Meet Jenny Guerrero: Philippines Olympic swimmer turned triathlete

By Wires December 23, 2015

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Jenny Guerrero is one of Philippine’s most consistent triathletes, she has been on the podium of the Filipino elite category on almost every race she has entered. She has an interesting story as Jenny represented Philippines in the 2000 Olympics as a swimmer, and now works full time as a swim coach while balancing her training time with her young family. Learn more about Jenny below:

Information about you

Name: Jenny Rose Guerrero
Nationality: Filipina
Age: 31
Base: Philippines
Occupation: Swim Coach/Elite Triathlete
Family Status: Partner and son
Sponsors: Alaska Milk Corp, TYR, Gatorade, Scott bikes, Token wheels, Asics shoes, Vamos socks, Garmin watches, Rudy Project, F2P sportswear, Amanzi, Wengman

Can you tell us about your background in sports and triathlon?

I was a former national team swimmer who participated in several international competitions and represented the Philippines. The highlight of my swimmers career was when I qualified and participated in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games in 100m and 200m breastroke events. After retiring from competitive swimming in 2005, I looked into cross-training to keep myself fit and active. That’s when I started to love running. From 2007-2011, I focused on my studies and landed a job as a manager for a pizza chain. At the end of 2012, I got recruited by then Alaska Team TBB (with collaboration with Coach Brett Sutton). In early 2014, we eventually became Alaska Tri Aspire headed by Coach Mathieu O’Halloran.

You have always been very consistent with your races with several podiums this year. How did the rest of your season go? What was the highlight and the most challenging part of the year?

It was a bit of a whirlwind for me as I tried my best to manage my time between coaching the Ace Seawolves swim team and competing. I thought I had a good start to my season with a 3rd place in March at the Ironman 70.3 in Subic Bay. I tried to build my momentum from there but in the summer my swimmers also emerged at the top of their respective age categories, which took a lot of energy! My highlights were the Safeguard 5i50, where I won the Filipino Elite category and then 2^nd place Filipino Elite at the Regent 5i50 with a hamstring injury. The most challenging part was really trying to balance my stress from work, training and family life.

What are the next goals for you, both short and long term? And what steps in your training and racing are you taking to get you there?

I still plan to race next year and do a few quality races, all the while focusing on the development of my swimmers!

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Can you describe a typical training week? What does it take to perform at the level you do and how you balance your training with your swimming coaching career and your family?

I usually do my run and bike sessions in the morning while my swim sessions are scheduled in the afternoon, which afterwards I start coaching my swim team. I would say that I still lack training hours to be able to perform at the top level as my load usually ranges 12-13 hours per week. Most sessions are focused on good quality and my ride out is usually scheduled once a week on a weekday. I am used to multi-tasking ever since I was a swimmer. My main rival is the stress from my swimmers (and their parents hahaha) and the pressure to produce another Olympian like me.

You are part of Team Alaska Tri-Asipire – How does the team system it works?

We are 6 in the team, 4 boys and 2 girls. Usually the boys head out to Laguna for a quality training block with Coach Mat in preparation for the races. Coach Mat emails us girls a weekly training schedule which we have to do on our own or with friends. We get together as a team only during races. I am the only ones who’s from Manila, while my other teammates are from the provinces