Taylor Spivey

Taylor Spivey was a national champion in surf lifesaving before she found a love of triathlon that would become her career while studying in Florence, Italy.

Spivey grew up in Redondo Beach, California, USA. She had sporting genes with her mother, Bonnie, who has been a pro triathlete working as a swim teacher while her father was an excellent cyclist and keen triathlon age grouper.

Spivey was swimming a lot from a young age and put aside interest in soccer and snowboarding to become a national champion in surf lifesaving. But it was while studying in Florence as part of a five-year architecture degree, Spivey began running and swimming with the Italian team and biking around Tuscany. She was also racing and posting impressive results, which prompted a coach to reach out to her parents.

As a collegiate national champion in triathlon, she was clearly a bright talent. In 2015 she went for the USAT development programme, having just recovered from a horrible bike crash that left her sidelined for two months and still struggling for a full range of motion in her knee even today.

Spivey ultimately broke out on her own and joined the squad of Paulo Sousa, who has been her coach through the most successful stage of her career. By 2017, Spivey was securing podiums on the World Cup and WTS circuit. In 2019 she finished fourth in the World Championship rankings and was a key part of the USA Mixed Relay team.

Spivey has been a regular on the supertri circuit, and the super sprint distances have suited her race style. Her breakthrough result was in Mallorca in 2018 when she took the win with a superb all-around performance.

In 2021 she bounced back from the heartbreak of missing out on the final spot on the USA Olympic team to Katie Zaferes by finishing in the top ten at every event in supertri to take sixth place in overall and help the SLT Eagles to a resounding victory in the Teams League.

2022, however, proved her most successful year to date. Spivey placed in the top 5 at all 5 of the series races, finishing on the podium in 4 of the events, and taking the win on home soil at Malibu, just a stone’s throw from where she grew up, but missing out on the title to Georgia Taylor-Brown.

Her supertri adventure in 2023 was more of a mixed bag despite a third place in the opener in London but her consistency at WTCS level saw her finally get her Olympic spot in Paris where she finished 10th before collecting a silver medal of part of the USA's mixed relay team.