Land and sea

Student athlete runs and swims his way to a national championship

Steven Luckie is one fast talker. And he’s not exactly slow as a swimmer and runner, either.

The Carolina sophomore swimmer had a summer to remember in 2006, winning a national championship in the aquathlon, a variation of the triathlon. The victory earned him a trip to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he finished 25th overall in the run-swim-run competition.

He also could have also earned an Oscar for the acting performance he gave his parents, Vince and Chrisann, earlier in the summer.

“I’d always wanted to go out of the country,” Luckie said, “so I kind of jokingly asked my parents, ‘Could I go if I, say, qualified for a world championship or something like that?’ They didn’t know anything about the aquathlon. They thought it was hypothetical. They were like, ‘Sure, if you make it for a world championship, you can go.’”

His parents never saw it coming. “I went to Kansas City, Mo., for the national championship, and I called them after the race and told them I won,” he said. “They were like, ‘So you’re actually going to Switzerland?’ I said, ‘Yep, I’m going!’”

Luckie’s time at the world event was 32 minutes, 31 seconds for a 2.5-kilometer run, 1-kilometer swim, and 2.5-kilometer run. He was competing in “sprint” distance triathlons—a 750-meter swim, a 16-mile bike ride, and a 5-kilometer run—when he qualified for last summer’s nationals.

In researching the competition, he discovered he had also qualified for the aquathlon, a relatively new sport. “It’s a lot cheaper because you don’t have to pay for the bike to be transported. All you need is a pair of shoes and a swimsuit.”

He’s training to defend his national title this summer and also planned to compete on the track team this spring as a walk-on to improve his running. Luckie, whose best stroke is the 200-meter butterfly, is not one of Carolina’s most acclaimed swimmers. But he still has a national championship medal and a trip to Switzerland on his passport.

“I think my teammates were all kind of surprised,” he said. “I’m not a huge standout here. It wasn’t really expected. It’s kind of cool to have it. I don’t have any records up on the board, but I’ve still got my little national championship.”