Li Shiao-yu: Carrying the Flag to the Finish Line

What does the distance 226 kilometers mean to you?

For triathlete Li Shiao-yu, that number stands for 3800 meters of swimming across a lake, plus 180 km of cycling, plus a full 42.2-km marathon. At the Ironman Japan Competition held in Hokkaido, Japan, in 2015, Li completed these challenges with a time of 10 hours, 22 minutes, and 59 seconds, crushing her more than 200 opponents from around the world as she set a new record by winning her third Ironman Japan title in a row. She currently ranks number one among women triathletes in Asia, based on accumulated points.

Li Shiao-yu won the Ironman Japan competition in Hokkaido three years running, from 2013 through 2015. (photo by Trisha Chen)

A lonely road to professional status

Li, now 39, is ranked 35th in the world in women’s triathlon. Coincidentally, it was at age 35 that she made the decision to turn pro, a choice over which she had agonized for two years.

“Turning pro at 35 was really the last possible moment. After first becoming a professional athlete, I really had no idea what the future would bring, because there was no precedent of anyone from Taiwan doing something like this. I had no one to teach me the ropes, and I couldn’t find anyone to serve as a coach to be there with me for training. So I had to think about it a really long time….” Even before turning pro, beginning in 2010 Li had qualified each year to participate as an “age grouper” in the Ironman World Championship held in Kona, Hawaii.

The Kona contest is the world’s biggest stage for the triathlon. In the 2010 championship, Li finished third in her age group. She planted the flag of the ROC in the soil of Hawaii, causing the Taiwanese who had gone there to cheer her on to openly weep.

Li says that for her the real race begins when she hits shore after the swimming leg that starts each Ironman competition. With nerve damage in her left hand causing her problems when swimming, she has to make up for lost time in the cycling and running legs. (photo by Wang Jiafei)

A life turned upside down

Born in Kaohsiung, Li grew up in the Xinying District of Tainan. As a child she spoke little, and for a while it was even suspected that she might be autistic. During the physical education tests in fourth grade, she finished first in the school in short-distance dashes, becoming her class’s star athlete and marking the beginning of her romance with running. In middle school she was most often found running around the track, lap after lap, sweating profusely and gasping for breath; she loved the feeling of running by herself, content in her own little world.

After reaching high school, Li practiced every day. She got to the point where she would run all the way from her school in the Houbi District of Tainan to her home in Xinying to eat, then run back to school, a round trip of 14 km. Doing this every day, it became routine.

One day when she was 17, she was running on a provincial highway when she was accidentally struck by a motorcycle. She suffered injuries to her spine resulting in paralysis on the left side of her body. Every day as she lay in bed she asked herself why fate had dealt her such a bitter blow.

“Back then if I moved the left side of my body even a tiny bit, the pain was so excruciating that it would bring tears to my eyes…. But I was filled with a kind of rage not to give in, totally unwilling to accept that I was going to live the rest of my life like that.” These painful memories remain deeply ingrained in Li’s mind.

After she got out of the hospital and went home, because her mother had to go out to work every day Li was left alone in a big double bed staring at the ceiling. She thought to herself that unless she found some way on her own to stand up, she would spend the rest of her life as a pathetic charity case.

Li says that for her the real race begins when she hits shore after the swimming leg that starts each Ironman competition. With nerve damage in her left hand causing her problems when swimming, she has to make up for lost time in the cycling and running legs. (photo by Wang Jiafei)

Incredible pain, still more incredible gain

So she endured agony akin to having your fingernails pulled out, pushing her fingers to move, one centimeter at a time, until she cried out and wept. Then when she had cried herself out, she would start again, telling herself that each time she fought through the pain her hands and feet would be one centimeter closer to the edge of the bed. After half a year, she was able to stand up. “This accident gave me an understanding from a young age of the nature of pain and the potential of the human body. From being paralyzed to being able to run, I tell myself that I have to use well the miracle that Heaven has given me.”

After graduating from a junior college of physical education, she became an instructor in a fitness center, and it was there, through the suggestion of a colleague, that she first came in contact with triathlon.

Her first time in a triathlon was a 51.5-km event in Penghu. When Li crossed the finish line no one applauded, and after she had left the course and packed up all her things, the announcer excitedly yelled out, “Here comes the women’s champion now!” Li was momentarily at a loss: “Uh… then what place did I finish in?”

