The Globetrotter
The Globetrotter
Ruth Porteous Hamilton, ’69, M.S. ’71, has biked, swam and run all over the world. And she’s not slowing down now.
February 20, 2025Ruth Porteous Hamilton has finished every race she’s entered. But a recent trip to Australia tested her resolve.
Even at 77 years old, little has slowed in Ruth’s step. She has competed in everything from local 5Ks to international triathlons under the banner of “Team USA.” Ruth and her husband, Thomas, who met at Michigan State University, now trace their retirement plans along the path of a fulfilling race schedule, seeking both leisure and business wherever they go.
At the World Triathlon Multisport World Championships in Queensland, Australia last August, Ruth was pushed to her limit. Representing the United States in the Women’s 75-79 age group, a hobbled Ruth struggled in the transition from running to biking during the Sprint Duathlon.
“That was a challenge,” Ruth recalls. “Both my calves started cramping and I spent the whole bike trying to stretch them out. If it had been any other race, I might have been out, but we had traveled all that way—I was going to cross that finish line if it killed me.”
Though Ruth’s early position fell from second to a fourth-place finish, she completed her goal. She then spent a week recovering before her next event, the Aquathon—another fourth. Laughing, she acknowledges the unfortunate results, saying “that’s not a fun place to finish, just off the podium.”
“These things happen sometimes,” she adds, “and you have to pick yourself up and move forward. Every race you learn something—even if you didn’t really want to learn it then.”
For Ruth, athletics are a lesson in fortitude.
Sports were rarely on Ruth’s mind growing up, she says. “Nobody considered me athletic. But I was stubborn. I could usually beat somebody in gym class if the run was long enough because I was just stubborn enough that I could keep going until everybody else dropped out.”
At MSU, she earned her B.S. and M.S. in food science and her Ph.D. from George Washington University. She competed in her first local organized race at 25 years old after moving to Virginia where she spent most of her career working for the Food and Drug Administration.
In time, Ruth added biking and swimming into her weekly routine to stay fresh. That diverse skillset found a natural, competitive outlet in triathlons. She finished her first local triathlon at 60 years old and her first international competition at 65.
“I like the variety,” she says. “Really, anybody can do it. I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. I’m not a great swimmer, I’m not a great biker, I’m not a great runner, but I’m OK at all of them.”
Since 2013, Ruth has 10 wins and 15 podium finishes across 28 races, according to World Triathlon, the sport's international governing body. Her most recent victory came this past October at the World Triathlon Championship Finals in Spain. She won the Women’s 75-79 Aquabike Championships—a swim-run-swim triathlon.
MSU helped Ruth find her path. She came to East Lansing undecided about her future. She was one of the earliest students in the nascent Food Science and Human Nutrition Department. The program offered a focused education that appealed to her small-town upbringing.
“I liked the atmosphere,” she says. “It was like a small school inside of a big university. At the time, a lot of the workers in the food industry were men, but MSU gave me the confidence that I could do this, too.”
Ruth lived in the all-women’s Campbell Hall and then moved into married housing with Thomas, who earned his B.S. (’68), M.S. (’71) and Ph.D. (’72) at MSU. The couple returned to campus in May 2024 following a $1 million gift from Ruth and her brothers Dave and Bill Porteous to the Campbell Hall renovation project.
“Our family has a lot of history along the Red Cedar,” Ruth says. “It was such a big part of our lives that we never let it go.”
