With the structure of elite triathlon, the tendency is to bounce from race to race and rattle through the season. The WTCS tries to balance between scarcity, to make every event special, and frequency, to give the audience as much racing at it craves. Sometimes, though, it can be worth zooming out.
If we take a broader picture, one that encompasses this entire Olympic cycle for example, different questions can be posed. Instead of asking the more basic questions such as who will win the Paris Test Event, we can look for something a little nebulous. Every athlete has a story to tell and if we step back we can see how the different narratives interlock.
Cast your eyes across the WTCS and think for a moment. Who among the men’s field has the story of this Olympic cycle been about?
Kristian Blummenfelt has a powerful case. The defending Olympic champion ventured on to pastures new, only to return and fight his way back to the top. It makes for a compelling story for sure.
On the other hand, his time away from short distance racing was only a year long and his forays were not all that different to someone like Taylor Knibb. Blummenfelt and Knibb both won the 2021 WTCS Final in Edmonton. Both then began to forge long distance careers. Whereas Knibb went on to also claim WTCS hardware, Blummenfelt has thus far come up short. The Norwegian is a star, for sure, and his attempts at the longest distances differ slightly to Knibb, but his current story is not entirely unique.
Has the cycle been about Alex Yee or Hayden Wilde? The former can point to an inexorable rise through the ranks. Having come up against an all-conquering Blummenfelt in Tokyo, Yee kicked on to become the phenom many observers always expected.
He certainly has a fascinating story and is one of the most interesting athletes around. Yet stepping up one place on the podium does not feel like a grand overarching narrative. A story of greatness fulfilled may be undermined by the anticipation of it happening. Perhaps, to that end, Yee’s talent makes some take his rise a little for granted. He basically arrived in the WTCS full-formed, medalling on debut, after all.
Wilde’s story is also fascinating. Having been inspired to take up the sport by the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he became an Olympic medallist at the next Games. His growth to WTCS race winner (Yee and Blummenfelt had won WTCS races before Tokyo) and maybe even to Olympic champion would really double down on his rise. Having fought so hard to overcome Yee in a WTCS head-to-head, which he finally achieved in Hamburg this year, he also has one of the best obstacle narratives in the quad.
Maybe Wilde has secretly been the main character of this cycle all along.
Each of the three have their stories to tell and each is the protagonist in their own eyes. The argument here, though, will be that the Paris Olympic cycle is actually about one man.
Léo Bergere.
Let’s wind back the clock to 2021. While Blummenfelt, Yee and Wilde swept the Olympic podium, Bergere finished in 21st place. He also had to watch from afar as France won a bronze medal in the Mixed Team Relay.
Following his first taste of the Olympic Games, his rise begins.
He had won a bronze medal at the single day world championships in 2020, although that was a somewhat weird situation amidst the pandemic. After Tokyo, Bergere claimed his first WTCS medal proper with a bronze in Montreal. He backed it up with another bronze in Edmonton and then a further bronze in Hamburg.
Yet another bronze medal followed in his first race of 2022, at WTCS Yokohama. He made the step up to silver at WTCS Leeds, although Wilde was able to shut down his bold breakaway. Bronze came again in Montreal and, although he slipped to 4th in Hamburg, Bergere added the European Championships title in Munich.
By his newfound lofty standards, a disappointing 6th place followed in Cagliari.
But then came his pièce de résistance.
At the WTCS Final in Abu Dhabi, while the rest of the world (TriStats included) assumed the world title would come down to a clash between Yee and Wilde, Bergere stunned everyone to claim his first ever WTCS win. With it came a shock world title.
Bergere, then, has done what thus far Yee and Wilde have not. As the World and European champion, he entered 2023 in a position to be called the best triathlete in the world.
And then the other foot dropped.
A 6th place came at WTCS Abu Dhabi. Then a 5th place at WTCS Yokohama. Neither were bad performances, but as the defending champion Bergere now had a point to prove and a target on his back.
A bronze medal in Cagliari saw him steady the ship and then a silver medal in Sunderland followed.
Now, a year out from the Paris Olympics, we can turn our gaze forwards.
The Paris Olympic Test Event is up next and with it comes Bergere’s opportunity to seal his place on the French Olympic team. Bergere will need a medal to book his place as a first priority athlete. Based on his form since Tokyo, that is eminently achievable. Should he medal, or even win, he will also vault himself back into contention for this year’s world title (he currently lies 3rd in the Series).
History does not always repeat itself, but there is often a familiarity to its tune.
From there, attention will turn to the Games itself. Paris. The home Olympics. The stage will be set for Bergere to make the step up before an adoring crowd.
