It was a good time to catch Desirae Ridenour. Few athletes have this season.

Amid a breathless year within which she has medalled on three continents, she was fresh off the back of consecutive Americas Cup victories in Canada. First in Montreal, then in Kelowna, she displayed the kind of stranglehold over the field that often is the hallmark of an athlete reaching new levels. Prior to that, Ridenour had medalled in the French Grand Prix and at the Holten Europe Cup, made a return to the WTCS after a seven-year absence, and won the Napier World Cup. The moment was therefore ripe to look back over a whirlwind six months with an athlete that appears close to gatecrashing the big-time.

“Napier was definitely a high point for me,” said Ridenour. “That was the first race of the season and I've never won a World Cup before, and I did not expect it to happen so quickly. So I think that was probably the best race for me this season (so far), plus it also gave me the confidence for the other races later on.”

“I did a stint in Europe recently and I came 2nd in Holten and 3rd at a French Grand Prix race, which was pretty stacked; I was behind Jeanne Lehair and Leonie Periault. That was really cool. But Napier just got the ball rolling, and I think that's how I was able to do so well in some of these other races later on in the season.”

Changes have been afoot for the Canadian star lately. In the last two years she has switched coach, environment, partner and more. Nowadays she is based in New Zealand for large swathes of the year, a shift that involved moving to the other side of the world. “I think the change has helped immensely in this success that I've been seeing so far.”

“In the past couple of years, I was just constantly injured and I was never able to train properly or race properly.” Now however, “I'm going into the race with so much more confidence and in a way, it's more fun for me. So there's actually less pressure and - obviously I want to do well - if it doesn't happen, I don't think I'm going to take it personally. I'll just be like, ‘oh, it's just an off day’ and I can just move on.”

“That mentality is something new that I think I've been able to learn this year, which is nice because you can't always have a good day every day. I've learned that I've raced better when I just have fun, and even when I go to training, as long as I try my best and have fun, then I think everything's going to work out.”

It was also a good time to talk to Ridenour with an eye ahead on her second act for 2025. WTCS French Riviera is coming up at the end of August, a race that will stand as her third Series appearance ever having made a long-awaited comeback last month.

Ridenour made her WTCS debut in 2018 when she was still a junior athlete. She had attained multiple promising results at the time, including a victory at the Asia Cup level. Conversely, with the benefit of hindsight, her debut may have come a touch too soon.

“I think during that time, there was a lot of pressure. The coach I had at the time, I think they saw a lot of potential in me, and I think they kind of pushed me into a lot of higher level racing. So I think I skipped quite a few levels. I just felt a lot of pressure to perform, even though I was a junior and no one expected anything of me.”

Indeed, there was a risk that 2018 would prove a false dawn. Injuries plagued Ridenour’s subsequent seasons, particularly from 2020 to 2023, hampering her progress. “I was really struggling in the sport,” she openly admitted. “I think there were times I was like, ‘I don't know if I want to do this anymore’.”

However, Ridenour did not throw in the towel and she made it back to the WTCS at the previous round in Hamburg. Relief was the feeling she felt the most given she did not know if she was going to make the start line until the day before.

“Mentally, it was hard to come around it and I think Hamburg was the fourth race I had done in five weeks. So I was pretty exhausted.”

“It's funny, because I got like 50m into the swim and I just felt like something was off. Like, it wasn't my normal self. And so I think I knew it was going to be a really hard day. When I came out of the swim, I felt like I was so far behind, which is not usually what happens.” (Note, Ridenour exited the water ahead of WTCS medallists and renowned swimmers Olivia Mathias, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Emma Lombardi.) “Usually I can fight through if I'm feeling slightly off, but I just couldn't on the day. So I know that even if I didn't have my best performance and it was a bad day (she placed 32nd, the only international finish in which she has not medalled since June 2024), I was still able to do at least something.”

At this point in her career, Ridenour’s most obvious strengths lie in the swim and bike, both of which have proven instrumental to her visits to various podiums this season. As such, when Hamburg turned into a running race, with a front pack of around fifty women, a dream return to the Series was beyond reach.

“It was quite sketchy (with so many athletes in the pack) and it was quite hard to move up. Then it's obviously kind of hard running with fifty other girls. And when some of them are running 15:30… Yeah.”

Her running is something that she is building, notwithstanding that she acknowledged she currently runs less than a lot of her rivals in training. Her more immediate focus, though, is her next stab at the WTCS.

“There’s always a bit of nervousness, especially as I haven't had the biggest training block because of all the races, even though racing does give you a huge stimulus and it's obviously really good practice. But I have been training consistently for the last little while and I think you can't really forget about all the training you have behind you. You just need to take that into the race and whatever happens, happens. I'm going in there with an open mind and trying to not be as nervous as I was in Hamburg and to have a bit more fun with it.”

In France they say the first crepe is for the dog. Perhaps a similar insouciance is required when considering Ridenour’s Hamburg outing, as is a quiet confidence that WTCS French Riviera could be her chance to shine. After all, there will be a sea swim – a style in which she had often thrived this year – as well as a bike course that could suit her very nicely.

If she were to stop right now, Ridenour’s 2025 could only be described as a resounding success. Yet with more WTCS appearances to come, her fantastic year could be about to get even better.