Preview

Triathlon will be contested at both the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 and Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Featuring swim, bike and run, triathlon features athletes with diverse backgrounds whose talent takes the form of speed, strength, and endurance. Athletes race the Olympic-distance — a 1.5k (0.9 mile) swim, 40k (24.8 mile) bike ride and 10k (6.2 mile) run — an endurance and speed test that takes about two hours for athletes to compete.

With drafting on the bike – riding in packs, breakaway groups — and sprint-finishes on the run, triathlon is exciting throughout the entire race. The mixed relay, added to the Pan American Games in 2019 and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, doubles down on the excitement as four athletes — two women, two men — compete together in the fast, spectator-friendly event featuring super-sprint triathlons.

U.S. elite triathletes — particularly the U.S. women — have had tremendous success at the elite international level.

In 2016, Gwen Jorgensen finished first at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, becoming the first U.S. Olympic triathlete to capture gold. During the height of her reign, Jorgensen won 13 straight World Triathlon series races, including the 2014 and 2015 world titles. She’s racing at the 2023 Pan American Games, having returned to the sport of triathlon in 2023 after leaving following the 2016 season.

Fellow Pan American athlete, Taylor Knibb, won silver at the Tokyo Games as a member of the mixed relay team and has won back-to-back IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships titles in 2022 and 2023.

The U.S. team competing at the 2023 Pan American Games is an elite group of athletes, including Jorgensen, Knibb, the fourth ranked athlete in the world Taylor Spivey, U.S. elite triathlon national team members Matt McElroy and Seth Rider, and up-and-coming talent Chase McQueen.

Athletes To Watch

Gwen Jorgensen*: Jorgensen, a two-time Olympian (2012 and 2016), won Olympic gold at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, becoming the first U.S. triathlete to win Olympic gold. After the Rio Games, Jorgensen left the sport of triathlon to pursue an elite running career and start a family. Now a mother of two boys, Jorgensen returned to elite triathlon competition in 2023, with the goal of qualifying for Paris 2024. A standout runner and swimmer at the University of Wisconsin, Jorgensen began her triathlon career after being identified by USA Triathlon’s collegiate recruitment program. She was inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame in 2022.
Taylor Knibb*: At the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Knibb was the youngest-ever U.S. Olympic triathlon team member at 23 years old. She won silver as a member of the mixed relay team (along with Katie Zaferes, Morgan Pearson and Kevin McDowell). She also races the IRONMAN 70.3 distance (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run) and has won the 2022 and 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. She grew up racing triathlon, following in the footsteps of her mother, Leslie Knibb, who is an accomplished age group triathlete. She ran and swam collegiately at Cornell University. She qualified for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at the World Triathlon Paris Test Event in August 2023.
Taylor Spivey*: Spivey is the top-ranked U.S. elite triathlete, ranked fourth in the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series. She is aiming for her first Olympic Games berth. Growing up in Redondo Beach, California, Spivey’s first competitive open water swim experiences were as an ocean lifeguard. She was the overall national champion at the 2011 and 2012 Ocean Lifeguard Nationals, swam collegiately at California Polytechnic State University, earning a degree in architecture, and joined the club triathlon team at Cal Poly at the conclusion of her collegiate swimming career. She won the collegiate club women’s overall draft-legal national title and earned her first elite international podium in 2015. She’s since been a longtime member of the U.S. Elite Triathlon National Team, showing incredible consistency.
Matt McElroy*: McElroy grew up in Huntington Beach, California, gaining early experience in open water swimming by working as a lifeguard and competing in surfing. He ran collegiately at Northern Arizona University where he was a three-time All-American. He started his elite triathlon career through USA Triathlon’s Collegiate Recruitment Program. In June 2019, he became the first U.S. man since 2009 to medal in the World Triathlon championship series race. In 2022, he and his wife welcomed their first son. He is aiming for his first Olympic Games berth.
Morgan Pearson: Pearson is an Olympian originally from Spring Lake, New Jersey. Pearson grew up as a competitive swimmer, ocean lifeguard and promising high school runner. He went on to run cross-country and track and field at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he was a seven-time All-American. He got his start in elite triathlon through USA Triathlon’s Collegiate Recruitment Program, which identifies top NCAA swimmers and runners who have the potential to excel as triathletes. After winning the overall title at the 2017 USA Triathlon Age Group Sprint National Championships, he debuted as an elite triathlete in 2018. He had a breakout 2021 season, winning a bronze and silver in World Triathlon championship series events, becoming the first U.S. man ever to earn multiple WTCS medals. His older brother, Andrew, passed away in March of 2021, and after qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team in Yokohama, Pearson said, "He gave me the boost I needed today, and I was just thinking about him. Hopefully when I’m at the Olympics, he’ll be there with me.” Pearson then went on to earn silver at the Tokyo Games as a member of the mixed relay event. He qualified for Paris 2024 at the 2023 Olympic Games Test Event in Paris.
Katie Zaferes: Zaferes, a two-time Olympian (2016, 2020), won two medals at Tokyo 2020: the bronze in the women’s individual race and silver as a member of the mixed relay team. A steeplechase runner at Syracuse University, Zaferes started her elite triathlon career after being identified by USA Triathlon’s Collegiate Recruitment Program. Zaferes began competing at the elite level in 2013 and won the world title in 2019. Zaferes is married to fellow elite triathlete and World Triathlon photographer Tommy Zaferes. The couple once lived in a 370-square-foot home that was featured on the TV show “Tiny House Nation.” She and Tommy currently live in Cary, North Carolina, and she gave birth to their first child, a son, in 2022. She returned to racing in 2023, with her eyes set on qualifying for her third Olympic Games. Her father, Bill Hursey, passed away in April 2021, just months before the Tokyo Games. She says, "Now he’s with me in a different way and we’re going to be doing this together, as I ask for his guidance, strength and joy for the road ahead. Because as my dad reminded me before every race, all I needed to do was 'Race hard, but most of all have fun.' So that is what I’m going to do."

TRIATHLON AT THE PAN AM GAMES

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Triathlon Roster

Matthew McElroy

Gwen Lemieux (Jorgenson)

Taylor Knibb

Chase McQueen

Erika Ackerlund

Seth Rider