It’s a narrative that looks an awful lot like Alistair Brownlee’s lead up to his triumph at London in 2012. Remember, the tune of history often sounds familiar.
Furthermore, the arc of Bergere has one thing that of Blummenfelt, Yee and Wilde lacks. It is not to say Bergere has the better story, just a different one.
Bergere has his teammates.
At every step, Bergere’s narrative is shaped by those around him as much as it is on his own terms. All of Pierre Le Corre, Dorian Coninx and Vincent Luis will stand in his path at the Test Event. Yet all have been significant thus far and could prove instrumental on the road to come.
Vincent Luis, the former world champion, has his hands full fighting the inevitability of time as much as he does Bergere. For so long, he has been so good. His talent, though, has not been rewarded on the stage Bergere now pursues.
In 2015, Luis finished 2nd at WTCS Abu Dhabi, 3rd at WTCS Cape Town, 3rd at WTCS London, 1st at WTCS Hamburg and then claimed a silver medal at the Rio Olympic Test Event. He was primed, heading into 2016, to take a run at Olympic glory.
Reality did not quite pan out that way. A combination of factors saw Luis race only once in 2016 prior to the Games in which he won the European Sprint title. In Rio, he then faded to 7th place. That itself is a stellar result and there is a case to be made that no one would have beaten Alistair Brownlee and Jonathan Brownlee (save perhaps the injured Javier Gomez Noya).
At the next cycle, Luis entered 2020 as the world champion and the prohibitive favourite to claim Olympic gold. However the pandemic scuppered his plans. By the time the delayed Games came around in 2021, Blummenfelt, Yee and Wilde had risen while Luis fought a niggling calf injury. What had seemed like destiny was denied.
Although he has been injured lately, perhaps Luis will deny Bergere a place on the podium in Paris at the Test Event, transforming from destiny’s target to its executioner. Perhaps others will strike.
Le Corre denied Bergere the win in Sunderland while Coninx has impressed throughout the season.
With respect to both, a seminal moment was passed last season. Think back to Munich. That day Bergere won the European title, he was joined on the podium by Coninx and Le Corre. That snapshot still lingers. While there is no formal hierarchy, the image remains; Bergere is the coming man.
As it happens, Luis and Le Corre were pivotal to Bergere’s success in Abu Dhabi. Without their frankly bonkers effort on the bike, the race would almost certainly have changed course. Looking ahead to Paris, that team work is a weapon no other rival has. Far from blocking Bergere’s path, some combination of Luis, Le Corre or Coninx could well raise him to glory. Maybe the was not written for Luis to win Olympic gold. Maybe it has always been for him to help another over the line.
To that end, the temptation to ask which of the French men will succeed at the Test Event invites the wrong question. On their day, all of them could have justifiably harboured real claims to taking Olympic glory.
However the stories of Luis and Le Corre are nearing their close while Coninx has not quite seized the day in recent years as Bergere has.
Should Bergere earn his Test Event medal, the second priority selection will go to those with a top-8 in Paris and a medal at WTCS Pontevedra. Thereafter, two slots will be available on a discretionary basis if the federation believes they can win an individual or relay Olympic medal.
The question at the Test Event is not about Bergere, then. Rather it is about how the team around him will look. Will Luis, Le Corre or Coninx be able to prove their ability to contest for Olympic medals? Each has won WTCS gold after all. Or will the federation identify that this arc has been about Bergere and build the team around him?
Think about how the story could end.
On the streets of Paris, screamed on by millions of French fans in person and at home, France could assemble arguably the most complete trio of male triathletes to ever grace the Olympic Games. The final configuration is almost irrelevant as any of the four will suffice.
With Le Corre or Luis or Coninx, they can replay the grand strategy of Abu Dhabi and claim the Olympic gold, completing the story to be written of Bergere. To go with that, his teammates have a great chance of joining him on the podium, as would befit their talents.
Should that happen, Bergere will have overcome the three men favoured before him at the start of the cycle as well as three of the most remarkable domestic rivals anyone could face. He will have grown into a medallist, claimed titles, faced setbacks and risen again to take his place at the apogee of the sport.
Moreover, as his attacks in Leeds, Abu Dhabi and Sunderland demonstrated, he has done more on a tactical front than any of his rivals to enliven the racing.
As intriguing as the stories of Blummenfelt, Yee and Wilde are, there is a risk that they are not the main character in this tale. Look around the field. Everyone has a story worth hearing. But the story of this Olympic cycle seems to have a protagonist at its heart.
Maybe all that has been written here turns out to be completely wrong. Life does not always follow the script, as Luis can attest. As the old saying goes, when things look to good to be true, they probably are.
When events look like they have been written in the stars, though, there is a good chance that they may well have been.
