The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Women: 12-7

As was the case yesterday with the men ranked 12th to 7th, each of these women will be strong contenders to finish in the top-10 of the WTCS this year. Each, too, will be in with a shout of winning WTCS medals in 2023. 12) Miriam Casillas Garcia ESP Since achieving her first WTCS top-10 in Yokohama in 2021, Casillas has gone from strength to strength. Last season, she had five finishes of 10th or better in the WTCS which helped to 10th overall in the Series. Nowadays, she stands…

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The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Men: 12-7

As we enter the top-12 of the TriStats top-30 rankings, the upcoming athletes could contend for a medal at virtually any WTCS race. Some do not have multiple medals to their name (yet) and some will favour certain courses over others. Each man, though, is capable of performing at rarefied levels. Moreover, at this point, the athletes listed here will have their sights set on a top-10 finish in the overall WTCS. 12) Jonathan Brownlee GBR We start with one of the biggest names in the sport. An individual Olympic…

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The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Women: 18-13

We are drawing closer to the top-10 triathletes in the world and in this section there are some very big hitters. Any of the women listed below could nab a WTCS medal this season or finish in the top-10 of the overall Series. 18) Summer Rappaport USA Summer Rappaport has won numerous World Cups as well as a WTCS race (Edmonton 2016). Altogether, she has six WTCS medals which is the most of any woman in this section. In many respects, 2022 was a mixed season for Rappaport. It started…

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The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Men: 18-13

18) Roberto Sanchez Mantecon ESP Roberto Sanchez Mantecon had a huge breakthrough performance at WTCS Bermuda. On the back of a lightning run split, he won the bronze medal. He had steadily built throughout the season towards that performance. In the direct run-up to Bermuda, he finished 9th at the Valencia World Cup and then 4th at the Karlovy Vary World Cup. He finished 20th in the overall WTCS last year and currently sits 22nd in the world rankings. We have him a tad higher in our rankings largely by…

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The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Women: 24-19

We are continuing our series on the best triathletes in the world and today we looking at women ranked 24th through to 19th. 24) Kate Waugh GBR Kate Waugh won the World U23 Championships in style in 2022 with a swashbuckling breakaway on the bike. That win was enough to put her ahead of compatriot Sian Rainsley. Waugh, though, had a strong 2022 beyond that performance. She finished 12th at WTCS Hamburg and WTCS Cagliari and won a bronze medal at the World Cup in Bergen. To go with that,…

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The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Men: 24-19

It’s now February which means elite triathlon racing is around the corner. With WTCS Abu Dhabi just over four weeks away, we are continuing with the TriStats Top 30 Triathletes of 2023. As we mentioned in the previous men’s post, this is not designed as a prediction for the season, but rather a more general assessment of where the field stands coming out of 2022. Some athletes are better single day racers while some are better over a season and we’ve tried to factor that into the rankings. Without further…

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The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Women: 30-25

Yesterday, we started a new series of articles ranking the top-30 male triathletes in the world. Today, we are kicking off the same for the women. The criteria we have used are the same as for the men. WTCS performances are assessed alongside World Cup results and Continental Championships with a balance trying to be found between medals and consistency. As a subjective list, however, there will always be places where people can disagree. Without much further ado, let’s start the women’s top-30. 30) Katie Zaferes USA Katie Zaferes is…

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The TriStats Top 30 Triathletes 2023 – Men: 30-25

Ahead of the 2023 season, we thought we would put together two rankings, one for men and one for women, of who we consider to be the top-30 triathletes in World Triathlon racing. This is not intended as a prediction for the year but rather more of a survey of how we feel the field stands going into the new season. We have tried to strike the balance between who would win on any given day and who would perform best over the course of a season. To put the…

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Five Fast Junior Men That Will Age Up in 2023

Toby Powers (AUS) Powers is the silver medallist from last year’s World Junior Championships and also took silver at the Oceania Junior Championships in 2022. The first thing that jumps out from that is that he is a good racer that can find his way to the podium at championship events. 2022 was also the first time he raced internationally, which would suggest a lack of experience. Despite that, Powers had a strong year and added a bronze at the European Junior Cup in Tabor to his medal collection. Moreover,…

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Five Fast Junior Women That Will Age Up in 2023

Recently we looked into the U23 athletes that will be ageing up in 2023 and today we are turning our attention to some of the standout Junior athletes that will be stepping up this year. Born in 2003, the list of names below will have varying expectations going into the new season. Some will aim to make an impact at U23 championships (both world and continental). Others may set their sights on Senior events. Similarly, some of the athletes will stick to the Sprint distance this year while others may…

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Justus Nieschlag Cut From The German National Team

German Olympian Justus Nieschlag has revealed that he will no longer be a part of the German National Team. Following the decision of the DTU (German Triathlon Union), Nieschlag will not receive support from the federation going forward. In an Instagram post, he disclosed that he was informed of this one day before Christmas. Having been on the highest level of support in the German system, it represents quite a radical drop in funding. The German system is generally quite heavily tied to performance-based criteria. As such, if an athlete…

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Is it Better to Chase or Be Chased in the Olympic Rankings?

Last week we looked at who would qualify for the Paris Olympic Games if the slots were allocated now. That made us wonder: is there any benefit to being ranked higher in the qualification rankings or is there an advantage to chasing? More than anything, this is a question of psychology. The rankings are a crucial piece of the Olympic puzzle. They form an important part of the individual qualification process as well as informing particular national selection policies. Spain, for example, have criteria that are explicitly tied to the…

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What are the Big Elite Triathlon Training Groups?

In a racing sense, triathlon is an individual event. Training, however, is a different prospect altogether. Nowadays it is common to see clusters of elite triathletes train together in groups scattered around the world. By training in such groups, athletes expose themselves to elite competition in training as well as world class coaching. Indeed, at the WTCS level, it is a common occurrence for athletes to train in multi-national groups. The alternative to this is to train at national centres. The Triathlon Squad The Triathlon Squad is the first group…

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Athletes We Are Looking Forward to Seeing Back This Year

There might just be no better story in sport than a comeback. In 2023, there are a number of triathletes that will embark on comebacks to the elite scene after challenging years in 2022. Injury and personal circumstances hit us all. As such, the returns of the athletes listed will inspire a great many people. We have opted to not include athletes that had injuries in 2022 but were still able to come back before the end of the season. Such athletes include Leonie Periault, who produced a fine performance…

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The Alternative Global Triathlon Awards 2023

There have been some big names to miss out on being shortlisted at the inaugural Global Triathlon Awards. It is never easy to put together a shortlist that will satisfy all fans. Nevertheless, there are some names that were perhaps a little controversial to omit. Today we are imagining the Alternative Global Triathlon Awards. We will try to make use of the same criteria as the actual awards. The key difference will be that we have an additional criterion that the athlete cannot actually have been nominated for the corresponding…

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