Bold decision but personally I feel like she had more chance of making the marathon team after 2016 than she does of making the MTR for ‘24. Good luck to her though.
Placing a comment doesnt imply that i find it interesting.
I don’t pretend to know the inside of exactly what did or didn’t transpire post GJ within the Aussie federation position he had (just the “coaching gossip” of potentially what transpired). He’s not the 1st federation coach that has had some issues with athletes, and he certainlhy won’t be the last (tri canada had an coaching issue just a few years back). My point was that GJ and Turner had a good thing going within that relationship.
But the speed in which he was investigated and dismissed insinuates the severity of the problem.
Gentle, Jeffcoat and 2 other female athletes were suddenly coach less late in an Olympic cycle. The silence from GJ afterwards was very telling.
Maybe I am remembering wrong but didn’t her swim and bike take a few years to be not wildly inconsistent? I mean some weapon runners never can improve those as much as she did, but she never struck me as a natural at those. Maybe that form will come on faster a second time round. But I doubt it. Especially relative to the competition now
I’ll say this there are many layers of “breach of contract†issue they imo have different levels of “badâ€. Some are specific “safesport†no nos that I think we all acknowledge as bad, full stop. But also some things where it’s a breach of contract only because you’re the “federation coach†and certain public image role model behavior that goes along with the job is no longer good if you behaved like that in private. So a federation coach has much more rules and regs that they must follow all times that a private coach can set their own guidelines.
So I’ve not seen the specifics of why he was fired. I recognize that a federation coach is held to a much higher standard than a private coach is. You are the “face†of the federation now. I also know as a federation coach you also may be dealing with athletes you don’t jive with but must work together etc. that’s the issue with putting in an federation coach vs private segment where both the athlete and coach have decision making power to not work together.
Maybe I am remembering wrong but didn’t her swim and bike take a few years to be not wildly inconsistent? I mean some weapon runners never can improve those as much as she did, but she never struck me as a natural at those. Maybe that form will come on faster a second time round. But I doubt it. Especially relative to the competition now
Pretty sure she said she hated swimming after announcing her move to running.
Maybe I am remembering wrong but didn’t her swim and bike take a few years to be not wildly inconsistent? I mean some weapon runners never can improve those as much as she did, but she never struck me as a natural at those. Maybe that form will come on faster a second time round. But I doubt it. Especially relative to the competition now
This is correct. Also, MTR is a kind of another skillset altogether and I think that is the bigger unknown. The other US women have done this format over and over for the last couple of years and worked out the kinks. Obviously Zaferes and Knibb were great at the Olympics. Spivey who was controversially left off the Olympic team is absolutely flawless in this kind of super sprint format and can close gaps on the swim in a way I doubt GJ can. Kasper and Rappaport at this stage also are more reliable picks for the discretionary third spot (assuming they don’t get an automatic spot). This is all going to be super interesting to watch regardless.
I don’t think she was ever that intentionally critical of triathlon, I put myself in her shoes of having to respond to the incessant chorus of nagging people asking her if she was going to come back to triathlon. I would have lost patience far before she ever did. I do however think she is a little lost strategically and I stopped following her on social media a while ago because it was a boring and I guess a let down because I wanted her to be successful. She could close her athletic chapter, go back to being a CPA, and probably work to being a partner at a top accounting firm making more coin the current pursuit.
Its fascinating to me how top athletes bow out. I know personally four former olympians, three would never tell you at all that they were in the Olympics, including two of them who went 3 times each. One of them just won’t shut up about it even though it was now like 30 years ago. Its a huge accomplishment, but there becomes a time to move on.
She could close her athletic chapter, go back to being a CPA, and probably work to being a partner at a top accounting firm making more coin the current pursuit.
As a CPA who was at the same firm she was at the time she worked there, I can’t imagine thinking the 15 plus year path to partner she’d have to work through would be better than what she’s doing right now or other lucrative options that will present when she does hang it up. She discusses mom guilt and not wanting to travel excessively, both are things that would be infinitely worse should she come back to the enjoyable world of corporate finance/accounting 
She could close her athletic chapter, go back to being a CPA, and probably work to being a partner at a top accounting firm making more coin the current pursuit.
