As we enter the new year, it is time to look ahead to the 2023 season and what it may have to offer. Even based on a cursory glance, one thing is certainly clear: triathlon has plenty of young talent to keep an eye on. Here we highlight six of the names you should look out for this coming season.
As a disclaimer, we are not calling the athletes named here the definitive best athletes in the Junior/U23 categories. Instead we are highlighting six that look to have particular promise going forward. In an attempt to remain consistent when considering the claims of dozens of talented athletes, several parameters for what constitutes “potential” have been applied.
The athletes still have to be eligible to race in either the Junior or U23 categories in 2023, so any athletes that aged up in 2022 will not be included. Kate Waugh and Annika Koch are two such athletes that have now aged up.
The next parameter is how the athlete has so far performed at Senior level, if applicable. Here, U23 athletes have a slight advantage given that they have a higher likelihood of having raced on the WTCS circuit. Nevertheless, WTCS and World Cup races are considered first, with Continental Cups considered after.
The final parameter is the slightly more intangible element of momentum or progression, that is to say whether the athletes reasonably project to step into a more established position this year. Weight is therefore given to athletes that have had a strong 2022 and have demonstrated an upward trend in their results.
Performances at major championships at either Junior or U23 level would also be an obvious marker. Success at a young age is no guarantee of success later on, but it does give a strong indication of talent as well as an ability to get over a finish line first.
On balance, we have leaned towards performances at Senior level over U23 championships as that feels a slightly more reliable indicator of how the athletes may perform in 2023.
Tilda Månsson (SWE) 2004
We have to admit, Månsson was the first athlete that sprung to mind when considering this list. In 2021, she was the silver medallist at both World and European Junior Championships. In 2022, she won both races.
It was her performance at the Bergen World Cup, though, that makes her stand out. She won the race with an outstanding performance.
Later in the season, at the Karlovy Vary World Cup, a bad swim seemed to put her in trouble. However, she logged a top-3 bike split to ride herself back into contention before ultimately recording a DNF. The bike, rather than the overall result, was the key piece of information. Karlovy Vary is a tough course, as was Bergen, which suggests Månsson is comfortable enough on the bike to handle herself at the top level. Moreover, she has evident running prowess from being able to run to victory at a World Cup.
Her swim appears to be a slight weakness at this point and this may hold her back at the WTCS level. Nevertheless, she only made her WTCS debut in Abu Dhabi in November and will still be eligible for the Junior category in 2023. We are therefore not expecting major results for Månsson in the WTCS but rather think she could perform well at World Cups.
In addition, it seems hard to mention Månsson and not bring up Jule Behrens (GER, 2003). Over the past couple of years they appear to have separated themselves from the rest of the Junior women’s field and Behrens won both the World and European Junior titles in 2021. In 2022 she was runner-up behind Månsson at the World Junior Championships.
Behrens does not currently have many Senior results of major note, but she possesses a profile of what one would expect from a top-end Junior athlete. We gave Behrens strong consideration for this list but 2023 may be a little too soon for her. It is the lack of notable Senior result and progression through 2022 that means she just misses out however we would be extremely happy to be proven wrong on this call.
Emma Lombardi (FRA) 2001
Lombardi is one of a number of French female stars that have a justified claim to being the strongest nationality in the women’s WTCS.
She was the U23 world champion in 2021 and in 2022 followed it up with a number of great performances at the Senior level. At her WTCS debut in Yokohama, she finished 4th, almost matching the running splits of Georgia Taylor-Brown and Flora Duffy. Later in the year, she placed 3rd at the European Championships in Munich.
It was in October that she recorded her best performance yet. At WTCS Cagliari, she finished 2nd and even gave Georgia Taylor-Brown a fright on the run.
One problem she may face in 2023 is her nationality. Cassandre Beaugrand and Leonie Periault are probably the two premier French female triathletes at this moment. Furthermore, strong athletes like Mathilde Gautier, Audrey Merle and Sandra Dodet will be looking to step up ahead of a home Olympics in 2024. Lombardi’s main challenge, then, will be to have a strong enough season to solidify her shot at qualifying for the Paris Games.
Bianca Seregni (ITA) 2000
Bianca Seregni was an accomplished aquathlete as a Junior, winning the World Junior Aquathlon Championships in 2019. That year she also took the European Junior and Senior Aquathlon titles. It has been in the last 15 months, though that she has really kicked into a new gear.
