Emma Snowsill

Emma Snowsill

At the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Snowy
Born	15 June 1981 (1981-06-15) Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
Residence	Gold Coast, QLD, Australia Saarbruecken, GER
Height	1.61 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight	49 kg (108 lb)
Sport
Country	Australia New Zealand (dual nationality)
Coached by	Roland Knoll Denis Cottrell (swimming)
Medal record Women's triathlon Olympic Games Gold 2008 Beijing Individual ITU World Championship Gold 2003 Queenstown Individual Gold 2005 Gamagori Individual Gold 2006 Lausanne Individual Silver 2007 Hamburg Individual Commonwealth Games Gold 2006 Melbourne Individual

Emma Laura Snowsill OAM (born 15 June 1981) is an Australian professional triathlete and multiple gold medalist in the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. She won the gold medal in triathlon at the 2008 Olympics.

Professional career

At the 2007 Los Angeles Triathlon.

Snowsill won the 2000 International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Championship in the 16–20 years age category plus the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Youth Olympic Festival Triathlon at age 19. She was awarded a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and was voted 16–19 years female Triathlete of the Year 2000. She is studying for a degree in health science (currently deferred).

In 2003, Snowsill became ITU World Champion for the first time in Queenstown, New Zealand.

She was the 2004 ITU World Cup Champion and ranked first in the world but was not selected for the Australian team for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

In 2005, Snowsill took her second world crown in Gamagori, Japan, in 35 °C (95 °F) temperatures and 90% relative humidity.

She has won the "Grand Slam" of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, London and New York Triathlons plus multiple ITU World Cup events. She was also the winner of the 2005 and 2006 Lifetime Fitness Triathlons in Minneapolis, and won the Noosa International Triathlon winner three times.

Snowsill during the run leg of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

She is the current Australian Olympic distance champion; she won the gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

She won another gold medal at the 2006 World ITU Championships in Lausanne, where she finished 45 seconds in front of Portuguese triathlete Vanessa Fernandes. This made her the first female triathlete to win three world titles. The following year in Hamburg, Fernandes gained revenge for the defeat by winning her first world title, beating Snowsill by over a minute.

Snowsill (left) and Emma Moffatt (right) show off their medals.

In 2008, she kicked off to a great start, winning the Mooloolaba World Cup season opener, beating her olympic rival Vanessa Fernandes. Over the year there has been much speculation as to which one of the two athletes would win in Beijing. Snowsill skipped the World Champs out in order to devote all of energy to the Beijing Olympics. She stayed with the leaders in the swim and cycle legs and broke clear in the run. Snowsill won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 1:58:27, 1 minute 7 seconds ahead of Fernandes. Fellow Australian Emma Moffatt won the bronze medal.

On 26 January 2009, Snowsill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.

Personal

Emma Snowsill has one sister, Amy, who works as a lawyer in Sydney.

External links

• Official website
• International Triathlon Union