Sarah Groff
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Sarah True (''née'' Groff, born November 27, 1981) is an American athlete who competes in
triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...
. She represented the United States in triathlon in
2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
, finishing in fourth place, and at the
2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
. True is the winner of the 2007 ITU Aquathlon World Championships and finished in second place in the
2014 ITU World Triathlon Series The 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series was a series of eight World Championship Triathlon events that lead up to a Grand Final held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Series was organised under the auspices of the world governing body of triathlon, th ...
.


Athletic career


Early life

True was born to parents Gerald and Jeannine Groff in Hanover, New Hampshire at
Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), the flagship campus of the Dartmouth Health system, is the U.S. state of New Hampshire's only academic medical center. DHMC is a 422-inpatient bed hospital and serves as a major tertiary-care referral ...
and raised in Cooperstown, New York. She competed in cross country, track and swimming in high school at Cooperstown High School and Deerfield Academy. After spending a year in
Valencia, Spain Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...
, True went on to attend
Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
where she was a member of the swim team and competed in middle distance and distance
freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * ICD Freestyle, a paintball marker * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott La ...
events. True was named to the All- NESCAC and All-American teams for her accomplishments. After graduating, True found it difficult to choose between swimming and running for her future athletic pursuits. After having some success in some amateur triathlon competitions she decided to pursue the sport of triathlon further.


International racing (2005–2010)

True began her International Triathlon Union (ITU) racing in 2005, competing in various World Cup and Pan American Cup races. In 2007, True had her first notable finish, winning the 2007 ITU Aquathlon World Championships. That same year she placed 4th at the ITU World Cup race in Edmonton and was a member of the runner-up USA squad at the ITU World Team Championship. The following year, with coach Siri Lindley, she placed 2nd at the 2008 World Cup race in
Huatulco Huatulco (; ''wah-TOOL-coh''), formally Bahías de Huatulco, centered on the town of La Crucecita, is a tourist development in Mexico. It is located on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca. Huatulco's tourism industry is centered on its nine ...
and placed 7th at the ITU World Championship in Vancouver. At the first 2008 USA Triathlon Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa, True placed third, and at the end of the year she finished as the top American woman and 4th overall in the ITU World Cup season series. In 2009, True had three top 10 finishes in ITU racing, including 9th-place finishes in the newly revamped World Championship Series (WCS) events in Madrid and Washington, D.C. She was the 2nd ranking American woman in the WCS series. In 2010, she joined up with coach Darren Smith. True's year began with a bike crash that fractured her
sacrum The sacrum (plural: ''sacra'' or ''sacrums''), in human anatomy, is a large, triangular bone at the base of the spine that forms by the fusing of the sacral vertebrae (S1S5) between ages 18 and 30. The sacrum situates at the upper, back part ...
which caused her pain throughout the racing season. During the year she would go on to take 12th at London, 10th at
Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbühel district (). Kitzbühel ...
and 8th at Hamburg in WCS racing events. She also took 2nd at the USA Triathlon Elite Championship and 5th at the US Open Toyota Cup finale in Dallas. Despite her results, True felt she was at a low point in her career due to injury and unsatisfying race results.


Olympic racing (2011–2016)

After taking some time off to heal, the 2011 season yielded much better results. True finished third at the 2011 WCS race in Kitzbühel, achieving the first-ever podium finish for a U.S. woman. A month later, she would place 7th in London, a designated World Qualification Event for the 2012 Olympics, putting her on the American Olympic team with second-place finisher
Gwen Jorgensen Gwen Rosemary Jorgensen (born April 25, 1986, in Waukesha, Wisconsin) is an American distance runner and former professional triathlete. She is the 2014 and 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series Champion. She has been named USA Triathlon's 2013 and ...
. Her performances for the entire 2011 WCS series earned her an overall third-place finish in the World Championships Series standings, the best showing by an American triathlete in the three-year history of the series. True competed in the 2012 Olympic Games in triathlon where she finished in fourth place, the highest American in triathlon. She finished with a time of 2:00:00, ten seconds back of the bronze medal. True also finished the
2012 ITU World Triathlon Series The 2012 ITU World Triathlon Series was a series of eight World Championship Triathlon events that led up to a Grand Final held in Auckland, New Zealand in October 2012. The Series was organised under the auspices of the world governing body of tr ...
ranked seventh in the final point standings. For her accomplishments she was named by USA Triathlon as their Olympic/ITU Athlete of the Year. The next year, she finished 9th in the
2013 ITU World Triathlon Series The 2013 ITU World Triathlon Series was a series of eight World Championship Triathlon events that led up to a Grand Final held in London in September 2013. The Series was organised under the auspices of the world governing body of triathlon, the ...
and took second in the USA Triathlon National Championships finishing behind Jorgensen. True scored her first World Triathlon Series win in 2014 at the penultimate round in Stockholm. The following weekend, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at the
2014 ITU World Triathlon Series The 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series was a series of eight World Championship Triathlon events that lead up to a Grand Final held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Series was organised under the auspices of the world governing body of triathlon, th ...
Grand Finale, she finished in fourth place and secured second place in the overall points standings just behind fellow American Jorgensen. At the
2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
she represented the United States again in the triathlon. During the race she suffered a leg cramp in her quadriceps following the swim portion of her race. She was unable to recover and was lapped during the bike segment, forcing her withdrawal from the race.


Long-distance triathlon

After the Olympics True focused most of her racing on non-drafting, long-distance competitions. In 2017, True won races at Ironman 70.3 Augusta and Ironman 70.3 Austin. The following year she took 2nd place at Ironman European Championship, her first Ironman competition and then another 2nd-place finish at Ironman Mont-Tremblant. At the
Ironman World Championship The Ironman World Championship has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978, with an additional race in 1982. It is owned and organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. It is the annual culmination of a series of Ironman triathlon qualification ...
that October True finished fourth. After giving birth to her son in 2021, True returned to racing in 2022 by grabbing wins at Ironman Eagleman 70.3 and at
Ironman Lake Placid Ironman Lake Placid (sometimes referred to as Ironman USA) is a triathlon race owned by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) that takes place in Lake Placid, New York and the surrounding Adirondack Mountains. It is the longest-running Ironman tri ...
.


Personal life

Sarah is married to runner Ben True. She is the sister of writer
Lauren Groff Lauren Groff (born July 23, 1978) is an American novelist and short story writer. She has written four novels and two short story collections, including '' Fates and Furies'' (2015), ''Florida'' (2018), and '' Matrix'' (2021). Early life and ed ...
.


References


External links

*
ITU results historyITU Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:True, Sarah American female triathletes 1981 births Living people Deerfield Academy alumni Middlebury College alumni Olympic triathletes of the United States Triathletes at the 2012 Summer Olympics Triathletes at the 2016 Summer Olympics 21st-century American women 20th-century American women