Janel Susastra will take the lessons she’s learned at Texas Tech and apply them on the course in Nyon, Switzerland.

Janel Susastra will take the lessons she’s learned at Texas Tech and apply them on the course in Nyon, Switzerland.

The gun goes off – dozens of swimmers enter the water at once. 

The beginning of a triathlon is never graceful, it’s pandemonium. Competitors are kicked and elbowed in the face, coming up for air only to have water splashed into their mouths. 

“That first part is basically a contact sport,” says Janel Susastra, a fourth-year student at Texas Tech University. 

You don’t win a triathlon by being the fastest or the strongest. You win by finding your rhythm and trusting that the chaos, however uncomfortable, is temporary. This is a lesson Janel first learned in a pool in Singapore, and it will carry with her as she competes in the World University Championship Triathlon this August.

Janel’s mother, having never learned to swim, put Janel in classes at only a few months old. But what began as a safety precaution turned into a favorite pastime for young Janel. Then, she began competing, finding a sense of belonging in the water and within her team. It was something she was good at; something that felt a part of her identity. 

She won her first gold medal in the freestyle event. 

“I was just having fun, whether I won or lost,” she remembers.

Treading through the water remained Janel’s outlet through high school until pools closed during COVID-19. Suddenly, her outlet was gone. At 15, she had little access to her friends or to her routine. She was unsure when she’d swim again, so she began doing at-home workouts. 

What started as a way of continuing to train, morphed from discipline into destruction. 

“I was afraid of gaining weight since I wasn’t training as intensely,” she remarks. “I started controlling what I ate, often skipping breakfast and eating very little throughout the day.” 

She also took up running as a high-intensity way to get in cardio. 

As restrictions remained and she was stuck at home, Janel became hyper-focused on calorie intake. Every thought became about what she would or wouldn’t eat. One day, she realized the obsession had become an eating disorder she was drowning within. 

When she returned to the pool months later, her performance had declined significantly. 

As her teammates quickly regained their best times and improved from there, Janel was dealing with several health issues that had spiraled from her eating disorder. Eventually, she made the difficult decision to take time off from swimming and focus on getting healthier. Despite support from family and friends, it was still an uphill battle. 

“I am not sure there was one single turning point in my recovery,” she says. “It was a combination of realizing I couldn’t keep treating my body that way and seeing other athletes using food to fuel their training.

“I had to come to the understanding that we eat to support our training, we don’t train to burn off calories,” she says. 

But rather than returning to her swim team, Janel realized she could combine her knowledge of swimming and running, and try something new. She chose triathlon and hoped that a different setting would match her new outlook.

When she started competing, Janel came back stronger.

What started as a general curiosity culminated in her making the national team only a year later. In 2023, after one year of competing, she went to the Asia Triathlon Cup in Hong Kong, one of her favorite races to this day. 

The cool water of Victoria Harbor; cycling east past the promenades, concluding in a run to the finish line in a park where families stood cheering. 

Again, Janel found something she excelled in. 

“Meanwhile, school kind of knocked down my confidence,” she says. 

Janel neared the end of her senior year not feeling nearly as confident academically as she did on the course. In Singapore, the education system wasn’t built in a way in which Janel thrived. Each class lasted the whole year with a mammoth of a cumulative exam determining the final grade. 

“It’s not a bad system; it just wasn’t for me,” she says. 

Janel considered the U.S. for college. She knew semesters worked differently in the west, and that perhaps, it would be a better structure for her. 

“I can focus really well on anything for four months,” she says. 

Her parents’ friends had studied at Texas Tech, speaking highly of the experience. Janel applied to several schools in Texas and other parts of the U.S., hoping to hear back.  

In December 2023, she was in her room when an email from Texas Tech come through. It was her acceptance letter and there was a scholarship attached. 

“I went running out of my room to tell my parents,” she says. “They were so happy for me.” 

Dry Land 

As triathletes transition from the water to their bikes, the chaotic energy settles into a subtle sense of camaraderie. Riders break off into packs, taking turns at the front to conserve energy. 

“If you go it alone, you’re going to be slower and get tired,” Janel says. 

When Janel transitioned to Texas Tech, a campus she’d never seen in person, she chose to embrace it like one of her triathlon transitions. She arrived in Lubbock May 2024 for Red Raider Orientation and to knock out some classes over the summer. 

She knew no one, but the student staff at orientation made her feel at home, as did her academic advisers. 

“My academic adviser was assuring,” she says. “He made me feel like I could be part of this community.” 

That adviser has been by Janel’s side as she’s balanced competing priorities.

