Manhattan Beach native Taylor Spivey has been selected to represent the United States as part of the U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team.
Spivey, who credits her athletic success to growing up in Manhattan Beach and being surrounded with athletic challenges and rigor, says she wants to make her hometown community proud.
"I am
grateful for the upbringing I had and cannot wait to represent all of
these people who impacted my life in the Paris 2024 Olympics," she told MB News.
Spivey, 33, has been competing on the world's elite triathlon circuits since college. USA Triathlon calls her "
one of the most consistent elite triathletes in the world," having been ranked in the top four in the world for the past five years consecutively. The Paris Olympics will represent her Olympic debut.
She has earned 14 World Triathlon podiums during her career and has been a
key member of the U.S. Mixed Relay team. She was on the U.S. team that
won silver at the 2020 Mixed Relay World Championships and the Mixed
Relay World Championships bronze medal team in 2022.
"After being ranked first in the World Triathlon Series ranking going
into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and missing out on being selected for the
USA Olympic team, my selection for the Paris Olympic Team is that much
sweeter," said Spivey.
Manhattan Beach Upbringing Shaped Athletic Success
Spivey, whose mother is a former professional triathlete and current Masters swimming national champion (and well-known
local swim instructor),
and whose father is a successful age-group athlete, jokes that she
finished an Ironman triathlon before she was even born - her mom
competed in one in her first few months of pregnancy with Spivey.
"My consistency and success can be
attributed to my upbringing in the athletic community in Manhattan
Beach, especially the Junior Lifeguard Program," said Spivey. "Since I was 9 years old,
I spent every summer morning at JGs, and every afternoon somewhere
between AYSO soccer, or Mira Costa water polo and swimming. In all of
these programs, and especially JGs, I had inspiring and strict
instructors who shaped me into the person that I am today. I learned the
value of hard work, diligence, working with others, not cutting corners,
and that being active is not only fun but also can lead to so many
other incredible opportunities."
(Photo credit: Marcel Hilger)
Spivey’s first competitive open water swim
experiences were as an ocean lifeguard. She was the overall national
champion at the 2011 and 2012 Ocean Lifeguard Nationals, as well as a
member of the USA Lifesaving International team from 2009-2014. She
went on to become an NCAA Division 1 swimmer for California Polytechnic State
University San Luis Obispo, specializing in long distance freestyle while earning a
degree in architecture.
"In my final years as a Junior Lifeguard, I became a cadet and MVP,
and then Most Outstanding Rookie when I applied to become an Ocean
Lifeguard in the years that followed," said Spivey. "This community shaped me
throughout my childhood, and is essentially family to me. As an adult,
this job supported me as I earned a B.A. in Architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as an NCAA D1 Swimmer."
During her fourth year,
Spivey tried a triathlon as an
alternative way of training, and quickly rocketed to recognition as one of the country's top competitors. At the 2014 USA
Triathlon Collegiate National Championships, she earned the women’s
overall draft-legal national title while representing Cal Poly. She then
began her elite triathlon career, earning her first elite international
podium in 2015.
(Photo credit: Marcel Hilger)
"My first few years as a professional
triathlete, I worked as a Junior Lifeguard instructor and instilled the
same work ethic into my kids that I had learned growing up. Ultimately,
it comes full circle, and everything I learned from the active community
in Manhattan Beach and the South Bay led me to where I am today," said Spivey.
Spivey currently lives and trains in Girona, Spain.
(Photo credit: Marcel Hilger)
(Photo credit: Marcel Hilger)