Jodie Swallow

Jodie Swallow (born June 23, 1981) is a triathlete from Loughborough, in the United Kingdom.

As a schoolgirl, Jodie began competitive swimming when she was eight years old and won her first national age-group medal at the age of 12. After this, many national junior titles followed in a variety of strokes and she won the senior nationals 400 IM title in 1996. At the same time, Jodie began cross country running and went on to win the National Schools Cross-Country three times, national schools 3000m track twice, and many other national and international titles.

She attended Loughborough University, where she studied physical education and sports science.

After contracting glandular fever, Swallow thought the set-back may end her sporting career but she gained a new lease of life at university. After being told in order to excel, she would have to concentrate on one discipline, she chose to concentrate on her running career. However, she soon found she missed the excitement and pleasure of swimming and eventually took up the Triathlon.

Despite initial problems getting used to the cycle discipline, she made remarkable progress at the event winning four out of her first five races and has now reached a level where she is a regular on the ITU World Cup series. On the 3rd August 2003, she won the Michelob ULTRA London Triathlon for the second time.

In October 2003, Swallow took second place, behind Michelle Jones, at the Athens world cup event that was to test the course for the following years Olympic Games.

A rash of injuries during the early part of the year looked likely to make her miss the 2004 Summer Olympics and she was given a deadline by her athletics federation to prove her fitness. At a televised race in Salford, Manchester she had a good swim and looked fit again but on the cycle section of the event a BBC camera-motorbike clipped a traffic cone which flew up and caused Swallow to crash out.

As she had not been able to complete the course there were still doubts over her form. Nevertheless, the British Triathlon Association decided that Swallow would be among the three triathletes representing the nation at the 2004 Summer Olympics rather than the alternate, Andrea Whitcombe.

Swallow competed at a race in Tiszaújváros, Hungary where she placed 15th place.

At the Athens Olympics, Swallow placed thirty-fourth in a race which took place in sweltering 30 degree heat. Her time of 2:15:06.78 was more than three minutes slower than the thirty-third placed contestant's and slightly more than ten minutes behind the gold medallist's.

Between 2003 and 2005, the Football Tonight programme on SKY TV's Sky Sports News was sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company owned brand, POWERade. Powerade (a sports drink) was a personal sponsor of Jodie's, along with several other top athletes. As part of the promotion, Jodie was featured during several short 5 second intervals which showed her during training sessions.

Despite this, she is still considered one of Britain's finest female athletes, although has still yet to prove her full potential.