Javier Gomez to make the move to full Ironman racing in 2017

In an interview given to a Spanish news outlet yesterday, multi-time ITU world champion, 70.3 world champion and 2012 Olympic silver medallist Javier Gomez announced that he would finally be tackling full distance racing — a move fans have been anticipating for the last couple years. Gomez suffered an injury just a month before Rio that set him out of competition for the remainder of the 2016 year. This news made major headlines in the triathlon world as Gomez was thought to be the only legitimate contender to take down the Brownlee brothers for a shot at Olympic gold in August.

In the interview, Gomez says he still has plans to race in the ITU World Series next year, at which he has seen much success in his career. He also says he’s unsure about targeting the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championship again (he won in Mont-Tremblant in 2014) as it falls just a week before the ITU Grand Final.

He then goes on to discuss November, 2017 as a potential date for his debut to full Ironman racing, looking at Arizona and Los Cabos as a potential races given that they would allow for a little more prep time coming off a year of short course-focused training.

“Every time I watch Kona I say, ‘next year I’ll do Ironman'”, he says in the interview. “It’s tough. I was there twice and I know the conditions there by the heat, the wind, the level of rivals, the circuit… The bike is essential and the marathon in these conditions is an atrocity.”

The Spanish athlete is regarded is one of the sport’s best, having seen success across short course drafting, 70.3 non-drafting and Xterra circuits.