It turns out that, this being her first race, no one knew this “dark horse” entry, and with her heavily muscled legs and dark complexion, she was mistaken for a man…. In this understated way she took first place in the women’s division, and she didn’t even get to feel very happy as she went up on the podium to receive the trophy. In succeeding events she felt that there were no serious competitors for her, because she was always the first to cross the finish line. So she upgraded from the 51.5-km triathlon to 103 km and then 226, and kept right on winning, until she ultimately turned pro.

Li says that for her the real race begins when she hits shore after the swimming leg that starts each Ironman competition. With nerve damage in her left hand causing her problems when swimming, she has to make up for lost time in the cycling and running legs. (photo by Trisha Chen)

Back in the race

Since turning pro, every event has meant points in the standings. Although she has already been through countless triathlons, each time before she plunges into the water for the first leg, she always feels nervous. “For me, the event only really begins when I get ashore after swimming those 3.8 k. I rely on the cycling and running events to make up for lost ground.” There is a definite formula to Li’s successes: they are all “come from behind” wins. This is especially true in the marathon leg, where, she laughs, despite her short legs she always is certain of passing the competitors who are ahead of her.

Because of her accident, Li has permanent damage to the peripheral nerves in her left hand, and she can’t feel the water resistance when she swims. This makes it hard for her to judge how much effort to put into each stroke, which is a problem considering how important it is to keep as much energy in reserve as possible for the cycling and running. There is also an obvious difference in musculature between her two arms. When she is asked if these problems set her back quite a lot in the swimming leg of the triathlon, she replies: “I’d rather put it this way—I have to put in an extra effort just to keep up.”

Trisha Chen, Li’s agent, has spent three years teasing out Li’s innermost feelings and memories to help her write her autobiography, Here Comes Shiao-Yu Li. Chen relates, “Li Shiao-yu is always trying to make herself better, and has never needed anyone to crack the whip.” She trains in strict accordance with her schedule, which requires her to do swimming, cycling, and running without fail each day.

“I’ll never understand why some people say that something is impossible before they even try doing it. If you don’t train, you’ll regress, but if you do train, you’ll improve! No question!” says Li. If she has even one day where she doesn’t do her training as she should, she can’t sleep that night, because she feels as if she has left the day unfinished.

Li was paralyzed in an accident as a teenager, and it is a miracle that she was able to even walk again. She tells herself that she must make the most of this miracle by breaking through every barrier. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)

Next goal: Top ten in the world rankings

The Ironman competition tests the limits of the human body, and you could say it is more a test of one’s ability to endure pain. Before becoming a triathlete, Li never allowed herself to cry. Through the event, she says, she has learned how to cry, that crying does not mean weakness, and that she won’t quit just for that reason.

She once competed in the Mongolia Bike Challenge, a mountain biking race, which virtually every day required riding over rough gravel roads. Both her arms were virtually numb from vibration, and the constant friction of the bike seat opened a wound in her buttocks that became infected and began to suppurate. She was in such pain that she was actually screaming, causing some of her competitors from other countries to be very taken aback. Eventually someone gave her a more comfortable bicycle seat to use.

Asked how bad the pain was, she takes a deep breath and replies, “It was agony, there was so much pain that I could hardly breathe….” And yet, “I didn’t want to give up, because the feeling of quitting is even more painful.”

Once, in the cycling leg of a triathlon, she was suffering cramps in both legs, and eventually toppled over on her bike. Gritting her teeth, she got back on the bike and continued on. Another time she had to swim through lake water that was near freezing, and when she got ashore she had lost feeling in all four limbs. Then there was the time that she had intestinal problems in the middle of a marathon, alternately running and stopping to relieve herself, and she had to push on through intense abdominal pain, feeling as if she would faint all the way to the finish. And the time she had an asthma attack but kept on running even as she gasped for air, refusing to quit even when event staff recommended she call it a day. For her, completing an event is important because it shows who she is as a person, and also because she represents Taiwan.

Li says: “Committing to this kind of extreme sport lets everyone know that you can always keep pushing the limits of the human body.”

Li Shiao-yu’s next goal is to make it into the top ten in the world rankings. She has kept her nose to the grindstone and has high expectations of herself, and she has complete faith that she will go full speed ahead to make this dream a reality.

“Train, train, and train some more.” Only by continually getting stronger can Li deal with any challenge that courses or weather throw at her. (photo by Trisha Chen)

“Train, train, and train some more.” Only by continually getting stronger can Li deal with any challenge that courses or weather throw at her. (photo by Diego Santamaria)

It has been a long and lonely road to professional status for Li, because there has never been any other triathlete in Taiwan at the same level as her. Her current goal is to get into the world top ten. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)