Team USA Olympic medalist Morgan Pearson on Paris 2024, reaching his limit and overcoming adversity

American triathlete Morgan Pearson had one of the short course stories of the season this summer, as he rolled on to the Paris Test Event start list the night before the race and a day later qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The 30 year old Boulder based professional, who has endured a torrid time with injuries and illnesses since winning silver in the Mixed Team Relay at the Tokyo Olympics, spoke of the tumultuous nature of his past 18 months in a recent interview with Super League Triathlon.

Highlighting his resilience and desire to prove his ability on the world stage, Pearson explains the depths of his struggles with injury and a nasty facial infection this year, with his eagerness to finally find some consistency at the front of his mind heading into 2024.

“After Tokyo, I was very worn down physically and mentally”

Having only started racing professional triathlon in 2018, Pearson came into the spotlight having made the Tokyo Olympic team in 2021, which despite picking up a medal is where his recent string of bad luck started.

“After the Tokyo Olympics, I was very worn down mentally and physically. Physically, I couldn’t push myself in training and it just felt bad for a few months. In the New Year [2022], I then went to do a running race and actually pulled my hamstring at that race and that started an injury cycle from then until August, so for the best part of six months.

“I was mostly dealing with an ankle injury, I would start running, then I would have to take a few days off and it was a very strange injury that meant I didn’t race at all. I eventually saw someone in Austin, Texas who got me back on track, I started to run again and then by the end of September I was healthy.

“I trained for all of October and then went down to Chile for the Vina Del Mar World Cup, where I ended up finishing in 50th. Two weeks later I went to the Grand Final and got second there, which probably saved my career a little, as it got me national team funding and got my ranking up to get into races the next year.” 

Rollercoaster ride to Paris start

Having finished his 2022 season on such a high, Pearson was ready to break out to the next level. However, after a string of misfortune on the WTCS circuit, he frustratingly found himself back to square one.

“This year has been an interesting year as well. We started in Abu Dhabi, where I got sick the week of the race and so I decided not to start, which was probably a good decision but it would have been nice to get a result there.

“The next race in Yokohama, I strained my hamstring in training two weeks before the race doing a track workout and because I needed the points, I couldn’t sacrifice not going to the race. Things were going okay on race day until the run, when I started experiencing some lower back tightness that just wouldn’t go away and ended up having to jog it in.

“Two weeks later, I go to Italy, I got this infection in my face which was really weird. We went straight from Yokohama to Italy, I got a pimple on my cheek, popped it and then I got one on my forehead which just kept getting worse and worse and kept swelling.

“The day of the race, it hurt to wear my goggles and I probably shouldn’t have started, but I needed the points and after having nothing in the chase pack, I DNF’d there. That infection thing took me out for like a month of training, most of June I was doing nothing and I was at a real low there.

“It was just frustrating, when you’re training and you don’t really know what’s wrong. If one bad thing happens, you can overcome it, but when it’s thing after thing, it is so mentally draining and you just reach your limit.

“You just feel like you are almost not cut out for it, you see these other guys, racing every weekend and doing really well and who never have any setbacks, at least from my perspective, I don’t know there life and I am sure they’ve dealt with stuff, but it just seems easier for them and here I am with a face infection.” 

Despite having a DNF, a DNS and a highest finish of 31st in his first four WTCS races in 2023, Pearson finally struck gold in Paris. Having not been on the start line until the night before, the American met the Team US criteria of finishing in the Top 8 with a sixth place finish and secured his slot on the plane.

“I was hoping this year would go a little differently, but I feel like I have proved a lot, maybe to myself and I also think I have improved a lot. However, qualifying for the Paris Olympics just made my season.”