Melanie McQuaid (born May 17, 1973) is a Canadian triathlete. Competing in primarily

XTERRA Triathlon XTERRA is a series of cross triathlon races, i.e. three-sport races which include swimming, mountain biking, and trail running. The XTERRA Global Tour is owned and produced by XTERRA Sports Limited. The XTERRA race series is the best-known series ...

, or cross triathlon, she has won three XTERRA World Championships as well as the

ITU The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

Cross Triathlon World Championship in 2011 and 2017. McQuaid also races in half-iron and

Ironman 70.3 An Ironman 70.3, also known as a Half Ironman, is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). The "70.3" refers to the total distance in miles (113.0 km) covered in the race, consisting o ...

triathlon events, with half a dozen wins at this distance.

Career

McQuaid was born and raised in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. She competed in swimming while in high school and ran while attending the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

, earning her degree in biochemistry and chemistry. She next pursued a professional career in road cycling and mountain biking after being offered many opportunities in cycling as a beginning woman cyclist. She raced her first World Cup race in 1998, but after not making the Canadian mountain bike team for the 2000 Olympics, and growing tired of the repetitiveness of the single sport, McQuaid began competing in XTERRA triathlon. She found that these events suited her perfectly because of her athletic background and strengths. The success McQuaid has found in XTERRA and cross triathlon has translated into more than 40 wins since 2001. She has been named ''Triathlete Magazines Offroad Triathlete of the Year for 2005 and 2009. She was Triathlon Canada's Female Offroad Triathlete of the Year four times. In 2006 and 2008 she won the Offroad Triathlete of the Year award at the ''Competitor'' Magazine Endurance Sport Awards.

References

External links

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ITU Results
{{DEFAULTSORT:McQuaid, Melanie 1973 births Living people Canadian female triathletes University of Victoria alumni Sportspeople from Victoria, British Columbia 20th-century Canadian women