Athlete turns pain into purpose with 3,300-mile triathlon across U.S.
Paralympian Mohamed Lahna completes the bike portion of his coast-to-coast triathlon from Manhattan to Los Angeles to raise funds for children and athletes.
Triathlete Mohamed Lahna has competed in three Paralympics, winning a bronze medal for Morocco in 2016 and a silver medal for the United States in 2024. He’s no stranger to extreme endurance events, either, having swum the Strait of Gibraltar and completed the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert.
But on July 29 in Los Angeles, Lahna crossed a finish line and into unprecedented territory when he completed a cross-country triathlon that he started on June 13 in New York.
The 44-year-old, who was born without a right femur, is believed to be the first athlete with a prosthesis to complete a triathlon across the United States.
Lahna traveled through 16 states and covered a total of 3,300 miles – equivalent to completing 206 Paralympic sprint triathlons or more than 23 Ironman triathlons. For 47 consecutive days, he rose at 4:30 a.m. and battled persistent pain, extreme weather and tough terrain.
Why put himself through that?
Lahna’s triathlon benefits two organizations that directly impacted his life: Save the Children, which funded the elementary school he attended in Morocco, and the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which helps people with physical disabilities pursue active lifestyles. So far, Lahna has raised more than $169,000 toward his $250,000 goal.
“I always had this idea of doing something epic, but I didn’t want it to be just about the physical aspect of it. I wanted to have an impact,” Lahna told USA TODAY Sports on a July 30 video call from Los Angeles. “I wanted to make sure that this journey will give back to these two charities and hopefully change the lives of their kids and families. And hopefully they’re gonna do bigger things than this, much bigger than this.”
Mohamed Lahna’s endurance pulls him toward LA Olympics
Lahna made the decision to end his route at Venice Beach, the triathlon venue for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games. Lahna will be 46 by then, but said he hopes to compete in his fourth Paralympics.
Lahna said that while competing at the Paralympics is a high-stakes, high-intensity experience, his cross-country triathlon presented an entirely different challenge.
“If you want to keep going for 50 days, you need to be mentally present, sharp, and also know why you are doing this in the first place,” he said. “Because there are so many moments where it’s still like a mountain ahead of me that I will never be able to climb, and I need to keep going.”
The coast-to-coast journey started with a 28.5-mile swim around Manhattan. To prepare, Lahna trained in Croatia with a team that helped him learn how to swim for hours at night, including how to deal with muscle cramps in the water and what to eat to avoid sea sickness. He still vomited in the water twice.
But it was worth it to see the Manhattan skyline aglow against the night sky during a swim that took him seven hours and 44 minutes to complete.
“It was one of my favorite swims that I’ve ever done,” Lahna said.
Following the swim, Lahna biked 100-120 miles per day on his way to Las Vegas. His biggest obstacles during the 3,000-mile ride were the natural elements. He contended with whipping winds in Kansas, wildfire smoke in Colorado and extreme heat and elevation gains. He still arrived in Las Vegas three days ahead of schedule.
Cross-US trek swings from desert solitude to helpful strangers
The final 300-mile leg from Nevada to California was the most challenging. Running alone through the formidable Mojave Desert, where temperatures often exceeded 100 degrees, Lahna relied on phone calls from family and friends to pass the time. He couldn’t carry on a conversation, but listening to their stories helped him avoid thinking about all the miles ahead.
Running on soft sand in a prosthesis was at times excruciating, as friction caused blisters and chafing and forced him to pause every two miles, disrupting his pace. Occasionally, he used crutches to give his leg a break from the prosthesis. His shortest single-day distance was 11 miles, the longest 27 miles.
“I learned how to enjoy the beauty of being in the desert and just deal with the heat and enjoy the solitude,” Lahna said. “But sometimes you’re really like, ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ and you start thinking about the finish line, how many miles left, how many miles left today, and my wife reminded me just to break it down to small chunks.”
Throughout the endeavor, Lahna lived by two principles: Control what he could control, and just keep going. Recovery was essential, so Lahna tried to eat four or five meals every day and sleep as much as possible.
Along the way, he saw small pockets of America he’d never been to and met people from all walks of life. Strangers paid for his meals and asked about his progress. During a rest stop at a 7-Eleven gas station somewhere in the middle of the country, a concerned woman saw Lahna sprawled out on the ground and came over to ask if he was OK, leading to a 30-minute conversation.
When Lahna finally crossed the finish line on July 29, the first thing he did was embrace his wife, Ru Chen, and join their three children for a swim in the ocean.
Not even five hours later, he was lacing up his On sneakers and joining the Venice Run Club for a run around the city. For Lahna, the journey never ends.
“When I was playing soccer, running with other kids in Casablanca like 30 years ago, I never thought that I would do something like this,” Lahna said. “I’m so privileged to be able to do this, so humbled that I have this life being able to do things that I love and try to give back to what I love.”