While it was the fourth round of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship and round 21 of the 31-round SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX), it was round one of 2025 for Jalek Swoll. The Florida native suffered a pre-season Achilles tendon injury that left him on the sidelines for all of Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the early rounds of Pro Motocross. Swoll, who picked up the first U.S. podium finish for Triumph last August at the Unadilla National, missed over half of the year in his second season with the team, but he signed an extension in March to return for the 2026 season.

In his first moto of the season, Swoll was solid en route to a 14th-place finish. He was better in moto two, coming through eighth, landing tenth overall on the day. We briefly talked with him after the race as he was about to leave and he said as a racer you always want more, but he was happy with his day and is glad to be back at the races. While he knows his fitness is not fully at race level yet, he did ride well, standing up a lot, which was a good sign. Although he said he was sore, he noted feeling better in the second moto and his result showed. Plus, he was the highest finishing Triumph rider, as Mikkel Haarup, who has been impressive so far this summer, was 12th overall, Jordon Smith was 14th overall, and Austin Forkner was 22nd overall.

Swoll will have some time before his second race of the season, as there is a weekend off before the June 28 Southwick National in Massachusetts.

Swoll said the following in a post-race team release:

"My day was ok – we came here to High Point without any set expectations, so I’m happy with how things have gone today. My foot is still giving me some pain and my cardio isn’t where it should be, but overall, things went well. I faded in the first moto a little but was able to see the boys’ pace up front, which gives us a good idea of where we’re at. Second moto I was able to hang in there for eighth, which is a really good start. Obviously, I want more, so I’m already looking forward to getting some more races under my belt and seeing what we can do.”

Swoll posted the following to Instagram:

“Feels good to be back 🤠, moto 1 started out good was running up front with some of the boys and took a big impact on my “bad” foot and felt some cracking and popping which effected my moto but we believe it was just the scar tissue finally breaking through, was definitely a scare but we’re all good just sore and walking a little slow but I wouldn’t want it any other way I enjoyed my day back and honestly for only having 3 or 4 moto’s put in before my return I feel i definitely can build from here….. thanks team 🤙 @officialtriumphracing
6th in qualifying and 14-8 for p10 overall”

Main image by Mitch Kendra