At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Jorgensen finished first in the women’s triathlon, winning the first gold medal in a triathlon for the U.S. Her time was 1:56:16. Great Britain’s Vicky Holland was third. She was in fourth place as she began the run, four seconds behind Rabie, Spirig Hug and Moffatt. But it didn’t stay that way for long as Jorgensen pulled out her killer kick, and burst to the lead with around 2km to go. She won the test event held on the same course a year ago, and she was not about to let her feet betray her.
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When she crossed the finish line Saturday, Jorgensen burst into tears.
“Jamie said, ‘If we make your swim better and your bike better – and I believe I can do that – your run will take care of itself and I think you can win the gold medal.’ From that day, (her sole focus) was the gold medal”. “Four years comes down to one day and to perform on the day is something pretty awesome”.
“I knew that I needed to be in a daily performance group where I was training basically with my direct competitors”, said Jorgensen. So, I was like, I don’t want to do it, you know? He’s given up his career to support me. I’m just really happy after everything we’ve done after this past four years. It’s pretty incredible, and I can’t wait to celebrate with them’. She wanted to see her follow the road to gold, because in four years, the Seascape resident plans to be on the same path.
As she approached the blue ribbon, the former All-American track athlete and swimmer at the University of Wisconsin turned and Spirig wasn’t anywhere in site. It was Barb Lindquist, who was running USA Triathlon’s college recruitment program.
Gwen Jorgensen won back-to-back triathlon world championship titles in 2014 and 2015.
She agreed to give triathlon a try and quickly realized she was indeed a natural.
Jorgensen has dominated in the triathlon, winning all but two individual races since April 2014. True finished 16th, while Jorgensen hit the beach 23rd, 11 seconds behind the leader. But they were both races that Jorgensen skipped.
“Nicola Spirig was playing some games and it was fun to do that and hopefully it made it more exciting for the fans too”.
Spirig told Jorgensen the American should do the work, given she already had an Olympic medal.
“If I’m honest, I think that probably negated the chances we had”, said the British triathlete.
“She’s really deserving of the gold”, Spirig said.
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At 30, well-spoken, modest despite her fantastic achievements and an inspirational example to aspiring sportswomen, sponsors are likely to be queuing up, not just for her signature but for a piece of the triathlon action. Pre-race favorite for a potential swim-bike breakaway Flora Duffy was 11th, True 13th, Zaferes 14th while Jorgensen was 24th, but just 11 seconds down. “But I have zero plans for August 21st, so wait and find out”.
