Georgia Taylor-Brown has given the clearest indication yet that she’s ready to go all in on chasing individual Olympic gold at LA2028.
The British star has the full set of Olympic medals – an individual silver and Mixed Team Relay gold from Tokyo and then bronze from the relay in Paris when her preparation was hampered by a serious calf injury.
She’s currently taking what she terms a “gap year” rather than roll straight into the next Olympic cycle, though that hasn’t stopped her doing plenty of racing.
She was second at Supertri Chicago last weekend and on Saturday she lines up at T100 French Riviera, her second attempt at the 100km distance.
‘I want to win’
And asked by TRI247 how she sees next year onwards panning out, she told us: “My head is like – I still want to go to LA.
“I was just speaking to Kenji [Nener, fellow pro athlete at Supertri Chicago] and he was saying ‘just go to LA then’.
“But no, no, no, I would go to LA because I want to win. I don’t ‘just’ want a medal, I want to win.
“And so I’m not just going because it’s an opportunity to go to my third Olympics. I’m going because I want to win.”
“So if you’re going to win then you have to be all in for that. And that’s hard because it’s a big commitment and it changes your life completely, going into an Olympic Games just to win.
“So I do still want that. But yeah, it’s just how that looks to get there might be a little bit different.”
‘I’m at peace with it’
And with that in mind, she has absolutely no regrets in making things a little more relaxed this year
She added: ” I want to get back into things but I’m glad that I’ve taken this year to just do whatever I want.
“I was a bit embarrassed to tell people that I’m having a year out because, you know, you can’t just have a year out – it’s my job, I have to do it.
“But then I just had to tell myself, Georgia, this is the right thing to do. Otherwise it’s almost like eight years – more in fact – non stop which is just too long.
“So I’m at peace with it and I’ve come to terms with it because at first I felt like, I don’t know, a bit of a loser because I’m taking a gap year or whatever.
“But then it was this is what you need to do. I needed a break and I just need to have a little reset and then just get the fire back in my belly and get ready to go again.
“If I want to give it everything – and that’s what I do want to do – then I do need this little break now just to enjoy things a bit more and just find the fun in it again.
“So I’ve been through all of those different feelings but I’m still in for LA and I still hope I can get that. And then, yeah, I’ll be 34, so I think that will be my final Olympics.”
Racing to keep up: Is social media making us train harder?
