Jill Savege only started competing in the triathlon at age 24 but she had strong athletic skills and some sporting genes as well. Savage was a competitive swimmer growing up and used running as cross training. She started cycling seriously when she moved to Vancouver.
Savege, last year's Pan Am Games champion, was ranked fourth in the world as of mid-July to headline the Canadian women's Olympic team in triathlon. A hip and back problem kept her out of some World Cups this year but she returned to the Edmonton stop in July in one of her final tune-ups for the Games and was 10th.
She has three career World Cup wins to her credit including last year's Canadian stop in Corner Brook, Nfld. She was sixth at the 2001 worlds in Edmonton.
Her mother Val was on Canada's women's basketball team at the 1967Pan Am Games in Winnipeg and won bronze for Canada's first ever team medal at those Games.
