Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
UM grad competes in TV’s ‘Spartan Challenge’
When the season opener of “Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge” debuts on NBC at 10 p.m. June 12, one of the fierce competitors vying for a $250,000 grand prize by undergoing a grueling obstacle course will look familiar to a lot of people.
A veteran of nearly 50 Spartan races, former Upper Merion Area High School soccer star Liz Schlagel said she was genuinely shocked when she got the call to head for the filming of the popular eight-week series in Atlanta last April.
“I knew there were hundreds of teams that had applied for the show and that they were only picking 24 teams, so to get that phone call I was ecstatic,” said Schlagel, who, like most of her TV competitors, took on the challenge as a personal crusade of sorts.
Standing 4 feet, 10 inches tall, the 29-year-old said her petite size often leads others to doubt her athletic prowess.
“People don’t really understand how tall 4-feet-10 is until they see me,” she said, laughing. “It’s always a little harder for me to prove to people that I am a competitor, because at first glance I definitely don’t look like one. I’m very tiny to be considered an athlete of any kind. I weigh 90 pounds soaking wet. So, with the ‘Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge’ I knew I had a chance to prove to the world that we’re capable, just like every-
body else.”
Collectively, Schlagel’s team is known as the Little Giants, with each team member under 5 feet, 5 inches tall.
Schlagel’s boyfriend, Kevin Donoghue, a pro Spartan racer, served as captain of the team, which also included Dustin Livengood, Jodie Fleming and Corey Raymo.
“We might not look like your typical athletes, but we are, so don’t underestimate us,” said Schlagel, who earned a degree in exercise science from the University of Tampa. “We definitely won the respect of the other athletes who know us, but when I walked up to the starting line as an elite racer, there was a new girl there who pretty much shrugged me off right away as a nobody who wouldn’t be able to compete with her. Even at the show there were spectators who just wrote us off from the beginning because of our size. They had never seen any of us compete before. So, it will be interesting to see how they change their reactions.”
During each episode of the show, which has roots in the original “Spartan Death Race” founded in Vermont in 2004, teams compete for that ample cash prize by taking on a grueling obstacle course, which is made up of such challenges as mud crawls under barbed wire, rope climbs and lugging heavy loads up a hillside.
“The show is its own entity entirely, as it was designed specifically for the viewing audience,” said Schlagel. “It can be referred to as a short course though. It was less than a mile in length, but the race was very difficult and it was a very obstacleintensive course.”
Schlagel, who said she founded the girls’ soccer program at Upper Merion Area High School — “I moved to King of Prussia from Delaware, where I played soccer, and I managed to get a coach and a bunch of girls to try out at Upper Merion,” she recalled — had originally gotten into Spartan racing through a friend four years ago.
“I had a soccer injury and was told I would never play again,” recalled Schlagel, currently a Lower Providence resident but who maintained that she is still a King of Prussia girl at heart, with plans to move back there eventually.
“I was looking for something to fill that competitive void when I entered a Spartan race in the Poconos. As soon as I got done with that race I signed up for three more,” she added. “It really whetted my desire to compete again.”
The Little Giants aren’t the only team that will be sharing stories of overcoming personal obstacles with Monday night’s viewers.
“We were the ones who had the size thing taken care of, but other teams had survived drug addictions, eating disorders … there are a bunch of stories within the story. The producers definitely chose teams based upon their stories; it’s not just them showing a race. They definitely picked teams that could kind of pull at the heartstrings of the audience and have fan favorites and enemies as well — the ones people would root for as the underdogs.”
Schlagel, who is now working as a fitness trainer, said she hopes the show will inspire everyone who may be height-challenged, male or female.
“We put together this team to prove to the world that size really doesn’t matter. And if you have the drive, ambition and goals you can really accomplish anything. There was one guy who was only 5-foot-2 and weighed 126 pounds, but he’s one of the best racers on the circuit right now, and my boyfriend is only 5-foot-5, but he’s on the professional Spartan team. It’s more of a challenge for us, but there is a way to adapt and overcome, and that’s kind of how our team functions — to adapt and overcome and do it our way.”
Schlagel plans to organize a TV viewing party with friends and family around the show Monday night at Fox & Hound in King of Prussia.
“I think I’ll be more nervous to watch than I was to run it,” she said. “I’m not sure how they’re going to portray me, but it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds and how people react to it, especially my mom,” she added. “I do everything for my mom because she sacrificed so much to get me to every soccer game, every gymnastics meet. She never missed a soccer game, ever. So now I want to show her how appreciative I am for everything she’s done for me.”
Even her mom, Kathy, has no idea who will win “Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge,” Schlegel noted.
“Oh no, the show won’t allow us to say anything about that,” she said. “But proving to the world that we were up to the challenge and that you can’t judge a book by its cover was so gratifying. If I could motivate just one person who thinks they’re too small just to put that behind and know that there are people doing whatever they set their minds to doing, the show was worth it.”