Joanna Zeiger

Zeiger was born in Baltimore, Maryland, grew up in San Diego, California,^[3][4] lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is Jewish.^[5][6] She attended Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, graduating in 1988.^[7]

Zeiger first began competing in swimming.

She and her sister, Laurie, represented the United States at the 1989 Maccabiah Games, the Jewish Olympics, in swimming.^[6] She won a gold medal, a silver medal, and two bronze medals.^[5]

She attended Brown University, where she held the school records in the 500-yard (460 m) freestyle, 1,000-yard (910 m) freestyle, and 1,650-yard (1,510 m) freestyle which she set in 1991. Zeiger received her PhD from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2001.^[8][9] Competitive running and cycling were added to her repertoire in 1992 and 1993.

Zeiger competed at the first Olympic triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She placed fourth with a total time of 2:01:25.74. Her split times were 19:45.58 for the swim, 1:05:38.30 for the cycling, and 0:36:01.86 for the run.^[1] In the same year, she finished fifth at the Ironman World Championship with a time of 9:48:34. She's the winner of Ironman Brasil 2005 and Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2006.

In 2008, Zeiger won the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida with a time of 4:02.49.^[10]

Zeiger was named the 1997 Amateur Triathlete of the Year.^[11] In 1998, she was named 1998 USA Triathlon's Rookie of the year and in 2000 the USOC Triathlete of the year.^[12] Zeiger was honored by the Jewish Sports Hall of fame in March 2001.^[13]

• List of Jewish triathletes