In early 2024, Greg Lindquist was playing with his two young boys when he felt like he might’ve twisted his left ankle. He didn’t think much of it. Put the kids to bed and tried to get a good night’s sleep to kick whatever mild winter cold they all had.
When he woke up in the middle of the night, his left leg was numb from the hip down. He tried to get out of bed, but collapsed when he stood up.
This is a triathlete, we’re talking about. A Boulder-based biotech lawyer who outright won IRONMAN Lake Tahoe in 2015, and who’s qualified for Kona seven times.
“At that point, I was like, ‘I think something bad is happening,’” says Greg, 43.
His wife, Liz, also a lawyer, was in California on a work trip. So the next morning, he asked his then 6-year old to grab ski poles from the garage so he could get up and take his son and his 4-year old brother to school. Then he drove straight to the hospital.
Doctors said his ankle was sprained and sent him home.
That day, it got worse and worse. “To the point where my leg was shaking,” he says.
His mom came up from Colorado Springs to take him to the hospital again, where they took x-rays. He had a fracture in his ankle and needed a specialist to check it out. But it was Friday. The orthopedic surgeon wasn’t available until Monday. So they gave him pain pills and sent him home. Liz came back from California.
“I’ve had broken bones before,” he says, “but that weekend, that was excruciating pain, even with the pain medicine.”
On Monday, as soon as Greg came in the door, the doctor looked at him and told him his ankle was infected. He jabbed a syringe into Greg’s joint and pulled out a lot of disgusting-looking fluid.
“You need to go in for emergency surgery,” he told Greg.
“I was like, what is happening?!” Greg says. He thought he just had a crack in his talus.
“No,” the surgeon said. “This is infected. We have to try to save your leg.”
EMERGENCY SURGERY
In a matter of days, Greg went from playing with his boys to signing papers in the hospital that stated he understood the surgeon might not be able to save his leg. Strep bacteria had taken over his ankle. The official diagnosis: septic arthritis. The bacteria was attacking his body.
Greg went under anesthesia for emergency surgery, not knowing if he’d have a leg when he woke up.
“The first thing I remember saying when I woke up is I asked the nurse, ‘Hey, is it still there?’ And she goes, ‘Yep!’”
Greg stayed in the hospital for four days, then was discharged with a PICC line, a tube to deliver a constant drip of antibiotics, for six weeks. Then he was in a boot, not allowed to put weight on his ankle, then on to physical therapy. “My ankle was so locked up, I couldn’t walk without a cane for three months,” Greg says.
“Competing, running, riding—it’s always been therapeutic for me. The unseen side of all of this was the mental impact it had. When you can’t do the things that help you relax and give you mental balance—that ended up being very difficult.”
FAREWELL, KONA?
Before this life-changing event, and after becoming a dad, Greg had thought about dialing it back on racing. He’d raced on Team Every Man Jack, now ROKA STNDRD Racing, for nearly a decade, with great success.
The plan was to do Kona one last time—at least for a while. He qualified at IRONMAN Arizona in late 2023, a few months before the break.
Even after months of PT, shockwave therapy, PRP, cupping, and dry needling, Greg’s ankle was locked up in scar tissue. It couldn’t flex. But he wanted to race Kona.
“My surgeon was like, ‘I’m proud of you, but this is also insane.’”
For the first time ever, seven months after emergency surgery to save his leg, Greg went to Kona not with podium dreams, but simply to finish.
“I needed a goal,” he says. “One of the sad parts about it all is with my boys, for two years, if they wanted to play ball, or wanted me to chase them, I couldn’t.”
Getting his ankle better was about a lot more than triathlon. “But having something to do like Kona was motivating to get this ankle into shape.”
He finished in 10:42:41.
Then he needed another surgery.
THE SECOND COMEBACK
Last August, a surgeon and fellow Ironman broke up the scar tissue in Greg’s ankle to try to give him more mobility. His infectious disease doctors told him what happened, statistically, was like getting struck by lightning; it would never happen again.
Now he’s focused on his comeback race: IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder, in June.
“I’m way more motivated now,” Greg says. “When I was younger, it was about winning races. Being really competitive, not just with yourself, but you want to win.”
“Now I just want to go out there, do it again, and enjoy it. I’ve come through all this stuff, and it’s not like, ‘I have to get a bowl in Kona, I’ve come this close.’ Right now that’s not the motivation.”
“It’s about being back out there and doing something I love. This team, this group of guys I’ve been doing this with, they’re some of my best friends—I’ve been in weddings of the guys I’ve met on this team. That friendship motivates me to get back out there and do this.”
Follow Greg and his incredible journey on Instagram @glindquiee.
We’re so proud to support Greg on his road to IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder and beyond, and all of the teams and athletes brave enough to set big goals and get after them.
GREG’S RACE MANTRA
Psych! It’s not a mantra. Greg, who played hockey growing up, doesn’t listen to music when he trains. It’s his chill out / meditation time. But he does do music—in his head—when he races.
“I think of The Goonies soundtrack—the theme song. I know I’m having a good race if I have The Goonies song in my head.”
GREG’S FAVORITE RIDE
“One of my favorite things to do here in Boulder is ride up to a town called Ward. Or Flagstaff. I just ride my bike. I’m not great at actually following a workout. A lot of triathletes are Type A, very meticulous. I am very much not that.”
ON KEEPING THE STOKE
“I’ve never burned out on tri. It’s always been something I’ve really loved. It’s not just the physical, like, ‘Hey, I’m being healthy!’ It’s the mental break of it. This is meaningful to me beyond thinking it could benefit me in a race someday.”
“The longevity is that it’s not always about time, or a place, or a finish. It’s about trying to balance out my life, and enjoy it, and I love it. I’m very fortunate that I can now start to do it again.”
