If you watched a triathlon this year, chances are Taylor Spivey was in it. The American charged head-first into a jaw-dropping schedule, one containing seven WTCS races, four T100 events (with a fifth to come) and two outings in the Mixed Team Relay. Across February to December, there will have been only one calendar month she did not race. Brutal is the only word that can describe her campaign. Now, however, the end is nigh.
In just over a week, Spivey will tackle her final race of 2025, the T100 Final in Qatar. A thus-far elusive maiden podium in the series could be within reach, an achievement that would cap a triumphant year. The successes of her season, though, are all the more remarkable given the state of flux that has characterised large chunks of it.
Spivey came into the new year at a crossroads of sorts. Having been to the Paris Olympic Games, rectifying missing out in Tokyo and coming away with a medal, she faced new horizons as a T100 Hot Shot. That, however, was only the tip of the iceberg.
“I had gone to the Olympics, tested out a bit of long course without that much experience, and I think I just, after that, needed a long break,” she said. “I think I started this year, to be honest, a bit early. The last few years I've also been dealing with a lot of health problems. I've been getting sick a lot I think due to my previous residence; I think it had some mould. So I was dealing with that, and I think I started the season a bit prematurely.”
Her season opener came at WTCS Abu Dhabi, an event at which she coupled an individual 13th place with a silver medal in the relay.
“I was ambitious and I wanted to do three series, with supertri included. But with all of the calendar changes, it made it a bit difficult to stick to that plan, and I picked up a little bit of an injury that I caught early on, so I had to change my plans. I was ok with that as I think I've already been travelling an excessive amount. If I could just teleport to races, it'd be a lot easier!” Quantum physicists can reach out at the start of next year with any progress on that front.
Within her races too were other goals for the year. In addition to telling her coach at the beginning of the year that she wanted to “work on my run because that's kind of the direction short course is going”, she also wanted to perform in long course.
As the adage goes, everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face. And a plan as complex and with as many moving parts as Spivey’s proved no different. Calendar changes were an early problem – “it made it a bit difficult to stick to that plan” – but Spivey noted, “the hardest thing was listening to my body and knowing that I needed to adapt accordingly”.
“The demands of travel were also a lot greater and I think, as I'm getting older, it's a lot harder to do these long trips. I can manage racing this much, but the travel takes a really big toll. I've been calculating the hours travelling so far. I think right now I've slept in close to 30 different beds. And by the end of the season my total travel time will be nearly 300 hours door-to-door, which is more than 10 days if you think about it. Like I said before, I wish I couldn't teleport.”
After her early WTCS opener, she then kick-started her T100 campaign with a 5th place finish in Singapore. “My training at that point in the year was geared more towards T100. The first race was good. The second race I went into after getting really sick in Yokohama, which kind of meant that not only did I not perform quite to my ability in San Francisco, but also in Vancouver, which was two weeks after.”
“At that point of the year, I was still building my run, I was doing quite a bit of volume, and I think my body needed to absorb that. I think doing the volume translates well to long course, but I think once I was able to absorb that and start to do some faster sessions, I was able to showcase some faster running. I hit some of my fastest run times across both the 5km and the 10km which helps because short course races have been more run races and less swim-bikes.”
A bout of plantar fasciitis, which led to some compensation pain, threatened to derail some of the progress Spivey had made. She took six weeks off full running, opting instead for work on the anti-gravity treadmill and lower-impact uphill workouts. It also forced her out of some T100 races. “5km, 10km was ok,” she said, “but I wasn’t ready to do 18km.”
Armed with some serious, enhanced speed in the third discipline, she cranked through the gears in the WTCS, achieving some head-turning results and shooting up the Series rankings. A 7th place at WTCS French Riviera was at that point her best Series result since the 4th place finish at WTCS Yokohama in 2024 that booked her Paris Olympic ticket. Two weeks later, Spivey blew that away with a dazzling silver medal at WTCS Karlovy Vary, a race at which she produced a tactical masterclass, breaking away with Maya Kingma on the bike and leading until the last lap of the run.
