Samantha Fugate Kennedy

Name: Samantha (Sam) Fugate Kennedy

Location: East Lansing, Michigan

Occupation: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow

Team USA 2008 

My two cents...


My athletic background is quite varied.  I began water skiing at age 3-years-old when my parents strapped me to a pair of skis that were tied together.  A few years later, they placed me in snow ski classes, which quickly progressed to downhill racing lessons.  In 4th grade, I was introduced to soccer.  I continued to be active in all three sports and added cross country in middle school.  Once I started high school, my focus shifted completely to soccer.  After years of playing varsity for my high school and playing for a competitive travel soccer team, I was offered an athletic scholarship to an NAIA program, Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan.  During my first season with the team, I earned a starting spot and we were ranked 5th in the nation.  I continued my competitive progress by playing for the Michigan Phoenix, a semi-professional soccer team in the Women's Premier Soccer League.  After two years at Madonna University, I transferred to Michigan State University with the goal of playing Division I soccer.  During my junior year, I played for the Michigan State University Women's Club Soccer team and we finished 3rd in the nation.  Unfortunately, a number of injuries, including concussions, forced me to step away from soccer.  During my last year of playing soccer, I had started to ride my dad's 1980's Trek Chrome Molly road bike to improve my fitness.  With the option to play soccer gone, I began to look for another competitive outlet and found triathlon.  After racing for a few years with some success on the Michigan State University Triathlon Club while I completed my doctorate in Osteopathic Medicine, I committed to becoming more competitive.  In 2013, I earned my pro card by winning the LifeTime Chicago Triathlon thanks to the help from my coach, Barb Lindquist, my husband and my family.  Although the timing wasn't ideal as I had just started my residency in psychiatry at Michigan State University, I was excited that I had achieved my goal and worked hard to organize my work schedule and training schedule so I could compete at the best level possible. 

 

Racing as a professional triathlete was an exciting journey filled with its share of highs and lows, great experiences and lessons learned.  Triathlon is a grueling sport, but I love training and racing.  I thrive on challenging my body to endure and reach new levels of fitness and speed.  During my time as a professional triathlete, I wanted to explore as many types of racing as possible.  I raced in competitive local races with other local professionals and I traveled across the country to race in some of the largest LifeTime and TriRock events.  During my second year as a professional, I tried my first draft legal race and found the format challenging and exciting!  At the end of that year I had my second hip surgery for a torn labrum, but through the help of a great team of physical therapists, I had a successful third year as a professional.  I finished well in a number of non-draft legal triathlons, won a number of competitive local triathlons and also did better than I could have imagined in my draft-legal triathlons.  In addition to a full schedule of racing and training, I also continued working full time as a psychiatry resident physician at Michigan State University.  You can read more about my race experiences on my blog!

 

For the 2016 season, I decided it was time to make a few changes in order to achieve more of my long term goals.  I decided to give up my pro card to focus on these goals.  I finished my first Ironman in Louisville, I competed in the USAT Age Group Off Road National Championship finishing 1st in my age group and I completed in the XTERRA Pan American Championship! 


For the 2017 season, I decided to take the pro card back and see what happens! It was a very fun season full of half Ironmans and Olympics!  I decided to "retire" after finding out I was pregnant!


The 2018 season was definitely a little slower as I was pregnant with my sweet baby girl Evelyn!  She decided to come early and was born on July 15... causing her daddy to skip his planned triathlon on that day when I suddenly went into labor just before we were about to head to Grand Rapids.  I came back after Evie was born and raced the Boyne City Triathlon 7 weeks after the was born and followed that up with the Reeds Lake Triathlon and the Come Clean Duathlon.


For the 2019 season, I am excited to see what life is like as a triathlon mommy!