Some athletes enjoy tremendous success at a young age, hitting highs like winning the World Junior Championships.
Other athletes peak later in their careers. While they do not necessarily have the greatest success as Juniors, they come through to win the WTCS later in their careers.
Stepping onto the top of a World Championship podium, whether at the Junior, U23 or Senior level is a major achievement. The question is, which athletes have achieved all three milestones in their careers?
As it happens, the current men’s WTCS champion, Dorian Coninx, is the latest athlete to complete the trifecta. In addition to his 2023 WTCS title, Coninx won the World U23 title in 2014 and the World Junior title in 2013. He is therefore part of an elite group to have completed the world title triple in triathlon.
Across the WTCS era, only one other athlete has actually matched Coninx’s achievement.
The first athlete to complete triple crown was Alistair Brownlee. The double Olympic champion won the WTCS in 2009 and 2011. Prior to that, he has won the World Junior title in 2006 and the World U23 title in 2008. He was thus the first athlete to accomplish the hat-trick.
Brownlee also won his three titles in lightning speed. Only three years separated his World Junior and WTCS crowns. While other athletes, such as Non Stanford, have won the World U23 and WTCS titles in successive years, no one has swept the available crowns in the sport at an age as young as Brownlee.
As things stand, no woman has won all three titles.
Taylor Knibb and Laura Lindemann are two athletes to have completed the first two steps. Knibb claimed the World Junior title in both 2016 and 2017. She then won the World U23 title in 2018. Meanwhile, Lindemann won the World Junior title in 2014 and 2015 before adding the World U23 title in 2017.
Between them, Knibb and Lindemann rather monopolised the available world titles in the mid-2010s.
On the men’s side, Raphael Montoya won the World Junior title in 2014 and the World U23 title in 2017. He took a six month break from triathlon over the winter of 2022 but could stage a late career tilt at completing the triple crown. One thing that could block him, however, will be France’s stringent rules on international selection.
Winning all three titles is thus an extraordinarily rare achievement. In winning the WTCS title this year, Dorian Coninx has elevated himself to a rarefied plane.
In the coming years, we may see further athletes win all three titles. Based on recent history and the infrequency of the accomplishment, though, it might be some time before it happens again.
