'Angry' Sam Long is embracing the juxtaposing titles of underdog and favourite as he targets T100 victory on home soil in Las Vegas.

The 28-year-old sits fifth in the overall PTO T100 rankings after his lowest place finish of 11th in London before missing out on the Ibiza leg of the series last month, but is now ready for a middle-distance comeback in Nevada.

The American has mighty home turf ambitions and wants to positively channel his frustrations as he returns to the T100 Series for the first time in two months at Lake Las Vegas.

"I would say I am both an underdog and a favourite," he said.

"I think it's the narrative you create for yourself in your own head to get the most out of yourself.

"I've got anger within me right now. I've got frustration. I need a place to funnel that anger and frustration and that's all going into Vegas.

"I have a very, very clear, concrete goal of the performance I want to put on in Vegas, and I'm pretty confident in that level of performance. I think it's the best course for me to win at."

Long will be looking to replicate the early season form that saw him storm to back-to-back second place finishes in the first two events of the year.

Happy to name himself as one of the weakest swimmers in the field, Long is known for pushing the pace in the latter stages of the race, consistently fighting back on the bike and run.

It's a tactic that he is pleased to have mastered in 2024, proving that his weakness can't hold him back from becoming the best in the world.

"Any time you have a big weakness in the T100 fields, it's going to be shown and it's going to be seen," he said.

"You can look at it and you go, I’m down by such an unbelievable margin and I’m up against the best in the world. There's no possible way you can come back from that. And I've done it for years.

"I've always pushed that bike really hard to get myself into the race but at that point, then I got tired and I faded on the run.

"This year, we've seen a transformation in me and I've been able to push the bike equally as hard as the run."

Long returns to the T100 in Vegas after a busy and rewarding year outside of the world of triathlon.

The 28-year-old became a father just days after the London T100 and has noted the difficulties in trying to balance parenthood with competing at the top level.

But with the mental drive of competing for his son pushing him back to the start line, Long is excited by what lies in store in Vegas.

"This year for me has actually been much more about my personal life than the professional life," he said.

"The first year of my son's life; we're getting married in December, and we bought a house in April.

"So it's just been one life step another life step - and at the same time having to compete at the highest level every day.

"I think I've done an unbelievable job doing all of that. Normally you see a big fall off in results when people do all these things, and I've been able to be right up there.

"I would say that the life stuff has actually been like pushing me harder in a developmental sense than the triathlon racing."