First-Time Olympian Seth Rider Leads U.S. Men at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

PARIS — First-time U.S. Olympian Seth Rider (Germantown, Tenn.) led the U.S. in the men's Olympic Triathlon on Wednesday, July 31 at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, placing 29th.

Rider, who started competing in triathlon as a 5-year-old, clocked a time of 1 hour, 47 minutes, 53 seconds in the Olympic-distance course through the heart of Paris.

His U.S. Olympic teammate Morgan Pearson (New Vernon, N.J.) placed 31st, racing in his second Olympic Games.

The race, originally scheduled for Tuesday, July 30, was postponed a day due to water conditions in the River Seine. The men raced after the women, with a 10:45 a.m. race start. By the time the men started, the morning rain gave way to hot, muggy conditions with temperatures in the 80s.

Great Britain's Alex Yee won the gold, turning in a strong kick on the final lap of the run to overtake New Zealand's Hayden Wilde and capture the win. Wilde won silver, while Léo Bergere of France took bronze in front of his home country fans.

Rider, who grew up racing triathlon in USA Triathlon's youth and junior development pipeline, turned in an impressive swim in the Seiene's currents. He emerged out of the water in the lead pack, ninth place and 20 seconds back of Italy's Alessio Crociani and South Africa's Henri Schoeman.

"(The swim) was hard. I would love if more races were like that, like it was really challenging. You had to be focused, and I think you saw huge gaps afterward," Rider said. "It just really rewards people who are tactically astute and strong swimmers.”

Rider - a strong swim-biker - raced the entire bike in the lead group. Midway through the bike portion, the group swelled to more than 30 riders as no breakaways formed.

Pearson was 1:20 down after the swim and unfortunately, his bike group was not able to catch the lead pack. One of triathlon's strongest runners (Pearson was an All-American NCAA Division I runner at the University of Colorado) Pearson ran a 31:04 10k to run himself up to 31st.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 — Men's Triathlon

1,500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run — Complete Results

1. Alex Yee (GBR), 1:43:33
2. Hayden Wilde (NZL), 1:43:39
3. Leo Bergere (FRA), 1:43:43

U.S. Finishers

29. Seth Rider (Germantown, Tenn..), 1:47:53

31. Morgan Pearson (New Vernon, N.J.), 1:48:26

Coming on Monday: Triathlon Mixed Relay

The Triathlon Mixed Relay will take place on Monday, Aug. 5 at 8 a.m. local time in Paris (2 a.m. ET). The final four-person mixed relay team (two men, two women) will not be determined until race morning but will come from among those athletes competing in the individual events. The race will be broadcast live on USA Network and Peacock. The U.S. Mixed Relay team won the silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Media Opportunities from Paris

Media can contact Stephen Meyers at stephen.meyers@usatriathlon.org or 1-970-778-7743 (or via the same number on WhatsApp) to request interviews with individual athletes and to be added to the distribution list.