After years of injuries, long COVID and a major move abroad, triathlete Desirae Ridenour is winning again — and aiming for Olympic qualification
A track star at Cowichan Secondary School in her younger years, the Cowichan Bay product won multiple middle-distance provincial high school track and field championships. But she wasn't just a talented runner. She was, in fact, able to compete in any sport she tried, including both swimming and cycling.
Following in the footsteps of her older sister Christine, who was a triathlete, in 2017 Ridenour raced to the women's individual gold medal in triathlon at the Canada Summer Games. Her effort turned heads and she quickly became one of the most exciting emerging triathletes in the country.
In 2018, Ridenour burst into the elite women's triathlon scene with a fourth-place finish with the Canadian mixed-relay triathlon team at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. The following year she was part of the silver-medallist Canadian mixed-relay team at the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
But then things started to fall apart for the young athlete.
From 2020 to 2023, she battled constant injury: a stress reaction in her hip, calf issues, multiple concussions and sickness (long COVID), all of which derailed her training and racing seasons.
Ridenour did compete in the 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, but she had to withdraw mid-race.
"I did have to unfortunately pull out on the bike portion," she said. "I was over trained and was battling a little injury."
After that race, she fell off the map. Well, to the bottom of the map, technically.
"After my DNF, I knew I needed to make some changes if I wanted to progress in the sport," Ridenour explained. "So in the winter of 2023, I left the National Triathlon Centre in Victoria, moved to Cambridge, New Zealand — where my partner, Trent Thorpe, a NZ triathlete, is located — and became situated with my current coach, Lachie Kerin, who resides in Australia. Since this switch, I have been able to train and race consistently, which has been the foundation to my solid back end season of 2024 and my 2025 season so far."
The big move paid off.
In September 2024 Ridenour returned to top form just in time to win the Canadian Sprint Triathlon National Championships in Montreal.
In February 2025 she became the first Canadian in a decade to win a World Cup triathlon when she won her first World Cup race at the season-opener in Napier, New Zealand. She completed the 750-metre swim, 20K bike race and 5K run in 56 minutes, 24 seconds.
She followed that up with a victory at the 2025 Americas Triathlon Cup in Montreal on July 19 and another first place finish at the 2025 Americas Triathlon Cup in Kelowna on Aug. 9.
It was her fifth podium finish of the season, having also placed second in Holten, Netherlands earlier on June 21, and third in the Vichy France Grand Prix.
Now 25, Ridenour recently joined the Hummingbird Collective to be more connected with the triathlon community and to expand her outreach. Her efforts to race consistently at the front of the pack are seeing results. She has climbed to 64th in the world rankings and is on her way up.
This year she's competing in World Cup, WTCS, and French Grand Prix events and has settled into her stride once more, fine-tuning her calendar for peak performance. Up next is a WTCS event in France at the end of the month.
"I typically spend January to May in Cambridge, New Zealand," Ridenour said of her scheduling. "I'll come home for a couple weeks in May, before heading off to Europe for a racing block. I'll spend the end of summer and fall mostly in Canada using it as a base and travelling in and out for races."
While she's racing well on the World Cup circuit, she's also working toward a bigger goal.
"I do have my eyes on the Olympics and I'm doing everything I can to put myself in the best position leading up to the qualifying period," she said.
