Category: Athletes

With four individuals visiting a WTCS podium in 2023, the Americas women were behind only the European women and the European men when it came to the number of individual medallists this year. Much as the top male performer in the region was the athlete that won two WTCS medals, leading the charge on the women’s side was the only multi-medallist. Taylor Spivey (USA) At the start of the season, the American’s women’s team was among the deepest in the sport and the race to make the Olympic squad represented…

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The men of the Americas delivered some incredible performances in 2023. Three different individuals won the gold medals at the Pan American Games and the Americas Championships over the Olympic and Sprint distances while there were four different World Cup winners from the region. Only one man, however, made it onto a WTCS podium this year. Then he did it again. The Americas Male Triathlete of the Year was thus the athlete that enjoyed the greatest success at the highest level of the sport this year. Manoel Messias (BRA) Manoel…

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A double African title was enough to create a convincing case for this year’s African Female Triathlete of the Year. As was the case with the winner of the African men’s mantle, the athlete in question enjoyed a comeback of sorts and ended her season with a best World Cup finish since 2017. Vicky Van Der Merwe (RSA) Vicky Van Der Merwe was in blazing form as she claimed the African titles over the Olympic and Sprint distance. In doing so, she beat her continental rivals head-to-head at least once.…

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The 2023 season saw a blast from the past in the ranks of the African men. After a prolonged spell fighting injury problems, a former Olympic medallist came back and put together a collection of impressive displays. In doing so, he reasserted himself as the top performer on the continent and had the strongest claim to being the African Male Triathlete of the Year. Henri Schoeman (RSA) There was a fear that injuries had gotten the better of Schoeman. The highs of 2016, in which he medalled at the Olympic…

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In some respects, it was a case of saving the best for last. Vicky Holland was the fourth and most recent of the athletes to make a comeback to elite triathlon after a maternity break this year. Without wishing to compare her return too directly to those of Gwen Jorgensen, Katie Zaferes and Alice Betto, Holland made perhaps the biggest initial splash. Whereas her counterparts took at least one race to regain their bearings at the world level, Holland plunged into the Tangier World Cup and came away with a…

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Alice Betto’s comeback in 2023 has been a story of inexorable improvements. At every race, the Italian athlete seemed to get better and she capped it with a first ever international gold medal. Like Katie Zaferes and Gwen Jorgensen, Betto’s time away from the sport came as a result of a maternity break. She had last raced at WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2021 and it would be over 18 months before she returned to the Series. In comparison to her two American counterparts, Betto was a little late to the…

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Katie Zaferes was one half of a double comeback for the American team in 2023 alongside Gwen Jorgensen. As former world champions and Olympic medallists, their returns made for an exciting narrative to follow throughout the season. The similarities also extended to the types of comeback they were undertaking. With both navigating their returns after maternity absences from elite competition, they helped to shed additional light to an important conversation for female athletes in triathlon. While World Triathlon had launched its new maternity policy at the start of the year,…

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Among the multiple comebacks to elite triathlon in 2023, Gwen Jorgensen’s was perhaps the least expected. The former Olympic champion announced her return in December 2022 and in doing so sent shockwaves through the sport. Her stated aim was to make the US Olympic team in 2024 with the Mixed Team Relay being both a source of inspiration and the focus of her ambitions. With a full season of racing now under her belt, in this article we will assess Jorgensen’s comeback and delve into how far she has come…

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Being able to win a WTCS race is no mean feat. Similarly, winning a WTCS title requires a near-perfect season built upon consistency and high finishes. The challenge of winning multiple world titles, however, is on another plane altogether. Since the start of the WTCS, only four men have become world champion more than once: Alistair Brownlee, Javier Gomez Noya, Mario Mola and Vincent Luis. It should be noted, though, that Luis’ second title came at a single-day world championships in 2020. Of that quartet, only Mola has really been…

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Over the weekend, we discussed the importance of strategy and the ability to win WTCS races in multiple ways. At this point in time, we concluded that there are three women and only one man in the current era of WTCS race winners that can be considered multi-strategy athletes, of which at least two (Flora Duffy and Vincent Luis) are close to the end of their careers. During the post-Paris Olympic cycle, a new crop of athletes will come through. In this article, then, we will survey the group of…

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