Sharon is an athlete and author who loves taking on epic challenges and pushing the limits of her endurance, embracing a range of disciplines along the way. She’s qualified for the Ironman World Championships and has made the age-group podium twice, including 2nd in 2022 and 1st in 2025. Sharon has also competed in XTERRA, the off-road triathlon competition, and has taken a world title three times.
- Age group world champion in triathlon
- Age group world title in Xterra
- National age-group titles in mountain biking, winter triathlon, Nordic skiing,
As if that wasn’t enough variety, Sharon has taken national age-group titles in mountain biking, winter triathlon, Nordic skiing, and other endurance events. She has also competed in the Lead Challenge, a series of five high-altitude mountain trail running and mountain bike races. During the final week, competitors complete a 100-mile mountain bike ride, a 10km run the next day, and a 100-mile run the following weekend. At 57, she was the oldest woman to win and complete the series. She’s an endurance athlete who trains for all-around ability and loves variety.
“Winning my age group at the Ironman World Championship is probably the achievement I’m most proud of,” Sharon tells us. “For a triathlete, Kona is something of a pinnacle, and winning there at age 65 was deeply meaningful.”
“I’m also very proud of what I jokingly call ‘the double’. In 2024 I competed in the Ironman World Championship in Nice (when they alternated the women’s and men’s WC races between Kona and Nice) and, only six days later, raced the Xterra World Championship in Italy. I finished sixth at Ironman Worlds and third at Xterra Worlds.”
“But if you ask me what sport I enjoy the most, it’s probably mountain biking. Put me on a trail in the mountains, and I’m very happy.”
Vegan
“What surprised me was how much better I felt”
For all of these successes, Sharon has been vegan since making the change in 2006. Meat wasn’t an issue, as she was raised vegetarian in a Seventh-Day Adventist family.
“I do remember visiting a sheep farm during one of our trips when we lived in South Africa, when I was a child, and learning that the baby lambs were killed there. It broke my heart—I think I cried. Even at a young age, the idea of eating animals was fairly repulsive to me.”
Later she made the change to vegan.
“My original motivation was health,” she says.
“I read The China Study and was shocked by the suggestion that dairy and eggs might not be the healthy foods I had always assumed they were. The potential connection with cancer was what really caught my attention.”
“Once I looked into the research, I made the change fairly quickly. What surprised me was how much better I felt—and particularly how much my athletic performance improved. I had gone vegan hoping to improve my health; I didn’t anticipate it would also help my performance and extend my competitive career.”
At age 66 (in 2026), Sharon shows little sign of slowing down and continues to train at the top level, committing to the three triathlon disciplines of swimming, cycling, and running, and adding in plenty of strength training.
A commitment to training
“Typically I swim about three times a week, bike four to five times, run three to five times, and lift weights twice a week.
“Right now I’m back to training for the Xterra world championships, so my total volume is somewhat lower—around 15 to 16 hours per week. During Ironman training, it is usually closer to 18 to 22 hours.”
And of course all of this needs fuel.
Sharon focuses on carbohydrates, which makes sense for an endurance athlete.
“I don’t really worry about protein. I worry more about getting enough carbohydrates and calories,” she says.
“Rice, pasta, potatoes, oatmeal, fruit, breads, and other whole grains are staples. I love tofu and try to eat beans most days. I also eat plenty of vegetables—onions, tomatoes, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, avocados, and whatever else is available.”
An evidence-based approach
Sharon has a fantastic understanding of nutritional and training needs, having worked with Dr. Regan Steigmann on the book ‘Staying in the Game,’ which aims to elevate health and enhance performance. It also draws on Sharon’s personal experience to help athletes achieve their aim of ‘performance longevity’.
The book is evidence-based and highlights daily choices grounded in the science of lifestyle medicine, with nutrition at its core.
This knowledge – and Sharon’s achievements – mean that those around her are on board with her vegan choices.
“My coach is completely fine with it,” Sharon says. “Over the years, a few of the people I train with have actually moved toward plant-based diets themselves.”
“I’ve never been particularly concerned about what other people think about the way I eat, and I don’t tend to make a big deal about being vegan unless someone asks.”
As with many athletes, Sharon’s aware that she has tested the findings, and her experience endorses them.
“If you can train consistently, recover well, remain healthy, and compete successfully into your 60s, it becomes a little harder for people to argue that a vegan diet is somehow incompatible with athletic performance.”
A bright future!
Sharon still has more competition planned and hopes to return to Kona’s Ironman World Championship when she’s 70.
“This year [2016] I’m focused on the Xterra World Championship. Next year I’d like to return to doing more mountain-bike racing and perhaps compete at the Masters Mountain Bike World Championships again.”
“More than anything, I can’t imagine not training or competing. My hope is that I can continue competing well into my 80s.”
For me, performance longevity means not necessarily being as fast as I was decades ago, but continuing to challenge myself, stay healthy, and keep doing the sports I love (and slow down less than my competitors).
When Sharon reflects on her activity, we get a sense of someone who has greatly enjoyed training and competing and has learned a great deal.
“I’ve been involved in endurance sport for close to 50 years, and my perspective has changed considerably over that time.
When we are younger, performance tends to be about how fast we can go today (and, of course, I never expected to get slower). But as we get older, another question becomes equally important: What daily choices will allow me to still be doing this (or at least staying physically active) 10, 20, or even 30 years from now?
That has become one of the central themes of both my athletic life and our book.
I don’t see health and performance as competing goals. Ideally, the habits that help us perform well should also keep us healthy enough to continue performing for decades. When I was younger, I justified my poor eating habits by all the training I was doing. Now I justify all my training because I eat a healthy diet.
I am still curious about what the human body is capable of as we age. My goal is to keep testing that question for as long as I can.”