Photo by Sean M. Haffey, Provided by Sean Flyyn
Cincinnati native and Ohio State University medical student Matthew Marquardt finished third at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, just last month. On his bike, he carried nearly 70 initials honoring those diagnosed with cancer, loved ones lost, and those whose lives have been touched by the condition. Each initial represents a personal race and a reminder of the research he hopes to advance as a future cancer surgeon.
Photo provided by Sean Flyyn
“To be able to do that here, on home soil, just means the world,” he says.
His finish on October 10 ranked among the 15 fastest times recorded on the Kailua-Kona course. Marquardt finished the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike-leg, and 26.2-mile marathon in just under seven hours and 50 minutes, earning him a place among only three American men to reach the podium at the IRONMAN World Championship in the past decade.
“Kona in particular had this tendency to throw curveballs at you and try and strike you out until the very last moment,” Marquardt says, describing the sun-scorched volcanic terrain and coastal crosswinds reaching 50 mph that make the course so challenging.
As a three-time IRONMAN champion, with victories at IRONMAN South Africa, Cairns, and Lake Placid, Marquardt has built a professional racing career alongside his studies as a third-year medical student at OSU. He sees medicine and endurance sports not as competing disciplines, but synergistic ones—the pursuit of one fueling the other.
“People ask me all the time, well, would you be a better triathlete if you weren’t doing medical school?” Marquardt said. “My honest answer is always that I’m not sure that it’s that simple.”
The rigor of both disciplines demands an all-consuming commitment. With a training regimen spanning 20 to 30 hours each week, Marquardt’s days span 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. as he balances clinical rotations or lab research with two workouts a day. Yet the capacity to move between the two grants Marquardt a balance, grounding him when either threatens to pull him into the weeds of “trying to be the best.”
Photo by Donald Miralle, Provided by Sean Flyyn
“Being a medical student provides me a very unique lens through which I go through triathlon,” Marquardt said. “Being a professional triathlete provides me a very unique and beneficial lens as I go through med school.”
Marquardt’s path to the podium began in Cincinnati, where he grew up and attended high school at Seven Hills. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Princeton University, where he swam for the men’s varsity swim team. What began as a one-time IRONMAN race for fun in 2021 quickly snowballed into a professional career Marquardt never saw coming, though the result did not come without scrutiny.
Marquardt faced the added pressure of breaking into the top 10 on the world stage at his fourth IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France, where he finished eighth. Voices began clamoring, “Can you do it again? Can you do better?”
Where pressure breaks some, it builds others. A year later, Marquardt at last earned the title that he’d been dreaming of: a podium finisher at Kona. The race marked his fifth IRONMAN World Championship start and added to a tally of 15 IRONMAN races completed over five years.
Beyond titles and trophies, endurance sport comes with mental strife to just keep moving forward—before, during, and after the race itself. At one moment, an athlete might be engulfed in the “hurt locker”; five, 10, or 30 minutes later, that feeling might change, Marquardt says. For him, the initials marked in ink on his bike serve as a reminder that his race extends beyond the podium itself.
“[The initials] provide a significant source of inspiration for me when the going gets tough on these races,” Marquardt said. “Like, ‘there are people going through really tough times right now, and you know, they’re getting through it. You can too.’”
Marquardt first marked the names of a few friends and family members affected by cancer on his bike at his first pro race at IRONMAN Texas in 2023. IRONMAN training and racing is grueling, but enduring cancer treatment is exponentially more frightening and strenuous, Marquardt adds. Carrying their names is an honor that channels their strength when the “hurt locker” tests his mental and physical endurance.
Photo by Sean M. Haffey, Provided by Sean Flyyn
Those close-knit connections are what drove Marquardt to medical school, where he is researching head and neck cancers and pursuing a career as a surgeon to treat cancers of the mouth, tongue, nose, and throat. His research has been published in journals such as Oral Oncology, where he contributed to a 2024 study examining how patient-specific, 3D-printed models can help surgeons achieve cancer-free margins when removing oral cavity tumors.
Now, his bike has grown to support the names and stories of fans, athletes, and patients, including those at the OSU James Cancer Hospital.
To give back to the community and advance cancer research, Marquardt donates part of his prize money and works closely with Pelotonia—an organization that hosts annual bike rides to fundraise for and accelerate cancer research. Pelotonia has raised nearly $340 million through participants and partners, with 100 percent of its funds going towards the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Beyond requests to add initials to his bike, Marquardt accepts donations to Pelotonia in exchange for an initial. Through racing, he’s raised more than $26,000 over the years toward advancing cancer research—and it’s growing.
“Private philanthropy is really important in terms of bridging the gap in providing the funds that researchers need in order to find the next generation of cures,” Marquardt says.
With decreasing amounts of funding offered by the government for medical cancer research, organizations like Pelotonia work to grant the funds necessary to develop new treatments and improve patient care. To give back to the cancer research community alongside Marquardt and the stories he carries with him through his journey, cycle with Pelotonia, or get involved by volunteering or donating.
“You never know how the day is going to turn out until you cross the finish line,” Marquardt says. “Keep moving forward, you know, one foot, one pedal stroke, one swim stroke at a time.”