“I told Janel I would be her biggest supporter while she was at Texas Tech,” says Lead Adviser Jose Jimenez. “I remember saying, ‘All I ask is that you ask lots of questions because that’s how you’ll learn and grow.’”  

By the fall semester, campus came alive. The quiet and hot days with just a handful of students at the Leisure Pool or studying in the Student Union Building turned into cooler mornings with thousands of students bustling from class to class. 

Janel met as many people as she could. She dragged her roommate – who she’d only known for a day – to as many welcome events as possible. She had her first taco at a tailgate. She attended her first Red Raider football game, and she walked back to her dorm in the early hours of the morning with people she was beginning to call friends. 

The culture was different from her home in Singapore. There, people keep more to themselves, she explains. Here, strangers come up and start conversation. Small talk was an art she had to learn. Already, she was not the same person who’d left home six months prior. 

“When I first came here, I was shy,” she says. “There was a lot I was not open to; I feared a lot of things.” 

One decision Janel had to make early on was whether she’d keep competing while studying in the U.S. She figured she’d keep training for races, and see what happened. It wouldn’t come before her schoolwork, but it wasn’t something she was ready to give up. 

Luckily, her triathlon coach had recommendations for coaches in Texas, and Janel met with a few. She ended up hiring William Ritter.

“I enjoy coaching Janel because she is so consistent,” he says. “She has a great work ethic, and she keeps pushing even if she isn’t feeling well. Sometimes I have to hold her back.” 

The coach and athlete work together virtually through an online training platform. 

“Janel is a well-rounded athlete, but more than anything, this experience is going to follow her into her career and help her learn how to handle adversity,” Ritter says.

Once Janel had a coach, the next item of business was to find a place to train. 

Janel became a familiar face at the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center. Utilizing its indoor and outdoor lap pools, she found the familiar sensation of the water made her feel a bit closer to home. Some days she’ll cycle around Urbanovsky Park; on others, she’ll run on the track. 

But her favorite thing is leaning on the other athletes. 

“I see the same people at the rec center every morning,” Janel says. “It’s nice because there are a few other triathletes who train there as well. We encourage each other and it’s nice to hear them say, ‘You’re so fast, you got this!’” 

Finishing Strong 

As triathletes transition to running, the race becomes a mental battle.

“You’re hurting and exhausted,” Janel explains. “At this final part of the competition, it’s about who can sustain their speed and spirit longest.” 

It’s where Janel has learned to dig deep to find motivation. It’s also what helped her place fifth in the nation at the 2026 USA Triathlon Collegiate Club National Championship in March. 

As impressive of a feat as that was, Janel believes her accomplishments in the classroom showcase her true determination. She declared an economics major when she arrived at Texas Tech, knowing she’d be able to secure a job after graduation with a skillset that was transferable into many industries. 

But the academics, even in shorter semesters, were an intimidating factor.

“I knew there would be math involved, and I hadn’t done so well in math and science before,” she says. 

Janel describes herself as an average student during high school, but she struggled with doubt about her academic abilities entering college, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses.

She had been exposed to these subjects in primary school and even enjoyed physics, its motion and energy drawing her attention. 

“We got to do a lot of fun experiments, like launching a mini water rocket,” she says with a spark in her eyes. 

As happens with so many students though, the more serious school became, the less her teachers approached the material with playful exuberance. But when she got to Texas Tech, her professors possessed a passion that reignited her interest. She also found the university offered several resources already bundled into her tuition that would help her get where she wanted to go academically. 

She began attending Supplemental Instruction sessions. The peer-to-peer experience made it easier for Janel to ask questions and interact with others who also were working on similar assignments. 

“I actually work there now,” she grins. “I am not sure I ever would have believed I’d be tutoring others.” 

The experience bolstered her confidence so much, she recently declared a double major in economics and mathematics – something she’s incredibly proud to highlight.

She also discovered the College to Career program that helps students find paid internships in their desired industry. This helped Janel land a summer internship she just finished in Chicago. 

The placement allowed her to train alongside Lake Michigan and Millennium Park for her next race: the World University Championship Triathlon. 

Beginning this weekend, hundreds of collegiate triathletes will convene in Nyon, Switzerland, to compete for the gold medal. The course may be the most stunning Janel has seen yet. Wrapping around the shores of Lake Geneva and overlooking the Alps, the setting is sure to challenge and awe its competitors. 

And while she’ll be representing her home country of Singapore, she is sure to share Red Raider pride by representing her university as well. 

“I really owe this to Texas Tech,” Janel says. “Coming here has given me so much confidence, and I don’t think I would have grown so much without the university.” 

To learn more about UREC clubs and ways to get active on campus visit their website.