Geneva cross country coach Bob Thomson began practice Monday by telling most of his runners something they already knew.

A few Vikings freshmen still hadn’t heard of seniors Kevin McDowell and Kelly Whitley, so the announcement that both triathletes medaled over the weekend in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore was made for their benefit.

McDowell (silver, men’s) and Whitley (bronze, women’s) kept their longtime teammates’ attention, anyway, leaving Thomson to smile when he called briefly for quiet before warm-ups.

“That was definitely the buzz this morning, that they’ve got two Olympian teammates,” Thomson said. “The kids would love to be working out with them and have them around, but Kevin and Kelly have got bigger fish to fry right now.”

McDowell and Whitley competed in separate sprint-distance triathlons, comprising a 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bicycle ride and five-kilometer run. Singapore is 13 hours ahead of Central Standard Time.

In Geneva, Whitley completed her race Saturday night, while McDowell wrapped up his competition Sunday.

Both athletes represent Tri-Cities-based Multisport Madness, which could feasibly change the first word of its name to Multimedal. On Saturday, Marmion senior and Geneva resident Ben Kanute won his second title in three years at the USA Triathlon Junior Triathlon Festival in San Diego representing coach Keith Dickson’s club.

McDowell (54:55.28) and Whitley (1:01.48) will look to build on their times when they travel to Budapest, Hungary for the International Triathlon Union Junior World Championships on Sept. 12. McDowell and Whitley will miss the first few weeks of classes as they remain overseas for the rest of the Youth Olympics, then training.

Thomson expects both to run for the Vikings upon their return, and is planning for a possible late September debut, when Geneva competes in an invitational at Sterling.

“We’ll ease them back into it at their own speed,” Thomson said. “They’ve been training for three sports, not just one, so it’ll take some time to get used to only running again.”

The athletes’ families will already be in midseason cheering mode. With several McDowells in Singapore, the Whitley party gathered in its Geneva living room for the race – Kelly’s three sisters and grandmother, parents Jim and Cindy and fellow Vikings runner Megan Brady – and waited near a laptop for Dickson’s e-mail updates.

Cindy Whitley read the reports aloud as family members pumped their fists and cheered.

“We were all anxious to hear the next thing,” said older sister Taylor Whitley, a sophomore basketball player at Indiana State. “We were all just sitting there waiting.”

Kelly Whitley finished 61 seconds behind champion Yuka Sato of Japan and 44 seconds back of second-place Ellie Salthouse, an Australian, in a field of 32 competitors from across the globe.

“I was 40 seconds behind after the swim but caught the pack on the bike,” Whitley told reporters overseas. “But I let the first-place girl get away too soon and tried to keep on the second-place girl as long as I could.”

McDowell came in about 13 seconds shy of boys champion Aaron Barclay of New Zealand. Surging from behind after the swim and bike, McDowell actually pushed ahead of Barclay after one loop of the run before the “Kiwi” regained the lead and pushed the pace.

McDowell was about 10 seconds behind down the stretch when he held off Austria’s Alois Knabl for second place. He completed the race and collapsed at the finish.

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.