As a CPA who was at the same firm she was at the time she worked there, I can’t imagine thinking the 15 plus year path to partner she’d have to work through would be better than what she’s doing right now or other lucrative options that will present when she does hang it up. She discusses mom guilt and not wanting to travel excessively, both are things that would be infinitely worse should she come back to the enjoyable world of corporate finance/accounting
Totally get thats not an easy path, but it would be a way for her to have an impressive second act. I would also suspect her path to partner might be faster given the celebrity factor.
Maybe someone has talked about it before. For the Tokyo Olympics, USAT picked one woman in the Oly test event (Rappaport), one through the best performance in Yokohama 2021( (Knibb) was it enough to make top 3, by the way?)and one was discretionary (Zaferes).
So, if the policy is the same, I guess Gwen is going to focus for the discretionary spot and that means that she must be better than all these girls but one for the MTR:Knibb, Spivey, Rappaport, Kasper, Ackerlund, Sereno, Zaferes?..
Has she talked about the individual race or any plan to come back or she thinks it is impossible to be a top 30-50 in less than 1 year and a half?
IMO Knibb is a secure spot and Spivey is almost another one (USAT owes her that).Rappaport does not seem the best option for the MTR, and I cannot say about the rest. Gwen has a long and hard journey in front of her.
She could close her athletic chapter, go back to being a CPA, and probably work to being a partner at a top accounting firm making more coin the current pursuit.
As a CPA who was at the same firm she was at the time she worked there, I can’t imagine thinking the 15 plus year path to partner she’d have to work through would be better than what she’s doing right now or other lucrative options that will present when she does hang it up. She discusses mom guilt and not wanting to travel excessively, both are things that would be infinitely worse should she come back to the enjoyable world of corporate finance/accounting
Totally get thats not an easy path, but it would be a way for her to have an impressive second act. I would also suspect her path to partner might be faster given the celebrity factor.
Not sure I’d agree with that if she were to go back to what she was doing, which was tax work (I think). Now, if she were to work her way into an advisory/M&A/transaction services role then maybe it’d be faster, but there is still a steep several years of relearning accounting guidance (a lot of which has been changed in a decade) and above average performance reviews she’d have to demonstrate before being given preferential treatment. Maybe if she wanted to go a smaller firm route then she could do it much faster.
To your point though (and I think I agree), there are definitely things she could use her “celebrity†for in a professional sense, but I’d tend to look more towards athletics type of companies rather than big 4 firms - thinking positions with current/former sponsors, etc. Just my opinion.
She could close her athletic chapter, go back to being a CPA, and probably work to being a partner at a top accounting firm making more coin the current pursuit.
As a CPA who was at the same firm she was at the time she worked there, I can’t imagine thinking the 15 plus year path to partner she’d have to work through would be better than what she’s doing right now or other lucrative options that will present when she does hang it up. She discusses mom guilt and not wanting to travel excessively, both are things that would be infinitely worse should she come back to the enjoyable world of corporate finance/accounting
haha…was just talking to one of my sales guys and he was complaining about being on the road for the better part of 3 months. I told him “you had the opp to be an engineer and write code and sit in your corner and see your family every night, but you wanted the sales role…no one forced you into that, so don’t complain to me about not seeing your family”.
Likewise if you want to be a pro high performance in ANYTHING you have to relinquish seeing your family because their is a cost to be at the pointy end of anything. You can’t have it all. If someone wants to be a pointy end pro athlete, accountant, sales, exec etc etc…something has to give and the first thing to give is family time, because frankly the families know they trade off time with their member who is trying to be “high performance at X” to get the “upside of being high performance at X”.
No point having parental guilt. Or you opt to being moderate performance lifestyle, see your family and get lesser “professional upside”. All paths are OK, but you got to give time to get money or give money to get time.
