Sophie Evans has not ruled out the prospect of bidding to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, despite her bitter Paris snub and this season’s switch to middle-distance racing.
Having taken a year out of the sport following the birth of daughter Phoebe, the one-time short-course specialist has returned to competition in 2026 with a definite focus on IRONMAN 70.3 and the T100 Triathlon World Tour.
Close to quitting the sport altogether following the controversy over her failure to secure a place at the Paris Olympics, she is back enjoying her racing again… as well as being a mum for the first time.
Encouraging start to season
She secured a podium finish in her opening 70.3 of the season at Valencia, finishing second to Switzerland’s Cathia Schär, and is now lined up as part of an extremely strong women’s field at the next T100 event in Spain on May 23.
However, having narrowly missed out on earning a Team GB spot last time out in the French capital, she admits there is a chance she could be lured back for another crack at making the Olympic team.
The 31-year-old British athlete, who changed her name from Coldwell to Evans following her marriage to ultrarunner Tom in 2022, revealed her potential switch back to short-course competition during an appearance on The Women’s Race Podcast with Jackie Hering, which is embedded in this story below.
With LA28 qualification opening this month, athletes looking to compete at ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ will be looking to be selected by their own national federations – something which the then-Sophie Coldwell was controversially unable to do back in 2024.
Close to quitting triathlon
Evans said at the time how she felt ‘angry’ and ‘let down by my federation’ after she was left out of the women’s triathlon team for the Paris Games.
Great Britain, having qualified a maximum of three women, already had Beth Potter booked in following her qualifying performances, but that left the three-person GB selection panel to decide on two discretionary picks from Georgia Taylor-Brown, Kate Waugh and Coldwell.
Coldwell was the one to miss out, just as she had in Tokyo in 2021 when she travelled as a reserve. An appeal, citing the fact that she was not only four places above the chosen Waugh in the Olympic rankings but had also beaten her in the ‘integral’ and ‘priority’ WTCS race in Cagliari, fell on deaf ears as British Triathlon stuck to their decision.
It was a moment where Evans now accepts she almost quit the sport altogether. However, as she now looks forward to a season of middle-distance competition, she admits her own Olympic flame has not quite been extinguished just yet.
‘Not shut the door on short course’
“I think if you’d have asked me when everything was happening, I was at the point really where I didn’t know if I wanted to do triathlon at all, let alone what that looked like,” she said. “I was at the point where I was like, ‘You know what, I just don’t want to do this anymore.
“Then I fell pregnant with Phoebe. And it wasn’t until the January or February, when everyone was getting ready to race, and I was a bit like, ‘Oh, do you know what? Actually, I do quite miss it’. I do want to come back and race.
“I’ve definitely not completely shut the door on short-course triathlon. For me, the pull of the Olympics is still there, and I’m just figuring out this year and next year if that pull is enough to keep me in short course.”
She has shared her intentions for the coming campaign with her team and also with British Triathlon as she looks to embrace something new and seek out the ideal balance of being a professional sportswoman as well as a mother.
‘We’ll see what the year brings’
“I’ve been very open with people, my sponsors, and British Triathlon, and I don’t know if it’s going to be enough for me now. I don’t know if I’m going to be good enough to try and qualify,” she said. “I’m not just going to blindly put myself into short-course racing; those girls can run unbelievably quickly.
“I’m not sure that I could ever… well, I know I’m never going to be as quick as a Cassandre, a Beth or a Leonie. So this year is all about figuring out if it’s enough for me, enough for our family dynamics, or actually whether middle-distance racing is something I enjoy more and if it fits better for us.
“So we’ll see. We’ll see what the year brings, and hopefully I’ll have some answers to my questions by the end of the year.”
