Tony Smoragiewicz poses with his bicycle, bouquet and bronze medal inside the hotel lobby in Beijing, China on Sunday after the World Junior Triathlon Championships. (Photo Julie Smoragiewicz)

Tony Smoragiewicz is back in the land of mortals today…just another 17- year-old high school senior sitting in the front row of his AP Physics class listening to Mark Farrand explain the day’s lesson on number lines and vectors. “Everything you learn in arithmetic can be right, but probably isn’t, because direction matters in physics.”

Wow…it’s hard to believe that just five days ago, half a world away, Tony was standing on the podium of the World Junior Triathlon Championships in Beijing, China, with a bronze medal draped around his neck. Now, all he’s got to show for his trip around the world is a heavy backpack of schoolbooks, and a pile of overdue homework.

In a year that has seen Tony rise from South Dakota state cross country champion to one of the most elite middle distance runners in the nation, the bronze medal at the Junior World Triathlon Championships is a crowning achievement.

When Tony called from Chicago O’Hare airport Sunday afternoon, after the 12-hour flight home from Beijing, he sounded full of energy and ready to go. “Aren’t you exhausted?” I asked him. “No, I feel pretty good.” By Thursday morning, the jet lag had set in and Tony was a little wobbly on his feet, but still awake enough for a quick interview about the drama of his last ten days, and his expectations for the Central cross country season.

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Sam Hurst: It was such a whirlwind trip, did you have any chance to experience Beijing, or was it all training and preparation for the race?

Tony Smoragiewicz: When we landed in Beijing, it was dark, so I couldn’t see the city. The first couple of days we were training and getting adjusted. There were eighteen of us on the U.S.A. team—three girls and three boys in the junior group. Once we settled in, we got to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and even when we trained, the course was the most amazing course I’ve ever been on. We swam in a beautiful lake on the outskirts of Beijing, with mountains off in the distance. In the opposite direction, we could see the skyline of Beijing.

Sam: All of last year, when you ran in the elite national events, you were just a high school junior running against seniors. Were you still the youngest in Beijing?

Tony: Yes. Lukas Verzbicas, who won the triathlon gold medal, graduated last spring. He’s going to the University of Oregon this year. Ben Kanute, my other U.S.A. team member, who came in 13th in Beijing, also graduated. He’s going to the University of Arizona. If you take all the graduating seniors out of the Nike cross country finals from last year, I’m the second fastest time in the country in this year’s senior class, so I have pretty high expectations for myself. Last year, I wanted to learn what national competition was like. This year I want to compete to win.

Silver medalist Justus Nieschlag (Germany), Gold medalist Lukas Verzbicas (USA), Bronze medalist Tony Smoragiewicz (USA).

Sam: I know you’ve been training all summer with Tamara Gorman and her brother Brian, working on transitions, and working on your swimming. Talk me through the race in Beijing. Triathlons start with the swimming stage, and that’s not your strongest event. How did you plan your race?

Tony: The girls’ race was the day before ours, so I talked to them about how to start. One of them lined up in the middle, but she said that it got really crowded and people were running into each other. She said you could feel like you’re drowning in all the wash, so I lined up on the far left. The start is always crazy, but once you’re about 100 meters out it’s okay. I came out of the water in 43rd place out of 63 racers.

Sam: Did you panic at being so far behind?

Tony: No. I knew I would be towards the back end in the swim. I knew I would have to make up time on the bicycle and running stages. I just wanted to stay in the middle coming out of the lake. The strongest swimmers are going to come out of the water in the first pack. But they aren’t necessarily the strongest bicyclists or runners. I just had to stay patient.

Lukas and Ben were in the first pack of eight bicyclists. I was in the second pack of about 30. After the bicycle stage, I was more tired than I thought I would be. There were two hills on every lap, and the pack really went hard up the hills together. I tried to make sure that the lead pack of eight didn’t get more than a minute ahead of me. I knew that if I could stay within a minute, I would pass a lot of people on the run. I came off the bicycle stage 40 seconds behind in 30th place, so I moved up a little but not a lot.

Once I got off the bike and started to run, I passed most of the people in my pack within the first 400 yards. I was tired, but I was surprised at how much energy I had.

I ran a long ways with two kids from Israel and Australia. On the first hill they went out about three seconds ahead of me, and they stayed there for most of the race. But I caught them in the final stretch, and out-sprinted them to finish in third. I kept thinking to myself, ‘I’ve trained so hard for this, I don’t want to spend the year thinking about getting close and not getting a medal’, so I really pushed at the end.”

Tony Smoragiewicz pushes down the final stretch at the World Triathlon Championships in Beijing. (Photo Jim Smoragiewicz)

Sam: Are you done with triathlons for now? Can you focus on cross country?

Tony: For this season I’m done, but I need to improve my swimming a lot for next year, so I’ll continue to train. I’m going to take a week off, and then start working really hard on swimming this winter.

Sam: Is it hard to go back and forth from World Championships and Nike or Footlocker showcase races against the top national competition and then come back and run in the Elks Invitational against local kids?

Tony: No. Even in Beijing or at the nationals in San Diego I try to think about every race like I’m just running at the Elks or at Huron. I try to think of them as normal events. It helps me not get nervous.

I also feel like I have a responsibility to be a leader for the Central team. I do all the practices with the other members of the team, and the cool downs. I try to lead by example. Then I might do my own extra training in the early morning.

Sam: Because every cross country course is different, it’s hard to compare your times against anyone else racing around the country. But you can compare your times at local courses to last year.

Tony: Yes. That’s how I get motivated. It would be great to improve on last year’s time at every event this season.

Sam: So, will you run this week in Huron?

Tony: No, I’m going on a college visit to the University of Michigan, so I will miss Huron. I won’t race until the Elks next week.

Just another high school student: Tony back in the first row of his AP Physics class on Wednesday. (Photo Sam Hurst/IDS)

Sam: If you’re going to visit Michigan, I guess that means you haven’t picked a college yet. Other than Michigan, where are you looking?

Tony: I’m considering several different schools, and I’m going to make official visits to Princeton, the University of Washington, and Stanford this fall. Then I’ll make a decision.

Sam: Are you behind in school?

Tony: I only had a week of school before I left, and then I took a week off. I planned on studying in Beijing, but it was hard to concentrate. I did a lot of my homework on the plane trip home, and now I’m pretty much caught up.

Note: Tony was also featured in ESPN Rise following his performance in Beijing, you can read the article here.