Triathlete’s quick response helps save competitor

When the weather took a turn for the worse Sunday during the 750-meter swim leg of a triathlon competition in Clermont, Fla., Liberty University sophomore triathlete Greg Schott was in the right place at the right time to help revive a women’s participant who had to be pulled from the water.

“Those were some of the worst swim conditions I’ve ever seen, with how wavy it was and how much current there was in the water,” Flames Head Coach Parker Spencer said. “They had a boat out there speeding around picking up swimmers who were struggling. Two of the girls were unconscious when they pulled them out of the boat, and one girl didn’t have a pulse.”

Schott, a sophomore Exercise Science major at Liberty studying to be a physical therapist, competed in the first day of the events on Saturday but had to drop out of the 5K running stage as he was still recovering from a bout of bronchitis. He was on hand Sunday to support his Liberty teammates during the second day of the U25 women’s Elite Developmental Race in the Draft-Legal Challenge held in Lake Louisa State Park. However, he ended up lending some crucial support to a female triathlete not affiliated with Liberty’s team.

“We saw the driver on the boat yelling for help as they were coming in,” said Schott, who earned his emergency medical technician (EMT) certification while training as a professional on the XTERRA Off-Road Triathlon series in Colorado last semester. “They didn’t have the race support medics on the beach yet, so I ran over with two other nurses who were bystanders in the crowd. She was unconscious when they brought her onto the beach, and we couldn’t find a pulse, so we immediately started CPR.”

He experienced immediate success in his first live emergency situation.

“He only had to do a couple chest compressions before she started spitting up water and was revived,” Spencer said.

“It was literally right as we started when she woke back up,” Schott added.

After that incident, race officials adjusted the swim course for the men’s race that followed from one 750-meter loop to two loops of 375 meters so swimmers wouldn’t have to tread in water deeper than 6 feet.

Schott followed his family’s lead by becoming EMT certified. His dad is a flight paramedic, his mom is a neonatal intensive care unit nurse, and his sister is also an EMT. Schott has volunteered as an EMT at a fire department in Richmond, Va., near his hometown of Chesterfield.

Schott won the 15-19 age division of the XTERRA National Championships in 2015 after placing sixth in his age group during his freshman year in 2014. On April 9, two weeks before the Flames travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships, Schott and Spencer will compete in an XTERRA Pan Am Tour race in Costa Rica, where Schott entered his first event as a professional in 2015.

Men’s and women’s triathlon are two of 37 teams offered by Liberty’s Club Sports department. Read a full recap on last weekend’s races in Florida and more about Liberty’s triathlon teams on the Club Sports website.