Taylor Spivey talks rivalries, redemption, and the LA Olympics
220's Liz Barrett chats to LA-raised Taylor Spivey on her action-packed 2024 season and what she has her sights set on this year.

She’s one of the sport’s most consistent athletes with a huge depth of talent across a range of distances. Let’s meet Speedy Spivey for a chat about some dramatic racing over the last year, hopes for 2025 and plans for a possible appearance in LA in 2028…
World Triathlon Championship Series, supertri, and now T100 – the USA’s Taylor Spivey can be relied upon to deliver. And it was for this consistency that the Redondo Beach-born athlete was awarded a coveted slot on the USA women’s Olympic triathlon team in Paris last summer.
While she was disappointed with 10th in the individual race, the 33-year-old architecture graduate left the City of Lights with a hard-fought-for mixed team relay silver medal in her luggage.
Since then, the multiple national, surf-lifesaver champion has been packing in the Supertri and T100 races, with again solid results across the board. For now, though, we find Spivey in Girona, her home since the end of 2020, reflecting on a year of “mixed feelings” and looking forward to another bumper year of races, mastering that TT bike, and beyond? Why, LA 2028, of course…

220: How would you sum up your 2024 season?
Taylor Spivey: I’d say I have mixed feelings. Of course, qualifying for the USA Olympic team was so special and to be a part of such an incredible team with so many other notable athletes was very surreal. And to earn an Olympic medal was a dream come true. Being a part of Team USA is just so spectacular, and being in the [athlete’s] village and seeing all of these athletes… I felt like I had imposter syndrome. I’ve looked up to them so much.
But the majority of the season didn’t quite live up to my standards and what I know I’m capable of. I’ve struggled these last few years with some health issues and I’ve been sick quite a bit. But at the end of the season, I was able to finally string together a few months of health.
Unfortunately, leading to the Games, I think my health limited me a bit in terms of training and I just didn’t quite have the day I wanted in the individual race, coming 10th in Paris. But I learned what not to do if I end up going to LA 2028!
I ended up then planning a big back half of the year after Paris so that no matter what happened, I could just keep going and I knew I wouldn’t be quite as motivated to train. But with a ton of races, I actually quite enjoyed training for like one to two weeks and then racing. I ended up racing almost every other weekend until the end of my season.
220: Which also included your first T100 race…
TS: Yes, so I toggled between Supertri and T100 because I just wanted to try something new. I was doing pretty well in the Supertri Series, too, and I think had I not crashed [at the final race in NEOM], I would’ve fought for the [overall] win, so that was a bit of a heartbreak as well this year [Spivey finished fourth overall in the series].
But yeah, with my limited training, the T100 was just more of a learning experience this year and kind of to see if I would like it and how I would fit this distance. I just wanted to challenge myself in a new way to take my mind off the triathlon that I’ve always known. It was almost like doing a new sport, so I really enjoyed the mental challenge of it.
I don’t know if racing eight races in the span of three months while learning how to ride a time-trial bike was the best preparation! I have a lot of respect for the distance and the athletes in the series so hopefully I can be a part of that again next year. The top 10 get a contract for 2025 and I finished 11th in the series, so we’ll see. [On 31 December, the PTO announced that Spivey had been picked as one of eight Hot Shots who will race the 2025 T100 World Tour.]

220: How frustrating has it been for you to have been so close to a WTCS victory?
TS: Yeah I think it’s pretty well-known that I end up in fourth a lot! And yeah, of course, that’s so frustrating and I really still want that win. So I’m looking forward to racing on some tougher courses in the next few years as I’m not leaving short course anytime soon. So hopefully the courses will evolve a bit so that it becomes more of a swim, bike, run race instead of just a run race, and maybe they will cater to my strengths.
So I’m just waiting to see how it evolves with the T100, and I’d also like to do supertri. I know it’s very ambitious, and I did it a bit this year, but everything was a bit jam packed post-Paris, so next year I’d like to be a bit more strategic. But I think doing well in all three series is doable. I just need to spend a little bit more time on my time-trial bike, because that’s obviously my biggest weakness in the T100.
220: Is the plan to continue training in Girona with your coach Paulo Sousa as part of the ‘Triathlon Squad’?
TS: Yes, definitely. I’ve been with Paulo for eight years now, and we’ve had a really good group since the beginning, back when it was just women. Paulo just understands us all and we’ve been able to achieve some pretty big successes in the sport. It’s cool to not just achieve these goals myself, but to see my teammates achieve it as well. It’s like a family.

220: You had fantastic T100 results in Vegas (fifth) and Dubai (eighth) – especially the latter given the crash in NEOM and a severe allergic reaction two weeks prior!
TS: Yeah, so I knew Vegas was a course that would suit me because I do like hilly bike courses, and it was a race in the U.S. so my friends and family came to watch. But I just felt like the race was so long and I hadn’t really given this distance the training it deserved, because halfway through the bike I was just thinking about how I’d already be running in a short race!
As for Dubai, I’d gone there early as I knew how hot it was going to be. But I went straight from NEOM, so I struggled to swim because of the wounds on my hand and my shoulder was really stiff from hitting it on the pavement. Then yeah, I ended up with an allergic reaction from the adhesive of the bandages!
I actually have very, very bad allergies. It’s not like your normal seasonal allergy, it’s to dust mites. I have a severe allergy to dust! But with the bandage, this is the first time that I had actual welts! I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital at one point, but I ended up talking to a few doctors and was able to get some cream.
I just had to make sure it was safe to also then race with, because that’s always a concern when you’re a professional athlete, you don’t want to risk taking something that’s potentially a banned substance. And then I learned what it’s like to lose nutrition in a race for the first time! I guess I also had a bit of PTSD post-crash, but I somehow pulled off a really good run and I was even able to pass people on the run, which doesn’t happen often. It’s always something I’ve worked on as a collegiate swimmer-turned-triathlete.

220: I read that you still struggle with a full range of motion in your knee from a bike crash in 2015. Is that true? If so, how does that still hinder you?
TS: Yeah, that never quite fully came back, but not due to any joint immobility it’s more because I’m missing a bit of tissue above my knee. Sometimes it just gets stiff when I travel, and gets a bit sore when I put in a lot of volume.
220: What are you most looking forward to in 2025?
TS: Learning more about long-distance racing, how to get comfortable on the TT bike and how to push consistent power for a longer period of time. I also want to see how this will translate to short-course racing, as well as improve my run and be competitive over all three distances.
220: You mentioned LA 2028 earlier – is that an option for you, do you think? Or do you imagine your career will have taken a different trajectory by then?
TS: I definitely think this is a race I need to go for because I’m from Los Angeles so it would be really cool to race the Olympics at home. I’ll be a bit older and maybe not quite in my prime, but as long as my body stays in one piece I’d really like to qualify for LA 2028 and race in the place I call home.

220: Do you have plans to use your architecture degree?
TS: I’d like to do something design-oriented. Right now, the majority of my design is digital and it goes into my sponsorship proposals. And also things like thinking of a cool way to paint my bike, doing some website design or just trying to make my house look cool. Or pretending I have some sort of fashion sense still even though I’m far removed from that world!
But yeah, I don’t know where it will take me. If I could tie design and sports together that would be ideal. I guess the dream right now would be to find some cool old houses here in Europe and fix them up.
220: Finally, if you could steal any other pro triathlete’s skills, what and whose would you take and why?
TS: Flora Duffy’s. She dominated short course for a very long time, and not just in one discipline but all three. I have a lot of respect for her and I’m glad she’s now my friend and competitor.