortiz (5-9, 142) hardly has stopped since then — at least not by choice.
In 2015, he was on a bike ride the day before a race in Wisconsin when a car that was turning to park struck him. He said he briefly lost consciousness, and his nose was broken.
“Just a lot of bleeding, a lot of cuts,’’ Ortiz said. “I was getting stitches for two hours.’’ How many? “About a hundred.’’ Hector Torres, Ortiz’s coach, said the teenager became more determined after the accident.
“When I started seeing that fire within him and that potential, I was like, ‘Let’s polish it out as much as possible,’’’ Torres said.
Now that’s about to become Project Podium’s job.
Spencer said a realistic timeline would place Ortiz in contention for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. It’s a long road ahead, but he won’t be alone.
“We will have a big house for all of us that we will share,’’ Ortiz said of Project Podium. “We’ll have daily training, then have studies. We will travel all over the world.’’
It’s too early to say whether all of that traveling ultimately will lead to an Olympic podium.
That would be Ortiz’s dream, along with something else.
“It would mean, I guess, a new era in triathlon,’’ he said.