‘The 2025 season begins now’ – former Olympic champ Gwen Jorgensen excited to take comeback to next level

Gwen Jorgensen is raring to go as she returns to training ahead of the 2025 season.

The 2016 Olympic champion didn’t quite achieve her ambition of making it to the Games in Paris this summer but she still made massive strides in what was the second year of her comeback.

All eyes on Abu Dhabi

After her six-year break from the sport, during which she started a family, the American had to travel far and wide in 2023 to try and boost her ranking position – in the process winning four World Cup races in Valencia, Karlovy Vary, Tongyeong and Vina del Mar.

And this season she has continued the rise, regularly making the start list at WTCS events and finishing the campaign strongly with a sixth at WTCS Weihai and then 12th in the Grand Final in Torremolinos before rounding it off with victory at the World Cup in Miyazaki in mid-November.

Since then her off season has consisted of a two-week break but she’s now back in training ahead of an early start to her 2025 race schedule.

Her first race will be WTCS Abu Dhabi which was originally scheduled for 14 February but is now a week earlier.

Recharged and ready

And in her latest YouTube video, which is embedded below, it’s clear she’s confident of adding to the forward momentum, explaining: “I know what races I can do which is nice – I know I can get into races, which makes it just a little easier to plan.

“February for the first race of the season is pretty early but it is what it is.

“And then there’s a big break for like three months [WTCS Yokohama is in mid May].”

She added: “I’m definitely mentally ready and recharged.

“And I’m definitely ready to get back to training. You never know what’s going to happen but I feel like I have some sort of strength in the pool. Two years ago I didn’t feel like I had that so I’m very excited to build upon the last two years.”