Inside the Making of an Olympic Team

As the qualification period for the LA 2028 Olympic Games prepares to open this May, the race toward triathlon’s next Olympic podium has already begun. Behind the scenes, coaches and athletes are refining the training, testing, and strategies that will shape the next Olympic cycle.

Few people are thinking about this challenge more deeply than Parker Spencer.

Spencer is the head coach of USA Triathlon’s Project Podium program and a researcher specializing in metabolic testing and interdisciplinary fatigue transfer in elite triathletes. His approach blends cutting-edge physiological profiling with the less measurable – but equally critical – elements of coaching: trust, relationships, and the environment created within a high-performance squad.

For Spencer, Olympic preparation is also about more than producing fast individuals. His aim is to build what he describes as a “complete Olympic team” – athletes capable of working together to pursue the top step of the podium.

Understanding Performance

At the center of Spencer’s approach is a deep commitment to understanding the physiology that drives elite triathlon performance.

“The key reason I wanted to pursue my PhD was not only to stay at the forefront of best practice, but to be an innovator,” Spencer explained. His research at Concordia University focuses on interdisciplinary fatigue transfer – understanding how fatigue in one discipline influences performance in the next – alongside metabolic profiling in elite endurance athletes.

For Spencer, modern endurance coaching means moving beyond many of the simplified metrics that have traditionally guided training.

“At Project Podium, we don’t rely on metrics that honestly are outdated, like the idea of FTP to set thresholds,” Spencer said. “That concept had real value in its time, but our understanding of physiology has advanced significantly.”

Metrics such as functional threshold power became popular because they offered a simple way to estimate training zones and sustainable race-day efforts. But Spencer argues they overlook a fundamental reality: athletes with identical numbers can have dramatically different metabolic profiles.

“FTP oversimplifies physiology and ignores metabolic individuality,” he said.

Instead, Spencer relies on detailed metabolic testing – including VO2 max and VLamax analysis, lactate profiling, substrate utilization, and gas exchange testing – alongside assessments of swim, bike, and run economy to identify each athlete’s specific limiters. That insight allows training to be targeted with far greater specificity.

The results can be dramatic. By identifying and targeting key limiters, he recently helped one athlete improve their race-day 5km from 14:40 to 13:45.

For Spencer, the objective is simple: replace guesswork with precision.

“I can tell you exactly what numbers are needed to succeed in each leg of the race and at each level of racing,” he said. “Once you have that level of metabolic insight, the pathway for getting athletes there becomes much clearer.”

The Human Side of Coaching

For Spencer, physiology may guide the training plan, but relationships shape the athletes who carry it out.

He believes a central part of coaching happens in the space between people – in trust, care, and the environment built around a group of athletes chasing the same dream.

At Project Podium, Spencer works deliberately to cultivate that kind of environment: one where athletes push each other, support each other, and function as a team, taking pride in the collective progress of the group.

Just as importantly, he wants athletes to understand that their value extends beyond results.

“I want them to know that I care about them as people first and athletes second,” he said. “Others have told me ‘your role is not to be athletes’ friends,’ but I disagree. The fact that my athletes know I care about them as people first is foundational to their development – to their willingness to take risks, to trust the process, and to remain resilient through the highs and lows that are inherently part of elite sport.”

“When I’m invited to be a groomsman at one of my athlete’s weddings, that’s when I know I’ve made an impact,” he added with a smile, recalling an athlete’s recent wedding. “My college running coach had a huge impact on me. He cared about me and believed in me in a way no one else did. My goal is to pass that forward…it’s why I became a coach in the first place.”

For Spencer, relationships are not separate from performance – they are foundational to it. And long after finish-line moments fade, he highlights how it is the relationships that endure, forged in the quiet hours of training and in the shared pursuit of something extraordinary.

Racing as a Team

That relationship- and teamwork-driven philosophy carries directly into Spencer’s approach to Olympic racing, where tactics and collective strength are becoming increasingly central to success.

He describes his goal as building a “complete Olympic team” – athletes whose complementary physiological strengths, trust in one another, and willingness to race for the collective can shape the outcome of the race itself.

Spencer points to Sullivan Middaugh as one example of how that thinking could play out. With a cycling threshold of roughly 440 watts and the ability to bridge gaps on the bike, he sees Middaugh as the kind of rider capable of reshaping the dynamics of the race.

“I think LA will ultimately come down to the run,” Spencer said. “But if our top runners don’t make the front swim pack, someone like Sullivan has the power and sprinting ability to bring the race back together.”

It is just one possible scenario. Spencer notes that Middaugh is also emerging as a world-class runner himself, and much could still evolve on the road to the Games. But it reflects his larger vision for Project Podium.

If Spencer’s vision comes together in Los Angeles, his athletes will not simply arrive ready to race.

They will arrive ready to race together.