Scratch everything that's been said about Olympics and Quigley.
Just checked her IG to see what kinda sets she's doing in the pool. She has one post from September "learning to swim".
Her biggest challenge is the swim. She has no experience and is totally new. She will never make an olympic team for triathlon.
Non-drafting triathlon success, who knows? But best of luck pushing that power on the bike, on the flats.
Swimming is so much harder than cycling to pick up. And there are bunches of girls in the tri pipeline for LA 2028' that swim very well. I'm sure they (USAT) said to Quigly, get your swim up to snuff then we will talk. They have time standards for candidates to join their Olympic track program, yet she can barely swim. Here are the time standards for swim / bike /run
She needs to swim a 500 yard freestyle in 6:00 to hit the SLOWEST metric possible for consideration to even join the olympic development program (no funding potential, no sponsor potential, and almost no racing potential. Just free training facilities if at OTC in the Springs or Chula Vista). The next mark she needs is 5:33 / 500yd free to start to get USAT to enter her into some races and also to be competitive to make a bike pack after the swim and get points to start to qualify for an olympics.
What is swimming a 6:00 and 5:33 500yd free in running speak?
Swimming a 6:00 500yd free would be like a female running a 5:10 mile. Not an elite female runner running 5:10 but a hobby jogger that has never done track workouts or sets turning up and running 5:10, because Quigley can barely swim. That would be hard for a elite level swimmer or cyclist to show up to a track and pull off.
A 5:33 500 yard free would be that same hobby jogger running a 4:50 - 4:55 mile, with no formal running background or practices. Someone who can barely run, like Quigley can barely swim.
There are no conversions between the sports but you get the point. And swimming so much harder than that example. They are not the same because everyone can already BASICALLY run. Swimming takes years of drill work to develop technique that non-swimmers have no idea about. Running does not require years of drill work to learn to run efficiently.
It's impossibly difficult, learning to swim. It's all technique and 'feel for the water' FIRST, that takes years of consistent daily swimming to 'get a feel for' and keep. This is before the aerobic / anaerobic pace work really comes into play.
Matt McElroy took 2 -3 years to learn to swim just to make groups on the bike out of the water but he had a surfing background and basic water awareness and understanding. A head start over a complete newb like Quigly. He has not made the Olympics after years of swimming.
Morgan Pearson swam in high school and was a life guard before running at CU. He was a strong swimmer very quickly at the top level of triathlon, much faster than McElroy. He medaled in Tokyo.
Given USAT recruits D1 level female swimmers directly into their Olympic triathlon pipeline (because it is the most important aspect initially), Quigley has zero chance.
I'm out. Have fun with this waste of time...