After a difficult end to her 2022 season, Summer Rappaport bounced back in style by taking 4th place at WTCS Abu Dhabi.
In Abu Dhabi, she was one of the fastest swimmers before riding as part of a six woman breakaway. Already, she has surpassed her best WTCS result from last year. Indeed, Abu Dhabi was her best finish since taking bronze at WTCS Hamburg in 2021.
2022 proved to be a tricky year for Rappaport as illness and injury hampered her. Injury was a particular problem in the last few autumn races.
“I probably should have just ended my season,” she admitted.
However, Abu Dhabi proved a return to form for the six time WTCS medallist.
“It was good to see the changes I’ve implemented are paying off.”
One such change included a switch in coaching. Having been a part of The Triathlon Squad and trained under Paulo Sousa for eight years, she switched to Ian O’Brien back in the United States.
For the last four years, Rappaport was away from her husband for nine months of the year. Now, being based in the US, she is able to live with her husband full time. Moreover, her new base is half an hour from where she grew up in Denver. The proximity of her parents and friends, as well as her husband, has therefore strengthened the support system that is so important at the elite level.
As such, the change made a lot of sense on a personal level. Likewise, there appear to have been early performance benefits from her shift in training.
“I have a lot of respect for Paulo and my former training partners,” said Rappaport, “but I felt I needed some new stimuli to make the next step in my career.”
Over the winter, O’Brien and Rappaport made some adjustments. A primary focus has been on the swim and bike.
“The level in biking in the sport has continuously risen from year to year. Back in 2015 and 2016, there weren’t many people going in breakaways with Flora Duffy. The level has risen where a number of women are able to make and stay in the front pack. It’s a moving target.”
With breakaways becoming such a feature of the women’s race, making the front pack and riding with it, as she did in Abu Dhabi, will be essential to Rappaport’s prospects this year.
That is not to say that she will neglect the run. Rappaport noted that she still has to be a complete athlete and that getting her run form back after her injuries will make a big difference.
With regards to the year ahead, her primary objective this year is to secure Olympic qualification. To do that, she will need to finish in the top-8 at either the Paris Olympic Test Event or at the WTCS Final in Pontevedra.
Stiff competition lies ahead. Taylor Spivey nabbed bronze ahead of her in Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile Taylor Knibb took third in the overall WTCS in 2022.
Then there’s the returning Katie Zaferes and Gwen Jorgensen.
“They’re both former world champions and Olympic medallists so it’s hard to discount them from anything,” said Rappaport.
Throw in established candidates like Kirsten Kasper, too, and it promises to be an intense race to Paris.
The WTCS is also on the back of Rappaport’s mind. Thus far, she has enjoyed a best overall finish of 5th. Abu Dhabi, though, has set her up well to potentially improve upon that this season. Perhaps of even greater importance to the race results is the confidence she can derive from them.
“Before I qualified for Tokyo I had been on the podium at my preceding three WTCS races so I felt really confident going in,” said Rappaport. Another similar run of form this year would be the perfect preparation for her Olympic qualifying windows in August and September.
With her changes made and targets set, Summer Rappaport could be on course for a big season ahead.
