It was once said by Mark Twain that history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme. Triathlon as a sport is now entering a period of maturity having established itself on the world sporting stage over the past two decades. What rhymes might there be if one were to look back through the history of the sport?
We are starting a new series of articles to reflect on the history of the sport. Each article will delve into a year of triathlon from the pre-WTCS era, digging up races and statistics and any hidden threads that may have been otherwise lost to the ages.
Men
2008 was a year in which Javier Gomez Noya was utterly dominant. With four World Cup wins, the Spaniard nearly went unbeaten on the world stage. Daniel Unger was the only other man to win more than one (he won two), including his home race at Hamburg. German success at Hamburg evidently has a long tradition.
With three World Cup medals, Brad Kahlefeldt won the second most medals after Gomez Noya.
In New Plymouth, Gomez Noya recorded one of the biggest winning margins of the season (30 seconds) but his command over the field was impressive throughout the year. He was the one of two men to win a World Cup by more than 10 seconds in 2008, and he did it at all four of his triumphs. Indeed, his smallest winning margin was 19 seconds.
In addition, Gomez Noya had the fastest run of the World Cup season, a 29:37 10km. Nowadays, we are increasingly accustomed to incredible splits under 29 minutes. Gomez Noya, though, was one of the key men in driving the top run times into 29 minute territory. At the same time it should be noted that the advent of “super shoes” has increased run speeds in the WTCS. World Triathlon will be aligning their shoe rules with World Athletics from 2023.
To cap it all off, he also won the world title in Vancouver. With a 24 second winning margin over runner-up Bevan Docherty of New Zealand, Gomez Noya could afford to stroll to the finish. One point to note is that in 2008 the world championships was decided in a single day race, not over a Series as it is today.
Most significantly, the Vancouver race was in June, some ten weeks before the Olympic Games. Gomez Noya therefore arrived in Beijing as the overwhelming favourite. Indeed, he had won seven of his previous eight international races before Beijing (his only blemish being a 7th at the European Championships in Lisbon that May).
However, he was stunned at the Beijing Olympics.
Jan Frodeno won while Gomez Noya finished out of the medals in 4th. Silver went to Athens Olympic Champion Simon Whitfield while Bevan Docherty took bronze.
Whitfield’s other medal in 2008 came from a win at the Ishigaki World Cup. Docherty, meanwhile, won two World Cup medals in 2008.
We have not really seen a men’s favourite upset at the Olympic Games in the same way since. In terms of shock finishes, though, it might just rival the dramatic conclusion to the men’s 2022 WTCS in Abu Dhabi.
Women
As with the men’s field, there was a dominant figure in the women’s race in 2008. Emma Snowsill of Australia capped a brilliant year by winning Olympic gold in Beijing. That day, her winning margin was 67 seconds in an absolute coronation. It was a performance only surpassed by Flora Duffy’s winning margin of 74 seconds at Tokyo 2021.
In 2008, Snowsill had been close to untouchable. She took the most World Cup wins, with three, while no one else managed to win more than one. Both the Olympic silver and bronze medallists, Vanessa Fernandes and Emma Moffatt, respectively, won one World Cup apiece. Meanwhile, Nicola Spirig, the future Olympic champion, also nabbed a World Cup win.
Although Snowsill took the most wins, it was actually her compatriot Felicity Abram that won the most medals. Whereas all of Snowsill’s medals came from her wins, none of Abrams’ four were gold. Samantha Warriner of New Zealand matched Abrams’ haul of four medals, although she also managed two World Cup victories.
Snowsill’s dominance, though, was apparent by almost every metric. She had the biggest winning margin of the year (an 80 second gap at the Hy-Vee World Cup) and the fastest run split: a 33:19 10km in Mooloolaba. Fernandes had the next biggest winning margin with 63 seconds in Madrid.
Snowsill also ran a 33:23 10km in Ishigaki. The sport may have moved into the 32 minute region now, but Snowsill would still be very competitive with her splits from 14 years ago.
As with Javier Gomez Noya, though, Snowsill did not sweep the season.
In Vancouver, Helen Jenkins stunned the field to become world champion. Jenkins had won two World Cup medals that season but the win was a bit of a surprise. In a breakout performance, she finished 4 seconds ahead of American Sarah Haskins and wrote the first chapter of the past fourteen years of excellence by the British women’s team.
Vancouver also produced two very notable names in the U23 fields.
A young Brit named Alistair Brownlee became the men’s U23 world champion while Daniela Ryf of Switzerland won the women’s race. Moreover, the young man that won the World Junior Championships in Vancouver was none other than Vincent Luis.
2008 was the last year before the sport changed into its contemporary format. While giants of triathlon like Gomez Noya and Snowsill led the way, the young guard were on the precipice of making their first big splashes on the world stage.
