Julie Leach paddled in the K-1 event at the 1976 Olympics, but became better known later for other sporting endeavors. She switched to triathlon in the early years of that sport and in 1982 won the Hawai’i Ironman Triathlon. Leach then returned to canoes, racing outriggers in Hawai’i and in 1986 won the Molokai-to-Oahu Outrigger Race. She then tried another sport, winning the 1987 Molokai-to-Oahu Surf Ski Race, considered the World Championship of that sport. In the later 1970s Leach also ran a marathon in 3-02 and change, which was in the top-20 among US women for the year. A high school teacher of earth science, Leach bodyboards and boogieboards off the California coast.
United States