Kate Major’s favorite quote is “It’s not what life does to you that’s important, but what you do with what life does to you.” Major has taken what life has given her—the prowess to be a sports champion—and bettered her rankings to put a face on triathlon’s next generation of standout female athletes. Last year was a banner one for the Aussie: she won her second major Ironman race at Arizona, placed third at the Ironman World Championships, then, one week later, competed in one of her first marquee off-road triathlons—the XTERRA World Championships in Maui—and capped the year off by asking her now fiancé to marry her.

After enjoying the holidays back in her home country, she’s riding 2005’s momentum right in to 2006 with her sights set on racing Ironman New Zealand on March 4. Major said that this race forces an earlier start to her season than what she’s accustomed to, and even admitted to struggling in her training after enjoying a holiday break (yes, even one of the world’s best takes some time off for the holidays).

“During the holidays my training fell off a bit, and for the first month of training everything is so hard,” Major said. “It takes about four to six weeks to get back to it.”

Although her first race is early this year, Major said she’s feeling strong, and looking forward to racing through another season, with Hawaii spotlighted for 2006.  Major says she would “love to win Hawaii” once, if not two or three times, and with plans to race professionally for another 10 years or so, her dream very well could become a reality.

Major’s first Ironman win was at Lake Placid in 2004, where she beat Heather Fuhr (who had won the event four times) by 14 minutes. Major’s 9:24:42 set a new course record, and with her dominating bike split, solidified Major’s reputation as a cycling powerhouse. Later that year she would finish third in Kona. Along with an earlier third place finish in Australia, Major was convinced that long-course events were for her. As for 2006, after New Zealand Major also plans to race at Coeur d’Alene, and she’ll pepper her season’s build toward Hawaii with several Olympic and half-Ironman distance events, mainly to keep her speed in check and her training fresh.

Although she’ll shake up her schedule this year with varying race distances, she’s pretty sure she’ll keep her racing on the road. After the 2005 World Championships, Major went to Maui to race the XTERRA World Championships. When asked if she’d ever consider an off-road career, Major laughed and recalled how “freaked out” she was by the bike portion of the Maui course, mainly because of her trouble staying on her bike while riding over the technical terrain.

“Maui would have been better for me if not so many rocks,” Major said. “It freaked me out a bit.”

While Major isn’t too interested in off-road triathlon, she does boast a manifold athleticism, one that began when she and her twin sister Emma were little girls.

“I wasn’t really into sports” as a young girl, Kate said. “But then at about eight years old, I guess you could say I got a little pudgy, then I really got into [sports]."

Major said she and Emma began playing Squash when they were eight, and continued on to play on the Australian pro Squash tour, winning three pro Squash world titles. Major said she and her sister shared the spotlight their entire sporting careers, always known as “Kate and Em.” So when Emma retired from pro Squash and moved to Philadelphia to coach, Kate didn’t tell new friends that she had a sister, relishing being recognized on her own merits.

Major began to further solidify her own identity when she turned her interests toward triathlon in 2001. After retiring from squash a year after Emma, Major began swimming with a local triathlon club. Soon thereafter she decided to sign up for a race, and she enjoyed it so much that she began racing more and more, racking up age group wins in the process.

In 2003 she made triathlon a career by turning pro, and in these past three years the triathlon world has watched her quickly ascend to the top rankings, making her the poster child for triathlon’s aspiring 20-somethings. Major’s taken what life has given for her, or, as her favorite quote states, what life has done to her, and she’s making the most of it.