Morgan Pearson helps the American team take silver in the Mixed Relay at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
On this week’s episode of The Slowtwitch Podcast, American triathlete and two-time Olympic silver medallist Morgan Pearson joined your hosts. Pearson tuned in from his home base of Boulder, Colo., where he discussed his transition from collegiate runner to triathlete, his quick rise in the short-course ranks, winning multiple Olympic medals and more. Download and listen to this episode here.
An Unorthodox Start
As Pearson says on the podcast, he swam and ran when growing up in New Jersey. When he got to high school, however, he focused his efforts on running — a move that earned him attention from collegiate cross-country and track programs across the U.S.
He ultimately decided to attend the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), where he ran for four seasons. In his time in college, he was an All-American on multiple occasions, he won the NCAA cross-country national championship with the CU Boulder men’s team in 2014, he set one of the fastest 5K times in school history with a 13:26.22 PR and he finished third in the 5,000m at the 2015 NCAA Indoor National Championships.
Leaving college, Pearson started running as a pro, but he struggled to make much money or produce the type of results needed to attract the attention of big-name brands. He had ambitions to make it to the Olympics, and although the obvious route would have been to shoot for the Summer Games on the track or in the marathon, he says he was inspired by fellow American athlete Matt McElroy.
Pearson had raced against McElroy in college (McElroy ran at Northern Arizona University). After graduating, Pearson saw that McElroy was racing triathlon around the world.
“He was doing some races in Spain and Italy and South America and like, you know, from the small research I did, they were world cup-level,” Pearson says on the podcast. “I was like, ‘Wow, this guy’s really setting himself up to, like, do really well and be one of the top guys in the U.S. and I think with my swimming background maybe I can do that, too.”
With triathlon on his mind, Pearson says that he approached USA Triathlon (USAT) to inquire about their athlete development program. Thanks to his history in swimming and his extensive running resume, USAT gave him a chance, and it paid off massively.
Pearson’s first race came at the 2017 USAT Age Group Sprint National Championships in Omaha. As he explains on the podcast, he had hardly trained properly in the weeks leading up to the event, and racing it was really a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision. He didn’t travel to Nebraska to race, but rather he knew he was going to be passing through around the race day and figured he might as well sign up.
Despite his lack of preparation and chill attitude in registering for the race, he took the win. Only a matter of months later, he was lining up for another race, this time in Australia at the Mooloolaba World Cup. He finished seventh at that race, following it up with a 14th-place finish at the New Plymouth World Cup event in New Zealand two weeks later.
Less than two months later, he competed in his first WTCS event in Yokohama, where he finished 14th. It was a phenomenal start to his elite racing career, but, as he says on the podcast, it may have been beginner’s luck.
“I had some tougher results kind of the rest of the year,” he says with a laugh. Even so, he set himself up for success right from the start of his time competing for USAT, and that served him well moving forward.
Heading to the Olympics
The Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19. As Pearson discusses on the podcast, he was in the thick of his preparations for the Games in early 2021 when tragedy struck his family. His older brother passed away, rocking Pearson’s world and leading to him taking weeks off of training while visiting home and spending time with his family.
He eventually got back to work, but with a very different perspective on everything than he had had before. Just a couple of months after his brother’s passing, he toed the line in Yokohama, where he finished third and officially booked his ticket to Tokyo.
“Qualifying for that Olympics in that time period, like, I’m really proud of myself for that,” he says. “I’ll never forget, like, that last lap in Yokohama, knowing I was going to do it.”
A few months later, he was at his first Olympic Games. He had a rough showing in the individual race, finishing 42nd. Pearson says he knew he was not in a great position to do anything special mid-race, so he decided to “shut it down” and cruise to the line so he could save his legs for the mixed relay, which was just a few days later. That turned out to be a wise decision, as he helped Team USA claim silver in the relay.
Photo: World Triathlon
Jumping ahead four years, Pearson was at another Olympics. While he wasn’t too disappointed with his individual race in Tokyo, his 31st-place finish in Paris in 2024 really stung, and he says it still bugs him to this day. Like in Tokyo, however, he was able to move on after the race and refocus for the team event, where he and his fellow Americans once again won silver.
Now, Pearson is eager to get back to the Olympics, especially considering that they are in Los Angeles in 2028. With a couple of years to go until then, though, he has added a bit of distance racing to his schedule as he ventures into other areas of triathlon.
Jumping Up
As you’ll hear on the podcast, Pearson was excited to try a new type of racing as he dipped his toe into the middle-distance world. At the end of 2024, he won 70.3 Indian Wells, and in 2025 he split his time between WTCS and T100 racing.
While he wasn’t too thrilled with his showing on the WTCS stage last year, he had a lot to be proud of in T100 events, as he recorded multiple strong finishes, won T100 Dubai and finished fourth in the series standings. (Pearson discusses his perspective on the craziness that unfolded at T100 Dubai when multiple athletes miscounted laps on both the bike and the run.)
Photo: That Cameraman/ PTO
Pearson says he is excited to get back to racing this year, and he plans to continue racing both WTCS and T100 events, although his ultimate goal remains LA 2028.
Be sure to check out the full pod, which you can find here.
This is a fun episode with a very interesting story from Pearson, so it isn’t an episode you’ll want to miss.