Beth Potter managed to out-gun Cassandre Beaugrand with a late burst on the run to win the Paris Olympic Test Event. In doing so, she solidified her leadership of the WTCS and took a step closer to becoming world champion.
Olympic qualification, however, was one of the biggest talking points of the day. In this article, we will break down which athletes have secured their selection for next year’s Games.
One important thing to note is that only France, Britain and Germany have officially secured places at the Games. Any athletes that have earned selection from other countries will thus have earned the right to start, but will still need their country to earn the relevant quota slots. This list is also not intended to be exhaustive so if any names have been missed feel free to let us know in the comments below.
The obvious place to start would be with the race winner, Potter.
However, due to the vagaries of the British selection policy, Potter has not yet qualified. Should she also medal at the WTCS Final in Pontevedra, she will punch her ticket to the Olympics. However, as things stand she is only halfway there.
Of course, should she miss the podium in Pontevedra, she has made a compelling case to justify selection anyway and right now no British woman is in a position to seal a first priority selection ahead of her.
Instead, Beaugrand was the first triathlete to qualify. By winning a medal, she satisfied the first priority criteria for the French team. Her teammate, Emma Lombardi, narrowly missed out on adding her name to the team. Lombardi required a medal at the Test Event but only managed 4th place.
She now finds herself in the same boat as Potter. Having finished in the top-8 in Paris, Lombardi can secure her Olympic berth with a medal in Pontevedra. Thereafter, discretionary factors will come into play.
Laura Lindemann and Nina Eim locked up two of the German slots courtesy of their respective 3rd and 6th place finishes. They had to finish inside the top-8 to qualify. Lisa Tertsch looked like she would beat Eim for a large swathe of the run, however she fell behind on the final lap.
In the end, Tertsch finished 9th and so was neither in the top-8 or among the top two German finishers.
From 5th place, Taylor Knibb earned her spot on the American Olympic team. In the absence of any American medallists in Paris, only one slot was available for the best finisher in the top-8. Having run through the field after emerging from T2 in 24th place, Knibb can be more than satisfied with her day.
None of her teammates managed to hit the top-8 requirement which ultimately made her path to the US team a little simpler than expected.
Knibb’s compatriots will now require either a medal in Pontevedra or a medal at a to be determined WTCS selection race in 2024 to be added to the team. Otherwise, any places will be assigned on a discretionary basis.
Kate Waugh did not earn Olympic selection for Britain from 7th place. Furthermore, unlike Potter, a medal in Pontevedra will not put her on the team.
However, Waugh’s high finish will burnish her credentials as a possible discretionary selection. If she can find her way onto a WTCS podium in the near future, she could nab a place on the Paris start list in 2024.
Julie Derron appears to have secured her Olympic slot from 8th place. As per the Swiss Olympic selection policy, an athlete with two top-8 WTCS finishes in the Qualification Period will be in the first priority of selection.
Derron finished 7th at WTCS Sunderland and now adds her 8th place in Paris. The only question mark will be if the Test Event counts as a WTCS performance, although logic dictates that it realistically will. As Derron is also ranked in the top-30 of the Olympic rankings, she will also have priority over any other athletes that achieve the first priority criteria.
As such, her selection now appears to be a near-certainty.
Lisa Tertsch (in 9th) and Taylor Spivey (in 10th) narrowly missed out on Olympic selection but will have another shot in Pontevedra. At this stage, though, it appears that no other athletes have officially secured their places at the Olympic Games.