Sometimes it may look like some people have it all from the outside, but generally we’re not seeing the full picture of decades.
I guess Gwen is going to focus for the discretionary spot and that means that she must be better than all these girls but one for the MTR:Knibb, Spivey, Rappaport, Kasper, Ackerlund, Sereno, Zaferes?..
You are right, the top 2 spots are pretty obvious: Knibb and Spivey.
The 3rd spot is wide open. Gwen certainly has a shot at this. Rappaport is ranked 20th in the world. I don’t look at Rappaport’s skill set as a mark too high for Gwen to get to in short order.
What about?
Can be a successful estate investor from home
Can run a successful online business from home
Both with no travel more than a hour or 2 a week at the very most
Both you see your family maybe too much lol
-She mentions “USAT”, and the HP staff at USAT has all been cleaned house in the last year. That’s a very very important part of this story, and that’s all i’ll say about it.
Gwen is a reasonable person. She left the sport in what appears to be an unreasonable fashion. I trust that the person who was reasonable didn’t suddenly become unreasonable for no reason.
As a member of the federation, if the High Performance staff and the federation have chosen to give her a high performance grant I find that incredibly poor usage of performance grant funding for developing athletes. That money is not for her.
Again, I’d encourage everyone to listen to her Pro Tri News interview. We can avoid some of the hypotheticals.
In Triathlete she stated that she didn’t want to make a big announcement on her return…but then she did so with announcements in almost every publication. Fake humility is annoying.
In Triathlete she stated that she didn’t want to make a big announcement on her return…but then she did so with announcements in almost every publication. Fake humility is annoying.
I’ve not been a fan of hers for a few years, but she clearly noted in the pro tri interview that the reason she made an announcement is bc several days before the start of whatever race will be her first everyone would find out anyway, distracting from the race. I absolutely agree with controlling the narrative and getting it out herself rather than other options. There is no fake humility, she clearly stated she’s scared (exact words), which I found endearing. She’s a gold medalist in a niche sport, of course she’s going to have multiple publications in on the news. I hope she’s able to give it a good run and when her time comes to truly step away she can do so feeling like it’s a good time to go rather than nagging what ifs.
In Triathlete she stated that she didn’t want to make a big announcement on her return…but then she did so with announcements in almost every publication. Fake humility is annoying.
I’ve not been a fan of hers for a few years, but she clearly noted in the pro tri interview that the reason she made an announcement is bc several days before the start of whatever race will be her first everyone would find out anyway, distracting from the race. I absolutely agree with controlling the narrative and getting it out herself rather than other options. There is no fake humility, she clearly stated she’s scared (exact words), which I found endearing. She’s a gold medalist in a niche sport, of course she’s going to have multiple publications in on the news. I hope she’s able to give it a good run and when her time comes to truly step away she can do so feeling like it’s a good time to go rather than nagging what ifs.
She is months away from racing so that is a bit of a false narrative.
I was a massive fan of Gwen when she was racing but the negative comments about the sport that earned her a gold medal and a lot of money make it very difficult for me to get on board.
I am a huge fan of your women as they all bring a slightly different skill set to the game but are strong in nearly every scenario. I will be surprised if she can develop the speed needed to be 1st choice in MTR. Knibb or Zaferres are very strong pick for 1st woman and Spivey is the best pick for the 2nd woman.
A lot can change between now and the games but the crunch match is the test event which is only 8 months away. Can she get fit to ITU racing standard and get a high enough ranking to be on that pontoon in 8 months. Not convinced.
I’ll give you a mind blowing scenario for you that is able to happen that leaves you WTF.
Knibb and Spivey make the team w/ GJ 3rd discretion pick. GJ “skips†(DNS) the individual race to save it for the MTR and then she isn’t picked for the MTR. She could be an actual Olympian that doesn’t participate in the actual Olympics.
There is no rule that requires athletes to actually race the individual event, only they are required to take up said roster race spot (you can’t use a substitute unless actually injured).