Which training group will Gwen Jorgensen join on her quest to Tokyo 2020?
Our theory about the Olympic gold medallist's new training squad as she commences her professional running career
While Gwen Jorgensen has retired from triathlon, she certainly hasn’t been receiving any less media attention in the endurance sport world as she begins her career as a professional marathon runner.
But Jorgensen has been quiet about the details of her new training scenario. While we know she is living in Portland, Oregon and get some snippets of her life in her new vlog channel, she has yet to many any announcements about which coach she’s working with, training group and new sponsors.
We’ve have done some digging and we believe we know the answer based on some hints on Jorgensen’s social media. Right now, she’s at an altitude training camp in Colorado (according to her most recent video). Here’s what we think we’ll be hearing an announcement about some time soon:
No longer with Asics, Jorgensen will sign with Nike and is training under coach Jerry Schumacher with the Nike-backed Bowerman Track Club.
Jorgensen has been spending lots of time training with decorated U.S. marathoner Shalane Flanagan for some months now. Flanagan, the American four-time Olympian and recent NYC Marathon winner, has trained with Schumacher in Portland since 2009. The Portland training group, Bowerman Track Club, has a strong contingent of elite women known as the “Bowerman babes”.
At the 5,000m indoor track race that Jorgensen ran recently, she was paced by one of the women on the team, Courtney Frerichs:
It’s clear from her social media posts that Jorgensen is not sponsored anymore by Asics, who supported her throughout her triathlon career including at Rio 2016. In her most recent vlog, you can catch glimpses of Jorgensen running in a Nike shoe:
As a Nike-backed club, all professional Bowerman athletes race in Nike. If Jorgensen joins the group officially, she would do the same.
There is no info about Jorgensen’s next race, but she has said she plans to do some shorter races ahead of a marathon as she’s still building up her mileage right now.
