Sydney Fisher, one of EMPO’s newest members, was recently named to the US Team and will be travelling to Flims Laax, Switzerland in early July to take part in the 2023 World Championships. She’ll be racing in the Long event on July 13 and the Relay on July 16.
Though Sydney is new to EMPO she is not new to orienteering. She grew up in Boonville, NY and began her o-career in 2013 while working on her PhD at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She also did a lot of adventure racing in those days, but began to focus primarily on orienteering in 2017 when she moved to Pittsburg and joined the Western Pennsylvania Orienteering Club. Early in 2023 she moved to Niskayuna with husband Kevin (also an EMPO member) and young son Gage, who recently turned one.
Though working full-time as a Materials Engineer, Sydney trains 6 days per week. She normally runs 5 days each week for a total of 25-30 miles, and also includes some cross and strength training in her regimen. When preparing for a major orienteering event she tries to get out on a map at least once a week. Sydney has always enjoyed endurance sports and in previous years, when not focused on orienteering, she completed an Ironman Triathlon along with a 70-mile ultramarathon in the Laurel Highlands!
Sydney’s been on the US Orienteering Team since 2018 and has competed at two previous Worlds -2019 in Norway and 2021 in the Czech Republic. She plans to arrive a few days before her first race so she can spend some time training on relevant maps and adjusting to the time zone / elevation. She anticipates that the Long event will be daunting: the course is 11.2 km with 480 m of climb and has a projected winning time of only 82 minutes! Each athlete wears a GPS tracker while running, so if you are interested you can follow along during the races at https://orienteering.sport/event/world-orienteering-championship/welcome/.
We wish Sydney, along with the entire US team, all the best in Switzerland and look forward to hearing about her adventures upon her return!