Earlier today, we previewed how Gwen Jorgensen and Katie Zaferes will be racing one another for the first time since 2016 at next weekend’s Americas Cup in St. Peters.
Heading into the race, the two women have very similar narratives.
Both Jorgensen and Zaferes are former world champions. Both are in the early stages of post-maternity comebacks. Moreover both have already won a Continental Cup medal following their return.
With so many similarities popping up at this stage in their career, we thought it would be appropriate to turn back the clock to their world title winning seasons to see how they compare and contrast.
During a period of near-unparalled dominance, Jorgensen won back to back WTCS crowns in 2014 and 2015. Meanwhile, Zaferes triumphed in style in 2019.
To start with, let’s look at how many races and medals each won in their respective campaigns.
In 2014, Jorgensen won five WTCS races and earned a bronze medal in Cape Town. The next year, she went a perfect seven wins from seven in the WTCS while also winning the Rio Olympic Test Event.
Not to be out-done, in 2019 Zaferes won five of the seven WTCS races she contested. To go with that, she added a silver medal at WTCS Leeds.
While Jorgensen’s 2015 was flawless, Zaferes’ 2019 certainly compares favourably with Jorgensen’s first world title on the medal front.
In terms of winning margins, the picture is similarly close.
Zaferes actually had the biggest winning margin of the pair in the world title winning years. In 2019, she won WTCS Bermuda by a whopping 1 minute 41 seconds.
Jorgensen’s biggest winning margin of 2015 almost matched that; she was WTCS Auckland by 1 minute 38 seconds.
| 2014 – Jorgensen | 2015 – Jorgensen | 2019 – Zaferes | |
| Biggest WTCS Win | Yokohama – 36 secs | Auckland – 1 min 38 | Bermuda – 1 min 41 |
| 2nd Biggest Win | London – 28 secs | Gold Coast – 1 min 18 | Abu Dhabi – 26 secs |
| 3rd Biggest Win | Chicago – 20 secs | Yokohama – 1 min 13 | Yokohama – 21 secs |
Again, the numbers from Jorgensen’s 2015 impress what an outstanding season it was. When we look at the three biggest wins of each season, though, it is clear that Zaferes truly was a dominant force in 2019.
To dig a level deeper, let’s look within the races themselves. How did Jorgensen and Zaferes fare in the swim and the run in their world championship winning seasons?
| 2014 – Jorgensen | 2015 – Jorgensen | 2019 – Zaferes | |
| Average Swim Position | 12.6 | 14.3 | 4.6 |
| Average Time Behind Fastest Swim | 13 seconds | 20 seconds | 6 seconds |
| Average Run Position | 1 | 1 | 6.1 |
| Average Time Behind Fastest Run | 0 seconds | 0 seconds | 17 seconds |
It will not come as any great surprise that in 2014 and 2015 Jorgensen was the fastest runner in the women’s WTCS. So dominant was her run, she averaged the fastest time and the best run position across all of her races.
As a point of comparison, in the swim, Katie Zaferes emerged from the water in 4.4th place on average and only 3 seconds behind the leader in 2014. Jorgensen would emerge 10 seconds behind on average. Such was her advantage on the run, though, the swim gap was almost irrelevant.
Interestingly, the numbers from 2014 and 2015 highlight what a proficient swimmer Jorgensen became over the years. While she was seldom at the front of the race, she was never really dropped and always put herself at least in the main pack out of T1, if not better.
That made it extremely difficult to counter-act her strengths. Indeed, no one really managed to do so until Flora Duffy innovated her new style.
Looking at Zaferes’ 2019 season, it is clear that her swim did not change that much from 2014. She was still on average around 4th out of the water and only 6 seconds behind the fastest swimmers.
On the run, she rarely logged the fastest split, however she was always close to it. On average she was the 6th fastest runner at each race. More than anything, the difference between Jorgensen’s and Zaferes’ running in the seasons they became world champion highlights the shift in the women’s race.
While it also shows that Jorgensen was simply a tremendous runner, the bigger takeaway is how the race evolved away from the “runners” to athletes more capable of racing in breakaways. By 2019, being the best runner was not enough. To win, an athlete had to be a very good runner but they had to be equally adept in the other two disciplines.
In conclusion, there is not a great deal to separate Jorgensen’s and Zaferes’ world titles. That itself is not particularly surprising given the level of performance required to win a world title. However, the extent of the similarities between the two was a little unexpected.
The seasons are by no means carbon copies of one another yet they are awfully alike.
With that in mind, the racing at next weekend’s Americas Cup could prove to be extremely close. With two world champions going up against one another, and two that have had such similar success, it will be a race for triathlon fans to savour.
