One of my main goals is to go to the Olympics.”

Eshe Stockton, 13, of Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH — If you tuned in to the Paris Olympics this week to root on Americans Taylor Knibb, Taylor Spivey and Kirsten Kasper in the women’s triathlon, remember one day you may get to cheer for an athlete much closer to home. 

Portsmouth’s own Eshe Stockton, 13, has big plans for her future. 

“One of my main goals is to go to the Olympics,” Eshe (pronounced “ESH-ay”) said at her Immokolee Drive home last week as the 2024 games’ opening ceremony was still going on. 

She’s certainly off to a good start. Eshe, a rising eighth-grader at Portsmouth Middle School, will be competing in her fourth straight Boston Triathlon on Aug. 18. She’s entered in the “sprint” version of the triathlon, and while that course is shorter than what you see at the Olympics, it’s still a grueling task for any child — especially one as young as Eshe. 

In Boston, the race will start with a 750-meter (about 820 yards) swim, followed by a 17.5-kilometer (just under 11 miles) cycling leg, finishing off with a 5.5-kilometer (about 3.2 miles) run.

“My favorite leg is actually the run, because I’ve been doing it so long. I’ve been running basically my whole life,” said Eshe, who also competes on the middle school’s cross-country and track teams.

She began swimming when she was 3 — starting competitively at 5 as a member of the Kingfish Rhode Island swimming club, which races at Roger Williams University — and then took the training wheels off her bike.

Then she started getting serious, competing in “Splash and Dash” events and Kid USA Junior Triathlons before moving up to the Boston Triathlon sprint against older competitors. Not surprisingly, she got some looks from racers and spectators.

“It’s a bit long, especially for someone who’s younger than all of them,” said Eshe, who started out in the “Novice” division. “The age groups were different, because there weren’t any kids who were younger than 13, which I am now,” she said, adding she thinks she was the youngest competitor at the time. “I started doing these sprint tris when I was 10, and they were like, ‘How are you here?’ I think I did pretty good — about an hour and 20 minutes. I had a great time.”

The next year, in 2022, the competition got even tougher, as Eshe moved up to the “19 and younger” division against teenagers who were older, bigger, stronger and more experienced than her. But she wowed the crowd by coming in third in a time of 1:15.49. Last year, she took third place again, and came in 31st out of 204 women overall.

“I got on the podium last year and the year before,” Eshe said.

What’s the day like?

The Boston event is just one of the triathlons in which Eshe competes; her most recent race was the Whaling City event in New Bedford on July 21. She’s also competed in Hyannis and Falmouth, Mass., and in New Jersey. 

“Boston’s going to be my fifth this year. This is probably the least amount I’ve done (in one year),” she said, adding she usually competes in six to 10 triathlons each year.

Not surprisingly, race day can be hectic when you live at least an hour away.

“It’s a bit crazy. The triathlons are usually in Massachusetts, so we have to wake up at 4 something — yeah. I have to get my hair ready, put my tri-suit on — all that stuff,” she said.

But having to drag herself out of bed so early in the morning — and maybe the heat — are the only downsides, she said. 

“I think the experience is a lot of fun, and I have a great time doing triathlons. When it’s done, I feel so happy because it’s so hard to wake up so early to do this distance. Once I’m finished, I get to just relax, eat and talk to people. It’s nice meeting people and they’re so nice and it’s so nice to talk to them,” she said.

Besides competing in triathlons, Eshe also studies piano and plays bass clarinet in the middle school band. At school, she enjoys history and science. 

She also dotes on her 4-year-old brother, Ikaia, and is eagerly anticipating the arrival of another little brother as her mom and biggest supporter, Anne Marie, is 36 weeks pregnant.

Role model

Eshe’s ultimate objective may be the Olympics, but she also hopes to be a role model for other young athletes. In a video she made last year for Supertri, Eshe commented on her goals as an athlete of color, because when she first started competing she didn’t notice many athletes who looked like her. 

“I want to bring more diversity into the sport,” she said in the video, adding that her biggest inspiration was Sika Henry, the first professional Black female triathlete. “I’d like to inspire more kids to take on triathlons.”

Barely anyone she talks to even knows what a triathlon is, Eshe said last week. She wants to change that.

“Every time I talk to someone about it, they’re like, ‘How do you do that?’”