Gwen Jorgensen issues heartwarming message as she goes from ‘isolated’ to ‘surrounded’ after triathlon return

Gwen Jorgensen is winning in more ways than one after her return to elite triathlon, and she emphasised that with a heartwarming message after her weekend triumph in South Korea.

The American 2016 Olympic Champion claimed an excellent victory at World Triathlon Cup Tongyeong on Saturday, outrunning Japan’s Yuko Takahashi to take the tape.

It gave the 37-year-old further encouragement in her bid to make the United States team for next summer’s Olympic Games triathlon at Paris 2024.

Afterwards Jorgensen compared the way she felt when she left the sport a few years ago, and how she feels now after returning from trying marathon running and starting a family.

Jorgensen – ‘It feels good’

Writing on Instagram, she said: “Tongyeong, South Korea: Felt like I was on holiday all week with the views from my hotel. Had a really fun time racing. When I left triathlon I felt isolated, this time around I feel surrounded. I think the only thing that has changed is me. It feels good.”

Jorgensen also provided a debrief on that big race win in South Korea, telling World Triathlon: “You know I was happy to get up to the front, I had a few mistakes today so I’m not really thrilled with my process today, but I’m always happy to come over to the win. I had pre-run this course a few times and so I kind of knew what angles to take and how to kind of take the best line and so I was really trying to just work my way up.

Gwen recovers from ‘horrible swim’

“I feel like I had a horrible swim, I’m really disappointed with my swim today and then on the bike it was a little bit of like all the way on or totally easy and then we got a transition and my hands were so cold I couldn’t get on my shoes and I just felt like it was pretty crazy, so for me I tried to stay in the moment, tried to stay present and just worked my way up.

“Like I said I wasn’t thrilled with my swim or my transition but you know to feel the comeback and when I guess after that, it is exciting and I’m just trying to set myself up so that next year I can put myself in position to qualify for the Olympics.”

Jorgensen will again be in action this coming weekend when she makes the hop from South Korea to Japan for World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki. Again she will seek further points to boost those Paris 2024 hopes.