“I had a lot of base and fitness, and I'm guessing also offloading a bit of my run helped. And then I think also the timing coming from altitude also suited me. In French Riviera, I had a good run, but then in Karlovy Vary, I think I was in that sweet spot from altitude. I had just done a lot of riding in the Pyrenees, which suited my preparation for a hilly course like Karlovy Vary, and I just had a good day and had a good support crew there, and everything just kind of fell into place.”
“I think if you look at my history, I generally perform well in hilly races. But I do think a lot of things have to be right on the day. I also went into the race with a bit of a different mindset, and I think the support I had at that race with my partner, who comes from cycling, helped. He kind of helped me a bit with tactics. I had also watched a race there from the COVID era with Jess and Katie and that kind of inspired me to race like they used to from the start. I hope that I can showcase more races like that when everything's going well.”
Subsequent finishes of 4th in Weihai and 7th in Wollongong then secured 4th overall in the WTCS. Spivey, however, had no time to rest on her laurels and a round-the-world trip home from Australia got the ball rolling for her latest T100 venture in Dubai.
Prior to Dubai, she noted, “I’ve started to try my TT bike again after my short course block. I would say I'm probably going into this race very underprepared! But then again, I look back at last year (her initial long distance forays) and would say I was also very underprepared going into those races. I’m hoping with a little bit of heat prep, and that I'm not totally burnt out from all this travel, I can showcase another decent result like I did in Singapore and move back up in the T100 ranking.”
A result of 6th place in Dubai kept her in the running for another top-10 overall finish in the T100. No other athlete has managed to achieve concurrent top-10 standings in the WTCS and T100. Should things go her way in Qatar, Spivey could even take that further with another berth in the overall top-5. With her season finally nearing its conclusion, what has she taken away?
“I know I can't do three series! I think, looking at next year, the short course calendar seems very set in stone, or at least I hope it is. But the short course calendar requires six races, whereas this year required four. But I think I did six races (she actually did seven WTCS races) and I think I can plan a bit better.”
“I still want to go for LA 2028 because that's my hometown, basically. That's where I'm from. I grew up probably like a 30 minute drive from Venice Beach. So that's my long-term goal.”
Having taken home a relay medal in Paris, the prospect of an individual medal must be somewhere in her mind. And here, her goals for 2025 come full circle.
“I think the run is definitely my weakness when you think about what it takes to medal. That said, I don't think it will be one big pack and just come down to a run. I think it will come down to a small/medium-size breakaway. So I'm not saying that it's just going to be a run race, but I think at this time of the Olympic cycle it is a good time to work on your deficits.”
“You don't get good at one sport or three sports overnight, but I think if you put a lot of work into your areas of weakness over two or three years, then go back to some normal training. I think it can come together when it counts and that's kind of where my mindset is now.”
“I've never had the running background that all of the best runners in triathlon have. I came from a swim background and they say it takes 10,000 hours or something to get good at something. I don't want to be known as someone who just swims and bikes well, and then can't run. I want to be known as a very well-rounded athlete and I think that's going to be what it takes to medal in LA.”
It has to be pointed out that Spivey sells herself somewhat short. At the end of the WTCS season, we dug into the average statistics of the best athletes in the Series. In addition to featuring among the best swimmers and cyclists, Spivey was clearly one of the best runners, despite injury and dividing her resources across two competitions.
“I think this year was a good reflection of it (her run) coming together, but I did put in a lot of work before the season started. I think also improving at running comes with staying healthy, which is like something I've also tried to do this year. I know I was injured, but I was still able to run through it because I tried to listen to my body early on because I've been there before.”
Spivey can thus carry plenty of positives from 2025 into next year’s campaign. And the prospect of 2026 begs the question: after juggling the WTCS and the T100, in which series will her focus lie? The answer is quintessentially Spivey. Both.
“I still want to race short course and continue to work on my run. And I find this style of racing very fun. But I do enjoy the T100. I enjoy the challenge. I think it's also another fun series to do, and I'm still learning so much. I feel like when it comes to the TT bike I have a long way to go, and I haven't really given it the time it deserves, so I'd like to spend a lot more time in the pre-season next year to target some of those earlier T100 races and hopefully I can dabble in both again and perform even better than I did this year.”
It appears Qatar, then, will not be the end and another bumper year will be in store. For even without her teleportation device, Taylor Spivey is ready to do it all over again.
