Melissa Mantak is the owner and head coach of The Empowered Athlete. Following her own career in professional triathlon cut short by overtraining and injury, Melissa set out to help athletes find strength, motivation, and confidence en route to achieving their goals.
Her coaching career started with age-group triathletes, but soon enough she was working as the head coach-manager for USA Triathlon on the ITU circuit. During that time, she was head coach to Matt Chrabot, who she developed from a first-year pro to no. 1-ranked American male triathlete and 12th-ranked ITU in four years’ time. She was also head coach of Jillian Petersen, who she developed from first-year pro to no. 4-ranked American female triathlete. Melissa was named USAT National Coach of the Year in 2010.
Melissa went on to be a USA Triathlete national development coach, during which time she coached Katie Hursey Zafares and a number of other highly talented athletes at the Olympic Training Center. In recent years, Melissa has moved from working with elite athletes to now coach predominately age group athletes, both local to Denver, Colorado and nationwide.
She has a master’s in exercise physiology, biomechanics, sport science, and nutrition and is certified as a USA Triathlete Level III coach, and USA Cycling Level 1 coach.
