In our “Outstanding Athletes” feature, we celebrate those who shine in their outstanding athletic performance and shine as outstanding individuals.
As with our sponsorships under Hind Performance, we choose to work with special individuals who exemplify high standards personally and professionally. Kevin is such a person and we are honored to sponsor him.
KEVIN JERVIS, Professional Triathlete & GH Sponsored Athlete
In 2015, Kevin Jervis joined the Cal Poly Triathlon Team. At that time, he was working at GH Sports and it was his first time competing in triathlons. Kevin then earned a spot as a professional triathlete for USA Triathlon in 2018 and is now training to earn a spot in the Paris 2024 Olympics. He spends his days challenging his physical capabilities and his perspectives on living a fulfilling life.
GH Sports is proud to sponsor Kevin Jervis – an outstanding athlete and individual. To share some of his experiences with our customers, we asked Kevin these questions in February 2022.
What made you want to pursue a career in professional triathlons?
The combination of love for the outdoors and for physical challenges has always drawn me to triathlon (whether or not I knew it was a career or even an actual sport) and is what I connect with and love most about the triathlon community. But it wasn’t until my teammate and I were “kidnapped” in the Japanese countryside at our first professional race that I knew I had to attempt to turn my hobby into my career. It wasn’t exactly a kidnapping, but we had found ourselves squished in the back of a white van weaving through back alleys to the house of a driver we couldn’t understand, and who had led us to a shrine set up in her attic after simply recognizing us from a 7-Eleven poster. There’s a lot more to the story, but the point is I had been torn between my responsible engineering career or a path of risk and adventure. So, while kneeling in front of a Japanese statue next to a family I didn’t know or understand (who would eventually turn into lasting friends and travel hundreds of miles to watch us race), I knew these were the experiences I would only get after jumping off the beaten path.
What advice can you share to people following in your footsteps?
I’m by no means qualified to be giving anyone advice, but I do know that if your days are constant cycles of trying to convince yourself to follow your passion, then you owe it to yourself to go for it. Jump with confidence; not that you know what’s on the other side, but that whatever it is you have the drive and ability to figure it out.
What has been your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge has been learning how to draw out my best effort while staying relaxed. Initially, I was grinding away with my jaw clenched, convinced that if I just worked harder and gripped tighter that I could pull myself up the professional ranks. It turns out that’s not usually how things work, especially not in a sport that demands years of sacrifice, and I could feel myself mentally and physically starting to tear at the seams. It’s taken, and will continue to take, a lot of work to recognize that being tensed with effort does not make the effort more productive, and that getting out of your own way is the first step to being in the zone.
How do you measure success?
Truthfully, I’m still figuring out how I measure success. As a competitive person, it’s hard not to define success solely as how I perform against the athletes around me or the stopwatch on my wrist. I believe those are important, and arguably those are the reasons I’ve chosen to race as a professional, but I’m starting to focus more on personal growth as an important measure of success as well. Are the challenges and goals I’m setting for myself leading me in the direction I want to go, and is the way in which I’m working through them improving me as a person and not just an athlete?
What is your biggest lesson so far?
“The way you spend your days is the way you spend your life.”
It’s funny, I actually saw this quote on a t-shirt tag and at first thought it might be the silliest fortune cookie-esque mantra I’d ever seen. But whether through a growing maturity, or simply a graduation from immaturity, this mindset has been helping me reframe how, why, and what I do. Every challenge, obstacle, success, failure, lesson in triathlon is the same lesson for me as a human traveling through life.
Where do you find your motivation?
Motivation is rarely something I struggle with or think much about. Somehow, someway, I have the opportunity to spend my days doing what I love, supported and encouraged by the people I love, being constantly inspired by who I’m surrounded with. But also, the drive to constantly be setting and overcoming challenges is always humming away in the background, and it doesn’t take long before rest and downtime start to feel a little unsettling.
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It is our pleasure to witness your experiences through your stories Kevin, to celebrate each triathlon you compete in, and to support you on your journey.
~ The GH Team
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