Carter Stuhlmacher

The teenager is part of USA Triathlon’s Olympic and Paralympic development team called Project Podium and splits his training between Tempe, Arizona from October to May and Park City, Utah from June to September.

Alongside team-mate Reese Vannerson, who is also competing for the first time in Super League competition, Stuhlmacher is a student at Arizona State University while training full-time.

The link between USA’s Project Podium and Super League is an exciting partnership to bring another element to this year’s SLT racing, and will give many fans a first glimpse of emerging stars who are targeting the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

As such, both Stuhlmacher and Vannerson are lining up for Nick Chase’s all-American RTS Warriors, who despite having the most inexperienced men’s team in the four-race series, will be out to pick up points wherever they can and will no doubt cause a few surprises. 

RTS stands for Real Tri Squad. Founded in 2020 by Nicholas Chase and fellow pros, Jackson Laundry and Garrick Loewen, assistant manager Adam Meredith says their goal is quite simple: “To turn RTS into the Real Madrid of triathlon”.

Stuhlmacher has already shown he can mix it with the best juniors in the world. In March, he placed fourth in the World Triathlon North American Junior Championships, following it up with second in the Punta Cana Americas Junior World Championship qualification event.

This secured his spot for the Junior World Championships in Hamburg, where he led out the swim and eventually finished a strong seventh, one place behind Vannerson.

Stuhlmacher’s prowess in the water didn’t come as a surprise because he comes from a swim background and in high school placed sixth in the 500yd freestyle (4:37) and 9th in the 200yd freestyle (1:43) at the Florida State Swim Championships. With the swim leg perhaps a more vital component in SLT than longer course racing, it should keep Stuhlmacher in contention for longer.

The other two disciplines are also improving and in Hamburg he also had one of the fastest 5km splits, which left him just 21 seconds shy of the podium. While Super League can be both a shock to the system and a steep learning curve, the potential seems to be there. It’ll be fun finding out.