Neither wanted to lead.
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“Going into the next one”, she said, “I’d like to keep building off my bike skills and working off everything, really, to make sure when I come back in four years, I’m up in the front”. He said it was to simply avoid re-injuring her hand in the usual WTS swim scrums at the buoys.
Said Jorgensen: “And it’s fair enough”. That’s the way it has to be when your eyes are locked on the top of the podium, when an Olympic gold medal is the only thing that will satisfy those gnawing feelings of disappointment. And so it proved as Jorgensen powered clear to win in 1:56.16, 40 seconds clear of Spirig, who took silver, leaving Holland and Stanford duking it out for bronze.
Lehmann watched Jorgensen’s London Olympics crumble as she suffered from a flat tire. The plan to stop her was not complicated in theory – her competitors had to attack on the 1.5km swim and try to increase the gap on the eight laps of the hilly 40km bike course and take the race away from Jorgensen.
However, after a crushing performance to out-run Swiss defending champion Nicola Spirig-Hug on Saturday, Jorgensen now has Olympic gold, a first for the country that invented the sport but which has only Susan Williams’ bronze in 2004 to show for its efforts since triathlon joined the Games in 2000. “It’s pretty incredible that I was actually able to do it”.
‘I also had Jamie Turner (coach) who I’ve been on this four-year journey with, and he’s done so much for me. “To be able to perform on the day is something pretty wonderful”.
Jorgensen’s win is the first-ever gold medal for the U.S.in the triathlon. All three Americans-Katie Zaferes, Sarah True and Gwen Jorgensen-were within striking distance and all made that front group out of T1 and onto the bike.
Spirig was the wild card.
Switzerland’s Spirig had won out in one of London’s most thrilling finishes when she and Sweden’s Lisa Norden had broken the line together.
According to Spirig, she was getting just as fed up with Jorgensen’s tactics as it appeared to spectators.
“I didn’t know at all, I had to change everything”, she told NZ Newswire.
“Every triathlon that I go to just has a very cool vibe”, Kanute said. “I wanted them to get off the bike, everyone with exhausted legs, because I’m convinced I’m one of the strongest runners running with exhausted legs, and as you see, I was right”. In those races, she finished the run leg an average of 46 seconds before the second-fastest triathlete. By the run, she did not have much left.
Now at her peak, Jorgensen prevailed for the 16th time in her last 18 top-level global races.
Brett: I think Nicola was annoyed that after she did everything on the bike, she thought Gwen should lead on the run.
USA Triathlon touts itself as the world’s largest multisport organization, sanctioning more than 4,300 races and connecting with a half million members annually.
Jorgensen, the greatest female runner in the 16-year history of Olympic triathlons, then lay the hammer down. “I kind of laughed….”
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“Hopefully”, said Jorgensen, “you got some good photos, too”. She was eighth in Beijing and sixth in London.
