One of the sport’s most successful triathletes, 10-time world champion Javier Gomez, will be embarking on a “new chapter” to his already impressive career next weekend as he starts the 2022 season off at Ironman 70.3 Pucon. The Spaniard is a three-time Olympian highlighted with a fourth at the 2008 Games in Beijing and the silver medal at the 2012 Games in London. One of the favorites heading into the Rio Games in 2016, Gomez broke his elbow in a freak cycling accident and wasn’t able to participate. He finished 25th at the Games in Tokyo last year.
Gomez’s short-course career includes five world titles, while he showed his amazing versatility in 2014 when he took his first Iroman 70.3 World Championship, beating Jan Frodeno at the race held in Mont-Tremblant, Canada, while also taking the ITU World Championship that year, too. He would win his final ITU Olympic-distance crown in 2015, and claimed the ITU Long Distance World Championship in 2019. He also took the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga, USA. (Another sign of his versatility and talent – he took the Xterra world title in 2012.)
In 2018 he made his long-distance debut with a runner-up finish at the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship in Cairns, Australia, and would take 11th later that year at the Ironman World Championship. Gomez then set his sights on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, focusing on short-course and 70.3 races for the next few years.
After competing at the Olympics in July, Gomez has now decided that he’ll make a return to long-distance racing in 2022, and will start his season at Ironman 70.3 Pucon. He’ll take on a strong field of South American athletes in Chile, but will hit the line as the prohibitive favorite. You can check out the pro field here.
In an Instagram post at the end of 2021 Gomez announced both that he was embarking on a “new chapter” of his career and that he will no longer be working with his long-time sponsor Specialized. No word on who his new bike sponsor is at this point.
