Paula Findlay Heads Home to Vancouver – Can Home Country Advantage Help Her to a Podium Finish?

Paula Findlay racing at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

This Saturday the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) returns to Canada for the next race in the T100 Series in Vancouver. The weekend’s racing kicks off with a free 5 km run in hopes that endurance enthusiasts will head over to the site for their own activity and stick around to watch the pro racing. The men’s race kicks off at 9:30 am local time (12:30 pm EST), with the women starting at noon (3 pm EST). The stacked women’s field is highlighted by Taylor Knibb, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Ashleigh Gentle, Paula Findlay and Julie Derron. The men’s race is also strong, including Rico Bogen, Marten Van Riel, Sam Long and Jelle Geens.

You can see the full start list here.

Leading up to the race we had a chance to catch up with the Canadian favourite for the race (she’ll be joined by fellow Canucks Dominika Jamnicky and Jackson Laundry), Paula Findlay. Fresh off a fourth-place finish at T100 San Francisco, Findlay has enjoyed an excellent season so far that’s included wins at the IRONMAN 70.3 races in Oceanside and St. George. Findlay now lives in the US, but the 2012 Olympian remains a fan favourite whenever she returns to her home country. I began our conversation reminding her of how popular she’d been when she returned to Canada for a wild weekend last June – she won the Canadian Time Trial Championship and then travelled to IRONMAN 70.3 Mont-Tremblant, where she won again just a couple of days later.

“I’d sort of forgotten how fun it is to race in Canada,” Findlay said. “Even though that was in Quebec … and this race is in Vancouver and I’m not from BC or Quebec, it still feels like a home. It’s different than racing in the US … Canada just feels so patriotic that no matter what province you’re in, it’s still like a home race. So I really felt like that in Quebec last year. So I’m excited to go to Vancouver and have some family there and more fans than I would have in any other race anywhere else.” 

Findlay wins a rainy IRONMAN 70.3 Mont-Tremblant.

Findlay, who is from Edmonton, Alberta, has raced in Vancouver before, and even at the race site at Jericho Beach, but for the national cross country championships, not a triathlon. She does think that the race this weekend is likely to suit her race style.

“It looks hilly, but not overly technical, and I think that always kind of suits me,” she said. “Flat courses are not my favorite, so it looks like this one does actually have a pretty good climb in every lap, and the run is partially on some gravel … I’d prefer that over pavement …”

Despite her wins this year, Findlay says she remains hesitant about her potential at T100 races. After a runner-up finish at the Canadian Open in her hometown of Edmonton in 2022 and a podium finish at the US Open in 2023, she began to feel that the 100 km distance suited her. Now, though, she is starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the slightly longer bike and run at an IRONMAN 70.3.

“Fitting in amongst all these kind of newer, faster short course athletes in San Francisco kind of showed that I can still be in the mix, even though the fields are just crazy strong every single one,” she said. “So I’m more comfortable going into a 70.3 and thinking I could win. But San Francisco was nice – (it told me) ‘you can still podium if you have a good day at these things.'” 

A long career with lots of injuries has forced Findlay to pace herself as she looks to a long season in which she’d like to aim for another big finish at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, while also doing well in the T100 Series.

“You have to pick your races strategically and maybe take like a little mid-season break, if anything to mentally reset and be able to race well in the fall,” she said. “Because, if you’re all guns firing in April, and then you’re trying to perform in December, it’s really unrealistic to be able to sustain a high level for that long. I learned that a little bit last year because I faded towards the end of the season in terms of my excitement and my fitness for Dubai. I’ve learned some lessons from that and I think I’ve gone into this year a little bit more mellow in terms of the travel schedule … I’m in a good headspace now, so I feel like I can tackle it, but it is really hard.”

For Findlay, the race this weekend in Vancouver is important for the sport in Canada.

“I think it’s it’s super important.” she said. “There aren’t a lot of pro races in Canada and … I haven’t raced in Canada very often, but it’s not because I don’t want to, it is just because there’s literally no pro races up there. So it’s really cool to have a T100 on the schedule. I know the logistics of putting a big race on in a big city like Vancouver – the hurdles they have to overcome to get permits and everything. Also for age group athletes to race at T100 event – I think that’s really important because they bring a different vibe than a 70.3 or an Ironman and a different opportunity for age group athletes to experience a different type of racing.”

“I think having the pros race Saturday and then the age groupers race on Sunday, hopefully people can come out and support us and watch us and get a little inspired for their race the next day,” she continued.

After her race this weekend, Findlay said she’s not likely to try to defend her Canadian Time Trial Championship, but will rather take a bit of a break to ensure she’ll be fresh for the latter part of the season. The earlier plans of racing IRONMAN Lake Placid are shelved for this year – Findlay and her new coaching team that includes Carmen Small, the directeur sportive for the EF Education women’s cycling team, decided to keep the focus on the IRONMAN 70.3 and T100 distances this year. Which means we’ll likely see her at T100 London and the T100 event in France later this summer, along with the 70.3 worlds in Marbella and the T100 championship in Dubai.

First things first, though – this weekend Findlay will enjoy her home-country advantage as she takes on the speedsters in Vancouver.