15 things you didn’t know about two-time Life Time Grand Prix winner Sofía Gómez Villafañe

With her win at Big Sugar last week, Sofía Gómez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) solidified her two-peat as the Life Time Grand Prix winner, alongside her fiancé, three-time winner, Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz-SRAM).

Over the past four years, the 30-year-old Argentine has proven herself a force to be reckoned with anytime tyres hit the dirt while also becoming an outspoken advocate for better racing conditions and separate start times for elite women competitors.

As the elite gravel season winds down, study up on Gómez Villafañe with 15 things you may not have known about her. She’s sure to be another hot topic when the season gets going again next spring.

15 things you didn't know about Sofía Gómez Villafañe

1. Gómez Villafañe is Argentinian. She was raised in Esquel, Patagonia, until she was 12. In 2005, she moved to Los Gatos, California, with her family, and she holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Argentina.
2. In addition to her two Life Time Grand Prix series wins, Gómez Villafañe is an Olympian. In 2021, she became the first female mountain biker to compete in the Olympics for Argentina since 2004. She raced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and came in 23rd.
3. She won gravel's premier event, the 200-mile Unbound Gravel, in 2022 and finished second in 2023.
4. Gómez Villafañe is the fourth of six children. Her mother is American and was a school principal; her father was a veterinarian for Argentine military horses.
5. Gómez Villafañe’s older brother, Matias, got her into mountain biking. He and Gómez Villafañe’s older sister took up the sport by purchasing bikes off Craigslist. Matias then purchased one for Gómez Villafañe.
6. As a result of that first $500 Craigslist mountain bike, Gómez Villafañe began competing in the hyper-competitive NorCal High School Cycling League at age 15.
7. Even as a high schooler, she put a lot of pressure on herself, and said that she didn’t have much fun riding in high school due to the tremendous pressure from participating in such a competitive league.
8. Despite struggling to find the fun in sport as a high schooler, she did become a good enough cyclist to earn a cycling-related scholarship to riding hotspot Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Her older brother and sister also went there.

9. Her primary course of study at Fort Lewis College was exercise science, but she also earned a minor in business administration.
10. In 2014, she finished second at the Collegiate Cyclocross National Championship. The next year, she won the Collegiate National Title.
11. Gómez Villafañe and Keegan Swenson became a couple in 2012, when they met through mountain biking. The pair trained together in Durango until Gómez Villafañe finished college, at which point they moved to Park City, Utah.
12. She and Swenson got engaged in July 2023. TBD on a wedding date as of publication.
13. She is a two-time Argentine national cross-country MTB champion (2018 and 2019).
14. For nearly a decade before she became a full-time professional cyclist, she worked in the chocolate industry, including for Utah-based artisan chocolatier Ritual Chocolate.
15. She's been an outspoken advocate for separating the men's and women's races, arguing that racing mixed with the men's field affects the race dynamics and ultimate outcome.