AGE GROUP PROFILE
Jeff Shmoorkoff
JEFF SHMOORKOFF has loved cycling and running most of his life. But swimming? Not so much. His first ITU world championship was a duathlon back in 2001 and, to increase training and race opportunities, he branched out into other categories, including triathlon. By the end of 2019, he’ll have 48 ITU World Championships completed and he hopes to raise that to 60 by the time he turns 60 years old.
“I’m 56 now,” says Shmoorkoff, a busy doctor who lives and practices in Edmonton. “So, in the next four years, I need to qualify for and complete 12 more ITU Worlds – that’s an average of three a year. As long as I stay healthy and continue to train, but not too hard, I hope to be able to do this,”
While he was growing up in British Columbia, Shmoorkoff shared one bike with his parents and siblings. Although he now has 12 bicycles, the first bike of his own
was bought in 1981 when he started university. That steel, Canadian-made Sekine RM 20 provided his main transportation as a student.
By 1983, Shmoorkoff was studying in Calgary and enjoyed touring, usually in Banff or Jasper and even out to Vancouver. After finishing his degree in 1986, the bike was given a triple crank, and Shmoorkoff toured Canada from west to east, putting in 12,000 km and sometimes racking up 200 km in a day.
After that amazing tour, he signed up for an Ironman because he wanted another challenge.
“It was daunting,” he recalls, “as I never had swimming experience. I had no coach. One didn’t have to qualify back then. One kind of applied, based on one’s sporting experience.”
But another race caught his eye and he passed on that Ironman.
“I then gave up my acceptance when I heard about the Paris-Brest-Paris, a 1,200-km cycle marathon in France, held once every four years,” he says. “That seemed more epic to me, and I didn’t have to swim.”
That was in 1987 and the 24-year-old Shmoorkoff finished in 81 hours and 16 minutes, well under the 90-hour completion limit.
When he finished his medical training in 1995, Shmoorkoff began a demanding medical practise in rural Alberta. He and his wife, Cheryl, were raising two sons and a very busy lifestyle made it difficult to fit in workouts. The six-foot tall doctor says, “I peaked out at 240 lbs as I simply was working too hard and let exercise go by the way side.” But he knew things needed to change.
“That challenge for myself and for others, to improve health and practice what I was trying to teach patients, started in 2001,” he explains. “That year, I qualified for and participated in my first world duathlon in Rimini, Italy.”
After that race, he wanted more but there weren’t many duathlons in western Canada, so Shmoorkoff took up triathlon.
“I loved doing brick workouts, but still disliked the swimming,” he says. “To date, I have not formally been coached at swimming and, although I train front crawl in the pool, I have done every single open water swim as breast stroke.”
“In 2002, I raced both ITU world triathlon in Cancun and the world duathlon in the U.S. as well,” he says. “I have raced every year since at either, or both, triathlon and duathlon worlds. Sometimes, I even raced the long-distance categories. With the introduction of the ITU World MultiSport in 2017 in Penticton, this has allowed one to complete many events at one venue.”
“If I’m going, I may as well do all the events. I have achieved Multisport Legend status each of the three years I entered it,” says Shmoorkoff. The Legend Award is given to those who complete at least four events at one venue. He is also very proud to have never had a DNF in any event.
Shmoorkoff does many races in the summer to qualify for ITU world events in sprint and standard duathlon and triathlon, cross triathlon, aquathalon and aquabike.
“That can be seven worlds and qualifiers all in one year, as I did in 2018, plus I added the Xterra World Championships to make it eight that year, which is a world record,” he says. After that accomplishment, he developed the idea of completing 60 by 60.
Another goal is in the works before he turns 60 – he’ll start using front crawl in 2021, his 21st year of multisport. “No more excuses,” he says. “But then no one can find me in the water as my head won’t be popping up regularly!” No worries there, because with his enthusiasm, Shmoorkoff will likely be easy to find at future races.