In her first ever World Cup race, in Karlovy Vary in September 2021, she came away with a bronze medal. Since that race, she has raced a further five World Cups, coming away with two more medals and a lowest finish of 12th which speaks to remarkable consistency.
Throw in an 8th place finish at her Senior European Championships debut in 2021 and the signs point in a promising direction.
She made her WTCS debut in Cagliari in October 2022, finishing 36th. However, it was her next race that put the field on notice.
At WTCS Bermuda, she displayed her swimming prowess. Along with Flora Duffy, she put piled pressure onto the field and split the race up before the athletes even made it to T1. She then rode as part of a small group behind the leaders, Flora Duffy and Maya Kingma, and ultimately took 10th place.
A few weeks later, she obliterated the field in the water at the World U23 Championships in Abu Dhabi. A solid bike and run saw her finish with the bronze medal. In 2023, she will be the only returning female U23 medallist to still be eligible in the category.
With her ability in the water, it would be reasonable to expect Seregni to be in the front pack of most, if not all, WTCS races she starts in 2023. In doing so, she will give herself numerous opportunities to record high finishes.
Ricardo Batista (POR) 2000
Batista is the first male athlete on our six to watch out for in 2023.
Over the past few years, he he has demonstrated a strong rising trajectory and he could even be a dark horse to challenge for a podium at a WTCS race in 2023. To do that, he will have to improve his run a little but that should come with age and further development.
In 2019, he won the World Junior Championships with a consummate performance. Two years later, he won the European U23 Championships. It was in 2022, though, that he appeared to make his real breakthrough.
At the first WTCS race of 2022, in Yokohama, he recorded his first ever top-10 by finishing 8th. Moreover, later in the year, he won his first World Cup medal by finishing 3rd in Miyazaki.
We are hanging quite a lot on his performance at Yokohama, which was a great result. The key for Batista seems to be his consistency within races; he has no real “weak” discipline. He is often close to the leaders out of the water (and is seldom behind the first chase pack), usually has a strong bike and his run is solid. Whereas some younger athletes tend to fall back on one strength to get through races, Batista seems well-rounded enough to put himself in positions to score well at a range of events. With a little more bite to his run, he could develop into a very dangerous athlete in a short space of time.
Miguel Hidalgo (BRA) 2000
Miguel Hidalgo first popped onto the radar with his breakthrough performance at WTCS Montreal in 2021. That day, he finished 11th in a stacked field. Later that year, he finished 8th at U23 World Championships too.
In 2022, he made an even bigger stride forward.
At WTCS Leeds he finished 6th but it was how he did so that was particularly impressive. He had the joint 2nd best swim and the joint 7th best run. Similarly, at the Huatulco World Cup where he finished 3rd this summer, he had the fastest swim and was only 6 seconds away from also having the fastest run.
He is already establishing himself as one of the strongest swimmers in the field which really opens up races to him. In October 2022, he won the South American Games in Asuncion (a Sprint race), and had the fastest swim and bike of the field, putting a sizeable lead into his rivals.
As he clearly has a lot of run speed, his key to 2023 may be to be more aggressive on the bike, as he was in Asuncion.
By his own admission, he is also not yet strong enough over the Olympic distance and that will be a point to target going forward. In the Sprint races in 2023, though, he could well threaten the podium in both World Cups and the WTCS.
Sergio Baxter Cabrera (ESP) 2000
Several athletes were considered for this final slot and it was a challenge to determine. It was hard to pass over Paul Georgenthum after his 2nd place at WTCS Hamburg in 2021.
However, it was impossible to ignore the credentials of Sergio Baxter Cabrera. Following his win at the World Cup in Pontevedra, he will be a name to watch in 2023. Significantly, his win in Pontevedra was no bolt from the blue. At the end of 2021 he finished 4th at the Senior European Championships in Valencia, 4th at the Karlovy Vary World Cup and then 3rd in the World Cup in Tongyeong.
In 2022, he had the best male debut in the WTCS by placing 14th in Cagliari, a performance he backed up with a strong showing in Abu Dhabi.
Like Lombardi, he faces a significant contingent of compatriots blocking his path to the 2024 Olympics so this season will be pivotal for his Paris hopes. With Paris on the line, we can see him replicating his World Cup performances onto the WTCS level.
No Junior men made this list which is not a snub on the current field but rather a tacit acknowledgement that it can be a little harder for Junior men to break through at a young age and often need a few more years to mature before becoming a threat in Senior races.
Of course this list is purely subjective so let us know in the comments if there are any athletes you would have included and which Junior and U23 athletes we should keep an eye out for this year.
