:: Name :: Jocelyn Sui-Yee Wong
:: Nickname :: The Wongstar
:: Birthdate :: November 25, 1981
:: Hometown :: Pacifica, California, USA
:: Height :: 5'9"
:: Weight :: 133 lbs
:: Racing Status :: professional since 2009
:: First triathlon :: L.A.T.S. Tri-Express, June 2000
:: Non-Tri Career :: Certified Prosthetist-Orthotist
:: Education :: M.S. Prosthetics & Orthotics,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.
B.S. Kinesiology and Chemistry,
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA.
:: Sports Hero :: Oscar Pistorius
:: Fictional Hero :: MacGyver
:: Favorite Care Bear :: Funshine Bear
:: Favorite G.I. Joe Character :: Lady Jaye
:: Favorite Comic Strip :: Pearls Before Swine
:: Favorite Food :: fresh California strawberries
:: Culinary Dislikes :: cheese, raisins, caramel and toffee
:: Faithful Sidekick :: Guinness aka G-dog
:: Favorite Quote :: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain
:: Triathlon Career Highlights ::
:: Women's Champion at 2009 Korea Triathlon Jeju ironman
:: 5th place pro female at 2009 EmbrunMan (iron-distance)
:: Top 3 run split at 2009 Ironman China & 2009 EmbrunMan
:: Notable Accomplishments ::
:: Women's Champion at the 2008 Stanford Triathlon Team ice cream eating competition,
2nd place OA...4.5 bowls in 60 seconds! (my teeth hurt for 2 days afterwards)
:: the equivalent of a "Miss Congeniality" award at the 2002 Northwest Collegiate Cycling Conference...for my enthusiasm and winning smile
:: 1995 Fernando Rivera Intermediate School spelling bee champion
A California girl, I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a first generation Chinese-American: my dad ran cross country and played soccer as a youth in Hong Kong, while my mom carried heavy buckets of water on her head back in Burma. Surely some of these athletic genes were passed down to me.
My beginnings in sport included running around backyards and tripping a lot (they say my feet were too big for me), and sitting in the outfield picking flowers during softball games at recess and P.E. Never much for the hand-eye coordination of ball sports, I tried out for the track team in middle school, eventually grew into my big feet and became a top varsity runner during my four years of cross country and track at Westmoor High School (Daly City, CA). I was strictly a distance girl (800m to 3200m) as Coach DiMaggio thought I was a klutz and wouldn't let me hurdle or high jump...just ask him about the time I tripped over a speed bump in a cross country race, or that time I gave myself a four-inch gash in my thigh for scaling a fence during practice. Obviously the stuff legends are made of.
My beginnings in sport included running around backyards and tripping a lot (they say my feet were too big for me), and sitting in the outfield picking flowers during softball games at recess and P.E. Never much for the hand-eye coordination of ball sports, I tried out for the track team in middle school, eventually grew into my big feet and became a top varsity runner during my four years of cross country and track at Westmoor High School (Daly City, CA). I was strictly a distance girl (800m to 3200m) as Coach DiMaggio thought I was a klutz and wouldn't let me hurdle or high jump...just ask him about the time I tripped over a speed bump in a cross country race, or that time I gave myself a four-inch gash in my thigh for scaling a fence during practice. Obviously the stuff legends are made of.
I ran competitively during my freshman year at Harvey Mudd College, until various track injuries forced me to go bicycle shopping and take up bike racing with the cute boys on the cycling team. I was actually kicked off the track team for going to a bike race instead of warming the bench at the conference championships in track. No regrets! By the time summer came around, I was able to run again, swim without drowning, and do my first sprint triathlon as an 18-year-old. Of course, I doggy-paddled the whole swim and got a flat tire on the bike, but managed to pull it together and finish with a smile. That same summer, I biked 100 miles (my first unofficial century!) from Claremont to watch the inaugural Ironman California in Oceanside, CA, and volunteered as a wetsuit stripper, becoming inspired to race my first Ironman in Wisconsin 2002 at age 20.
During my eighth season as an amateur triathlete in 2007, I was recruited as a development athlete for the international professional triathlon team, teamTBB, coached by Brett Sutton, who is known as one of the "winningest coaches of all time." With a focus on the ironman distance (2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of bicycling, and a 26.2-mile marathon run), I have steadily improved my triathlon performances these past two years to the point where I recently qualified for my USA Triathlon professional license (May 2009). In my official pro debut this past July, I won my first triathlon ever at the Korea Triathlon Jeju, an ironman-distance race!
Now I can add "ironman champion" to my list of accomplishments. I had always said that one of my triathlon goals was to become the fastest Asian-American female triathlete, and I believe I am actually the very first Asian-American female professional triathlete! I’d love to inspire more Asian-Americans to take up the sport of triathlon, much like Michelle Kwan has done for figure skating and Michelle Wie has done for golf.