Category: Interviews

When rising through the ranks of elite triathlon, the goalposts are always shifting. It usually starts with trying to qualify for an first international team, such as at the World Junior Championships. The following season, the target can become a higher finish at the same event, or maybe winning a national Junior title. First Senior international starts can follow, as can appearances at U23 championships. From Continental Cups to World Cups and to the WTCS, there is always another level to strive towards, always another layer of the sport to…

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It started with a win and it ended with a win. Selina Klamt opened her account for the year by taking the gold medal at the European Cup in Caorle. A little over four months later, she signed off with another victory, this time at the World U23 Championships in Pontevedra. In between, she added another European Cup win, the European U23 title, a silver medal at the German Championships and made her WTCS debut. On virtually every level, then, Klamt’s season can only be described as a resounding success.…

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It has been a year of firsts for Beth Potter yet the athlete that speaks now is as similar as they are different to the one that started the season. Potter opened her account for the year with a first WTCS win in March. A commanding performance at WTCS Abu Dhabi marked her out as one to watch and further firsts followed. In August she made her first Olympic Test Event appearance; in 2019 she was not ranked highly enough to get onto the Tokyo Test Event start list. Most…

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Annika Koch has been a name to watch for some time. Last year, she won a silver medal at the World U23 Championships in Abu Dhabi, improving on the bronze medal she earned in 2021. To go with that, she enjoyed World Cup success in 2022, taking gold in Huatulco and claiming silver in Tongyeong. By most metrics, then, she entered 2023 as an athlete with plenty of promise and a growing pile of medals. This summer, however, she has exploded to a new level. At WTCS Hamburg, she claimed…

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Amid the recent rise of German triathlon, there has been one constant throughout. Laura Lindemann has been at the heart of the team for over seven years. It therefore seemed fitting that she was the first triathlete to book their spot on the German Olympic team by claiming the bronze medal at the Paris Olympic Test Event. However, her race was very nearly over for her, and half the field, in the first discipline. “We swam a bit strangely on the way back because we took the wrong tunnel,” said…

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“I’m fairly chaotic,” says Jolien Vermeylen, laughing as she does. It’s a word that comes up often in conversation with her and, in fairness, she makes a compelling case. Yet it also seems to be only one side of the coin. From the first steps of Vermeylen’s career to the elite level at which she now finds herself, the chaos has been seemingly ever-present. Lying beneath it, though, is a quiet determination. At the end of 2022, she tackled the autumn swing of WTCS races in Cagliari, Bermuda and Abu…

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When she arrived in Paris for what might have been the most intense race of the year, the pressure was off for Julie Derron. She faced the strongest start list of the year at the Olympic Test Event, a race that held plenty of significance for the Olympic aspirations of many. Moreover she would be making her first start over the Olympic distance in 2023. Yet Derron was equanimous. To start with, she had the chance of Olympic qualification without the race being totally deterministic. “For us Swiss, it wasn’t…

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Enough is a complicated word. In many ways, though, it encapsulates the challenge of being an elite triathlete. How much racing is enough? How much training is enough? When is a result enough? In many respects, Márk Dévay typifies the conundrum of enough. Regarded by many as one of the best swimmers in the WTCS (perhaps the best), Dévay is in the midst of a deep block of racing in July. Having already raced throughout May and June, he took on the Tiszaujvaros World Cup and WTCS Hamburg on consecutive…

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Do nice guys finish last? That is the question that springs to mind when it comes to Csongor Lehmann. Every answer he gives is unfailingly polite. It’s one of the first things that stands out about him in conversation. Even when asked about the last minute shift to a duathlon at the recent European Championships, he was equanimous. “I was not happy with the decision,” he said, “but we couldn’t really do anything about it. We just had to accept it and make the best of the situation.” Having become…

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It’s no easy thing, knowing when you are on the right path. Life is littered with roads not taken and thoughts of what could have been. In a sense, Alberte Kjær Pedersen has neatly sidestepped that conundrum by tackling two paths at once. Alongside competing as an elite triathlete and establishing herself as a fixture in the WTCS, she is close to finishing her degree in dentistry. Medical backgrounds are hard to come by at the top of the sport – Miriam Casillas stands out as one notable exception that…

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One of the big changes prior to the upcoming Bundesliga season was that Lasse Lührs has left Buschhütten. After winning the second round in Berlin last year, he was an important component of the Buschhütten team on their way to reclaiming their crown. Going forward, he will be representing Bonn. “Hopefully it’s the right decision!” he said. “I’m really looking forward to the new season and being in a new team.” The switch came after living in Bonn for two years. Lührs noted, “it felt right to compete for team I train…

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In what might be one of the more successful detours in triathlon history, Sophie Coldwell logged her best ever WTCS finish on her way to a silver medal in Abu Dhabi. “I only raced it because I was on the way back from Australia and it was on the way,” explained Coldwell. The decision to stop in Abu Dhabi was taken only about six weeks before the event. Along with members of the Loughborough training group, including Abu Dhabi winner Alex Yee, Coldwell had been on a warm weather training…

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