ROANOKE, Va. — Parker Albright clung to the side of a rescue boat watching other triathletes swim past her in the water.
“Do you want to continue?” asked the volunteer operating the small row boat.
No, she didn’t.
It was the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina. Parker, 16 at the time, had spent the past year training just to get her toe into these waters.
Her pre-race resume was impressive. At Cave Spring High School Albright capped the first semester of her freshman year by winning an individual title at the VHSL state cross country meet.
With the support of her father, Chad Albright, she had been biking, swimming and competing in triathlons since she was 10.
Parker had traveled to Hawaii with her father for all five of the Ironman World Championship races in which he qualified.
The success continued. Parker claimed the 13-15 age girls elite division title two years in a row at the USA Triathlon Youth and Junior National Championships. An even bigger victory came in Ecuador, when she earned the one spot for the Youth Olympics by winning that race.
But she was just meters into the 750-meter swim (a triathlon’s traditional first leg) when that thirst for competition was replaced by a tight chest, wheezing and the inability to catch her breath.
Parker Albright was suffering a panic attack.
The boat brought her to land. As the medics rushed over to take her wetsuit off, most of Parker’s competitors finished the swim and began the 12-mile biking portion of the race.
“It definitely hurt to hear the cyclists go by and everybody cheering,” she said, probably in a slight state of denial of her current situation. “I was like, ‘Aw, I could’ve been out there.’ ”
CHANGES
While Parker continued to excel in competitions, the months leading up to the Youth Olympics gave her plenty of challenges.
Perhaps the biggest lifestyle change came when Albright withdrew from Cave Spring midway through her sophomore year and began taking online courses. Other triathletes her age had done the same.
Competing in the USAT Junior Elite Series would mean a great deal of travel, and online schooling could give Parker a chance to work her studies around a demanding training schedule.
“After Parker won the National Championship in August 2017 everybody knew 2018 was the Youth Olympic year and that qualifying for that race was going to be very important,” Chad Albright said.
Parker’s mom, Cathy Albright, disagreed with the approach, but eventually gave in to her daughter’s request. Parker now sees where her mother was coming from.
“If I could go back I would not do online school,” Parker said. “When you are doing online school it’s hard to keep yourself motivated and keep on track.”
Structure for the program Parker used was lacking.
“It was a disaster,” Chad Albright said. “It’s almost like you went from your freshman year straight to college as far as time management goes. We did not really recognize that was going to be an issue.”
Then the loneliness kicked in.
“I did not realize how important it was for me to have interactions with kids my age every single day,” Parker said. “And then I lost that.”
If that wasn’t enough stress along, Parker was also dealing with physical adjustments - she was getting older and her body was changing.
She had become an adolescent.
“When I was younger I had a lot of natural talent,” she said. “I trained really hard but I could get away with not training as much. When you get older that natural talent wears off a lot. …
“And that’s when I started gaining weight, especially with running. Once you start to gain weight it’s harder. You’re lugging around a lot more weight and your muscles are not used to it yet.”
The distances for the swim (750 meters), bike (12 miles) and run (3.1 miles), were doubled from her previous age group, and the triathlon season - which previously ended in August, now lasted into October.
Parker’s workout schedule by the summer of 2018 were the most extensive of her life, as she prepared her first two international races - coming back to back.
“We flew down to Brazil and then we flew straight to Ecuador for the next race,” she said. “That week and a half was like the best week of my life. I was with all my closest friends.”
It was in Ecuador where Albright earned her spot in the Youth Olympics Games.
“She just dismantled everybody,” said her dad. “It was probably one of the more exciting races anybody had ever seen.”
But the excitement of that moment faded quickly, and, as Chad put it, “then the wheels fell off.”
STRUGGLES BACK HOME
Once she returned from her extended stay in South America, Parker was back in relative isolation at her Roanoke County home. She had just a couple of months before her big international race - the reason she had put herself through all this effort.
But the culmination of all the stress from training, online classes, and sudden loss of her peer group started bearing down on her.
“I wasn’t used to having that sort of connection with my friends in person and then when it all goes away so quickly, it hit me pretty hard,” Parker said. “I was just at an all-time high and then went straight to an all-time low.”
Chad Albright noticed the change in his daughter as well.
“Honesty Parker’s life flipped in a week,” he said. “She did not get out of bed for like a week.”
Parker eventually did get out of bed, but things were not the same.
“She went through the training motions but she was sick, she was depressed, she felt isolated.” her dad said.
Parker reflected on what happened at the Youth Olympic Games.
“My fitness level was fine for that race, but my mental stability was not OK,” she said. “I just really did not want to let anyone down by not racing that race.”
So what was going to be next for Parker Albright? She admits now that she was torn about jumping back into the sport that she had dedicated so much to for nearly half of her life.
“I needed a complete reset,” she said. “I didn’t know how long it was going to be. I was just going to get back into it when I was ready.”
Parker took the longest break she ever had.
FACING THE NEXT ACT
Typically after big races, Parker’s former coach, Michael Harlow of Endorphin Fitness in Richmond, would have her take two weeks of rest, but Parker always resisted.
“I’d be like, ‘Hey Michael, I need to work out,’ and he’d be like, ‘No, you need to rest.’ ”
This time, Parker rested for three months. She watched hours of Netflix with her mom and focused on her classes. She formed a local friend group and got a job at Fleet Feet.
“I think I was a lot happier during that point because I did not stress about training,” she said.
Finally during her family’s annual December trip to Idaho, Parker began light training. By January 2019, she began to feel serious about her sport again.
The Junior Elite Series starts in March, and although she had been training she opted out of the first two races in the series.
“I just wasn’t ready,” she said. “I did not want to be discouraged again, I wanted to have a decent race back.”
Parker jumped right into the Worlds 2019 qualifier and came in sixth overall.
“I was pretty happy with that. And then I raced nationals after that and got seventh. So it was a decent two-race season,” she laughed.
Parker admits, however, that the pitfalls were still strong in her mind.
“It was good to remind myself that I need to put it all together again,” she said. “If I want to get back to where I was in Ecuador, and that’s sort of what I am working on now.”
COLLEGE CALLS
In February, Albright was the first athlete from the Roanoke Valley to sign with a Division I women’s triathlon program - she will attend the University of South Dakota.
She knows several of her new teammates from past competitions, and enjoyed her interactions of the school, located in Vermillion, South Dakota.
“Everybody is so close knit,” Parker said. “They are really laid back and don’t care about who is better than who. They are all super supportive.”
What Parker’s college career will lead to - such as more international competitions - is still unknown.
Chad Albright points out how many young athletes with hopes of reaching elite levels in their disciplines have to sacrifice their childhood, noting that it takes commitment and self control to accomplish what they want.
“Some of her drive is there,” her dad said. “She’s done some hard bike workouts. But the problem with all this is that to be successful you really have to commit. Diet, exercise, and sleep. You have to be very militant about it, which is not very fun, especially for someone who is 18.
“I do think she is in a much better spot. I am super proud of her.”
Parker said the aspirations of reaching her ultimate goal the Olympic Games in 2024 or 2028 is still alive.
“I sort of really realized that this is what I am meant to do, and I still love it.”
Heather Rousseau writes for The Roanoke Times, where this story was first published.
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