Gwen Jorgensen has confirmed her intention to carry on racing after an up-and-down 2026 season ended with another encouraging reminder of the running ability which helped take her to Olympic gold.
The American, who was an impressive fifth in her previous race at WTCS Weihai, finished 23rd at the WTCS Grand Final in Pontevedra, leaving her 15th in the overall series standings.
But those numbers only told part of the story for the Rio 2016 champion, who revealed that a season of injury setbacks and doubts had ended with a clear message: “I’m not done yet.”
‘Running has felt like pounding on a rock’
Reflecting on the race on her Instagram page, Jorgensen explained how a poor swim had left her chasing on the bike.
“I had a terrible swim and came out of T1 with a lot of work to do. I spent much of the bike trying to claw my way back, but I was too far behind the groups I needed to be with and lost more time.
“Then I started running.”
And it was there that she found something which had been missing for much of the season.
“For most of this year, running has felt like pounding on a rock,” she wrote.
“After surgery, rebuilding my calf and Achilles, a calf tear early in the season, and months of workouts where race pace sometimes felt completely out of reach, I kept hitting the rock anyway.”
For an athlete whose run was such a formidable weapon during her years at the top of the sport, that has been a particularly testing process.
But the final race of her WTCS campaign offered a sign that the persistence was beginning to pay off.
‘I felt like myself again’
Jorgensen continued: “Somewhere over the last few weeks, little pieces started to break away.
“For the first time in a while, I stormed out of transition and felt like myself again.
“The placing wasn’t what I wanted.
“But the race wasn’t a complete loss.
“A small piece of the rock finally fell off.”
There was an intriguing contrast on the run in Pontevedra, where Jorgensen ran alongside rising Swedish star Tilda Månsson, an athlete nearly half her age – and there was virtually nothing between them on the line.
For the 40-year-old Olympic champion, though, the most encouraging comparison was with her own recent form – and the feeling that she could finally run like herself again.
That feeling also helped resolve a question which, she revealed, had been hanging over her throughout the year.
“There’s still a lot of pounding left to do, but after a year of questioning, I left Pontevedra with a pretty clear answer.
“I’m not done yet.”
LA28 remains the bigger picture
Her latest update follows the recent visit to Venice Beach which underlined her ambition to return to the Olympics on home soil at Los Angeles 2028.
The 40-year-old attended a USA Triathlon open-water swim camp at the Olympic venue, learning how to handle the surf and beach entries and exits. She also identified next year’s test event as a key target in her bid to make the American team.
Jorgensen returned to triathlon in 2023 after more than six years away and missed out on selection for Paris 2024.
Her preparations in Los Angeles had already pointed towards continuing that comeback into 2027. Now, after a season in which she admits to questioning her future, she has made her intentions clear.
And while 23rd in Pontevedra was hardly the finish she wanted, the renewed belief she found on the run could prove the more significant outcome.
