TRIATHLETE QUEEN KING INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME

When Joanne King-Hudson was growing up in the small town of Portland, she thought it was normal her parents exercised before pulling up a seat at the breakfast table.

In primary school, Joanne, better known as “Jo”, organised lunchtime races with new students to improve on her speed. By age 12, she was running three kilometres in 11 minutes.

It wasn’t until Jo turned 18 that she began training for triathlons. The modest two-time world champion is the newest Triathlon Hall of Fame inductee but maintains she didn’t realise her successes were so extraordinary.

“I didn’t really know my potential,” the 43-yearold Torquay mother of two said.

“I always felt I was a good runner. My parents were very supportive. I competed in regionals in Melbourne, Warrnambool and Geelong, but I started triathlons after Year 12.

“It took perseverance and wanting to be better, which saw me to the world championships.”

Winning the 1996 World Junior title (Olympic distance) in Cleveland at 20, Jo’s fierce determination and unwavering commitment to the sport saw her claim the 1998 World ITU (Olympic distance) title two years later. She’s one of few Australian athletes to win both a junior and senior world title.

In 1999, Jo won the Nice Long Course in France. That same year, she outraced 4,000 competitors in one of Germany’s most renowned triathlon competitions on the Ironman distance, Challenge Roth.

Jo’s also been crowned the Australian Sprint Champion (1997) and Australian Long Course Champion (1998 and 2002). In 1998 and 1999, she scored second place in the Australian Ironman Championship.

“Receiving this award, it has been really good to reflect. At the time, it’s your livelihood. I knew my results were great, but everyone I was associated with was winning a world title,” she said.

“I recently watched my interview after the world championships and I was so like ‘yeah, onto the next race’. I was very young.”

Jo’s husband Nathan, a former pro cyclist and Ironman competitor, said Jo was a force to be reckoned with in the 90s, a decade he said was the “golden era” of triathlons.

“She was so dominant. Women would rock up to races and go ‘oh no, Jo’s here’ because they knew their chances of winning were small,” the proud husband said.

“She won pretty much every big race in the world within the space of a year.”

While her stunning career was only short-lived, Jo’s journey to the top didn’t come without its downfalls. After competing in Hawaii with a sore foot, Jo went on to train in Switzerland where her coach made her run a marathon on a treadmill at 20kmh.

“It was almost a cult-like existence,” she said.

“Endurance sport is so addictive, and you always think you need to be doing more, but you don’t. It’s hard to convince yourself and others of that.”

Jo blew out her posterior cruciate ligament and retired at 24.

In 2002, the sporting legend made the decision to move to Torquay, a place where she says no one knew she was a professional triathlete.

“I moved to Torquay to find myself really. It’s been a great place for that.

“I got a job as a receptionist at Corio Bay Medical Centre. I didn’t even know what an hourly rate was. To know how to lead a normal life was foreign to me.”

The excitement of uprooting her life quickly came crashing down when Jo’s doctor uncovered a melanoma on her lower back. On the day it was discovered, the fitness enthusiast went for a walk from Torquay to Anglesea and back.

“I thought it was going to be my last walk!”

After having the melanoma removed, Jo was in the clear.

“I resumed training because that’s what made me happy. It was my identity.

I entered an Ironman after a lot of years off, and ironically I met Nathan,” she said.

The couple married at Torquay Point about eight years ago. They now have two children, Jonathan, 7, and Emily, 5.

Though she’s no longer competing at an elite level, Jo continues to lead an active lifestyle, running three group training sessions a week in Torquay and coaching athletes online.

“Torquay seems to be a different demographic – people don’t want to formalise the way they train.

“We (Jo and her clients) go swimming on Saturday mornings, about 50 of us, but it’s not a club – Torquay doesn’t need that.”

Find Jo at @jokingtraining on Instagram.