MEET THE MAKER
The US rider and his Ironman champ dad tell Chris Marshall-Bell about their Indigenous American ancestry and fun-first training ethos
The first Indigenous North American to ride the Tour de France, Neilson Powless was perhaps destined to become a professional sportsperson. His father Jack was the United States Air Force athlete of the year in 1992, the same year that his mother Jeanette Allred competed in the marathon at the Barcelona Olympics for her home country of Guam.
While he was a youngster growing up in Roseville, California, it was anyone’s guess which sport Neilson would end up making his living from. He played basketball, soccer, and was “a really good boxer” according to father Jack. It was hitting the country trails on his mountain bike, though, as well as running and lake swimming, that most interested him. Adventure triathlons, in particular the Xterra series, were the realm where his potential began to shine through.
Neilson’s dad Jack was a late starter in endurance sport. Jack’s father Matthew, Neilson’s grandfather, was a tribal member of the Oneida Nation and became a paratrooper, meaning Jack was born on an Air Force base and spent part of his childhood on the Stockbridge Reservation in Wisconsin. Cage fighting and weightlifting were Jack’s sports until he joined the military himself in the 1980s, going on to become a fitness trainer in special operations.
Aged 29, Jack was introduced to triathlon by a friend, and he was instantly hooked. He qualified for the Ironman World Championships on his first attempt, and competed in another six, becoming a three-time All Military Ironman world champion. It was while stationed in Guam, a US-controlled island in the Pacific Ocean, that Jack met his wife Jen, and the pair moved to an Air Force base in Florida after the Barcelona Olympics.
The couple’s first child, Shayna, was born in 1994, and is now a professional road and mountain bike rider who was U23 national cross-country champion in 2013. Neilson was born in 1996, and when he was five, the family relocated to California. Both siblings won Xterra titles as kids, and in 2014 Neilson committed to one sport: road racing. A WorldTour pro since 2018, and riding for EF Education-EasyPost since 2020, he’s won a handful of big pro races and worn the King of the Mountains jersey at the Tour de France.
So, what impact did their family backgrounds have on their sporting achievements? We chatted to Jack and Neilson to find out.
What does being Indigenous American mean to you?
Almost everyone who h
