One of the most interesting aspects of following elite sport is to see the rise and development of the athletes.
In this article, we look at the athletes with the biggest improvements in best WTCS race finish from 2021 to 2022. The bigger the number of places gained, the better the year the athlete had.
In several cases, the athletes listed below achieved their personal best WTCS finishes in 2022. For others, their best WTCS finish came before 2021 and 2022 represented more of a return to form.
Women
Emy Legault was the biggest riser from 2021 to 2022 courtesy of her 10th place in Hamburg. 2022 has been a strong year for Legault as she took the bronze medal at the Americas Championships in October and went on to finish 25th overall in the WTCS. In doing so, she has marked herself as the highest ranked Canadian woman on the circuit and has taken a step towards qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
The youngest woman on this list had the second biggest improvement. Eva Daniels of Luxembourg had a relatively quiet introduction to the WTCS in 2021. Given that she was only 20 at the time (being born in 2001), that made a lot of sense.
This year, she kicked on by logging her first top-20 finish with a 16th place in Montreal.
After Legault and Daniels, the improvements on the women’s side clustered a little more, with five women making improving by 13 or more places. Two of those athletes, Lena Meissner and Lisa Tertsch, improved onto the WTCS podium for the first time. With both being German, they will likely spend much of 2023 competing with one another for a slot on the German Olympic team in 2024.
Given that several women gained more than 10 places, it is worth noting that this ranking penalises athletes that had already achieved a top-12 finish in 2021. Once they have hit that kind of level, it becomes increasingly difficult to make similar gains.
For athletes like Meissner and Tertsch, then, we will not see them on the equivalent 2023 lists as there is nowhere for them to go from 3rd place beyond a maximum of 2 places.
Men
Jamie Riddle was a relative newcomer to the WTCS scene in 2022. However, that did not stop him making a mark on numerous races. With his strengths in the swim and bike, he was a regular at the front of the field.
If you put yourself at the front of the race often enough, something will eventually stick and in Hamburg this year Riddle did just that. His 15th place saw him improve the most of any athlete from 2021 to 2022. If he continues to race as aggressively as this season, he will likely find opportunities to improve further still.
Joao Silva is an interesting name to pop up on this list. He is a multiple WTCS medallist and race winner so his presence indicates a bounce-back from 2021 rather than an improvement so to speak. After battling with the Brownlees and Javier Gomez earlier in his career, he now finds himself as one of the elder statesmen of an increasingly young men’s field. With his experience, we would not bet against Silva repeating another top-10 result in 2023.
As with the women’s WTCS, there were two men that improved all the way onto the podium for the first time. Neither Matthew Hauser nor Manoel Messias achieved a top-15 in the 2021 Series so their step up into the medals was a little unexpected. It was for that reason that both received votes as the breakout man of the 2022 WTCS.
One final thing that stands out about the men’s improvements is that all bar two of the biggest jumps were athletes that broke into the top-10 in 2022.
Looking ahead to 2023, many of these athletes will have a challenge in improving even further. However, with momentum on their side, there is every chance that all of the above names could make even more dramatic strides next season.
