Los Angeles needs a face. When it comes to the Olympic Games, a sport thrives when a star athlete can stand tall and place the hopes of the home nation on their shoulders. London had Alistair Brownlee. Paris had Cassandre Beaugrand. Who will step up to the plate in 2028?
It is a question too big for any single athlete to decide by themselves, although their results can certainly put their names forward. Yet when it comes to the Los Angeles Olympics, Reese Vannerson (USA) will be one such name to keep in mind over the coming quadrennial. A silver at the 2024 World Junior Championships in Torremolinos came after a bronze medal at the 2022 edition, albeit over duathlon in Montreal due to the conditions. Having since added senior international wins, he now finds himself at the forefront of the American men’s team push towards their home Olympic Games.
The sign off
Torremolinos represented Vannerson’s final race as a junior athlete. But for a ferocious late kick from France’s Nils Serre Gehri, he almost ended his junior career on the best possible high. Vannerson, though, saw only positives from his 2nd place.
“That was a really big race for me in Spain. It was what the whole year last year was all about. I feel like every junior had that on their calendar as like the marquee race of the year, and triathlon is really all about racing really well on one day. That's kind of what we've been trying to internalize and really put out on a race day and to be able to do that in Spain was really massive for me, to put together a pretty complete triathlon.”
One aspect he took pride in was the swim where he showed significant growth from the 2023 edition in Hamburg. “It was a massive step forward from Hamburg for me in the water. I came out of the water in Hamburg like 45 seconds back from the front, and I came down like 10 seconds back out of the water (in Torremolinos) and was in the chase to make that lead pack on the bike. It didn't work out, unfortunately, but I lost to a pretty good guy, so there's always more races to come.”
The fast start
Vannerson threw himself straight back into racing at the start of 2025, logging wins at the Americas Cup level in La Paz and Miami. In addition, he recorded an eye-catching 5th place at the Napier World Cup. It was in Napier that he felt his step up to the senior ranks most.
“I think that - as far as, like, top heavy talent goes - was the most competitive World Cup that I've been in so far. I've had four starts at that level and it was really great to see again just kind of the difference from Torremolinos and the junior race where it's a lot of people that are really new to the sport and the tactics are just a lot different from people racing to their strengths in a World Cup. The whole flow of the race and the whole mood around the race is just different.”
“To be able to get off to the start I had this year, I'm very blessed. But it just goes to show the work that me and my team have put in this year and trying to work on the weaknesses, but also kind of step by step just working on the strengths as well.”
The new challenge
Following on from Napier, Vannerson will be back in action at the Chengdu World Cup in ten days. It won’t simply be a first Olympic distance World Cup; it will be a first Olympic distance race for him altogether.
“There’s definitely a question mark next to that,” he admitted on how he feels heading into the race. “We do stuff in training that goes to show that we're ready for an Olympic distance and ready to take on that distance, but it's a whole different thing when you're on the start line and you're an hour and a half into the race.”
If there is one element Vannerson can be confident in, it is his running speed. A former high school track champion in Texas, he clocked a 13:48 5000m indoors at the start of the year. For context, that is only 20 seconds slower than Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde and puts him in the territory of some of the big beasts of the sport. Should he come through the 1.5km swim, 40km bike and first 5km of the run in Chengdu, he will have a kick ready to rival anyone on the start list.
The big picture
As food for thought, Vannerson’s 5000m personal best also out-paces that of compatriot and WTCS gold medallist Morgan Pearson. If we look past Pearson, Matt McElroy in 2019 was the last American man to medal in the WTCS. You would have to go all the way back to 2009 to find the only other instance of an American man making a podium in the Series. However, Vannerson is not daunted by the history. Indeed, he sees himself as part of a bigger collective striving towards the same end.
“I think I'm starting to show the potential that I can be there and it means a lot because I really do look up to them. Like Darr (Smith) and Seth (Rider) I raced earlier this year in Miami. Two years ago, we were just watching everything they were doing and to be on a start line with them and racing with them and competing with them really goes to show like the progress that I've made as an athlete.”
“I think the Americans are starting to prove themselves a lot more. We have John (Reed), who's just an animal. He is a few years older than us and he's really paving the way. He’s raced really well in the U23 side, he has a World Cup win, he's raced well in the Series, and I think that's just there's a lot more to come on our team. We have a pipeline right now where everyone's super motivated to get something, and I think the home Games just adds so much more to that.”
The search for a face
And so we come back to Los Angeles. Being born in 2005, Vannerson will still be an U23 athlete at the Games, but then so were Yee and Wilde when they made the Olympic podium in Tokyo.
“I wouldn't really say that's a goal right now,” he said diplomatically. “That's kind of just in my back pocket when I'm really digging deep in training and you just need something to find that last bit of motivation. You want to find a short term goal and a long term goal, and that's kind of really where the long term goal is. I'm on a team right now where the entire point of why we're here is to do something at our home Games, but I think what works best for me is kind of taking it day by day and then finding small things to work on and take that with you through the races.”
“I definitely have high expectations for myself in Chengdu, but as we go into the races you just kind of have to have an open eye and look at everything as an opportunity because at the end of the day, it's not the last race in my career and there will be more, but it's kind of being able to take the high expectations, but also take the lessons from it as well.”
He’s got a few years yet to demonstrate more fully what he can do, but as Reese Vannerson hunts a maiden World Cup podium in Chengdu he might just show that, when it comes to Project 2028, his face is the one that fits.
