Two With Ties to Geneva Make Bid for 2016 Olympic Triathlon Team

Photo 1: Ben Kanute, Photo credit: Ben Kanute blog Photo 2: Kevin McDowell, Photo credit: McDowell’s Twitter page

Two men with ties to Geneva will take a shot at making the Olympic triathlon team on Saturday.

Ben Kanute, a 22-year-old Marimon Academy graduate, said his bid for the 2016 Olympic team this weekend at the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final and World Championships in Chicago is a culmination of 15 years of training, according to the Daily Herald.

• You can follow Kanute on Twitter and also check out his blog for more updates.

Another man with local ties, Kevin McDowell, will also be competing Saturday, the Chicago Tribune reports. McDowell, a Geneva High School grad who was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in March 2011, struggled through three years while training and undergoing chemo.

McDowell, 23, did not feel up for competing in last year’s elite series. But this year is different.

“This is my first complete season (since 2011 chemotherapy), and I made it through healthy. As a whole, it has been much more than I could have imagined,” McDowell told the Chicago Tribune.

Wouldn’t be where I am today without all the support since my diagnosis #CancerFree #NCSD2015 #CelebrateLife pic.twitter.com/dWtDjIMVVb

— Kevin McDowell (@KMcDowell1) June 7, 2015

If either, or both, of the men finish in the top eight, they have a chance of automatically making the team, which will compete at the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, according to the Daily Herald.