Rio gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen starts 2024 with a win in Cuba

On Friday we reported that Gwen Jorgensen was starting her season off with an Americas Cup event in Cuba. Today we learned the trip was a resounding success as the American took gold in impressive style, posting the day’s fastest run split to cruise to the win over the Olympic-distance course.

Jorgensen, who is currently ranked 20th in the World Triathlon ranking, was hands down the highest ranked athlete in the field, so she arrived at the race as the prohibitive favourite. Her race execution, though, offers up some promising insights for her upcoming run at making the US Olympic team for Paris this summer.

Olympic gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen returns to triathlon for run at Paris Games

Things started off well for Jorgensen as she finished the swim just eight seconds behind swim leader Ivana Kuriackova as part of a large lead swim group – only 17 seconds separated the first 20 women into T1. That large group stayed together on the bike, setting up Jorgensen’s fast run split to put her on top of the podium. The 2016 Rio champ (34:08) used her running prowess to easily pull clear of Roksana Slupek from Poland (34:25) and Ana Maria Valentina Torres Gomez (34:38) for the win.

While she’ll find herself in considerably tougher competition in a couple of weeks at WTCS Abu Dhabi, today’s result will certainly give Jorgensen some confidence heading into that race. She’s been very successful at World Cup and regional cup events during her comeback, but WTCS or Grand Final races have been more of a challenge – at the Grand Final in Pontevedra she ended up 43rd, she was lapped out of the race in Cagliari, and she finished 30th and 24th at the WTCS events in Hamburg and Sunderland.

Jorgensen found herself behind after the swim in those races, and as she faces athletes who have developed skills similar to her at her best (read strong swimmers and cyclists who can run like the wind), was unable to move up through the field. While she’ll still have to up her game in a couple of weeks, starting the season off with a performance where she was at the front for the entire race has to bode well.

She might be 29th in the world ranking, but in the Olympic ranking Jorgensen sits at 40th and the sixth American. Making the Olympic team remains a long shot, but those odds look much better thanks to a solid season opener.

You can see the women’s results here.

Edgar takes the men’s race

Ireland’s James Edgar ran his way to the men’s title after hitting T2 in a group of six who contested the medals over the 10 km run. The Irishman’s 31:08 10 km split (1:44:39) was enough to keep him clear of American Darr Smith (31:23/ 1:44:45) and Poland’s Michal Oliwa (31:26/ 1:44:52).

You can see the full men’s results here.