The biggest triathlon battles of 2025 predicted

Wilde and Yee resume rivalries, Lucy Charles-Barclay bounces back, and Jonny Brownlee rediscovers his multisport mojo.

Here are our big pro predictions for 2025 and where the seismic showdowns will take place. Prepare your calendar!

Expect the unexpected

For short-course athletes, 2025 is a post-Olympic Games season, which translates to expect the unexpected.

This is the year where short-course stars break free from the Games’ four-year cycle for a season, try their hand at longer events, attempt off-road ventures, experience single-discipline racing, focus on family, and, well, just have some fun.

In 2013, reigning Olympic champ Alistair Brownlee turned some of his attention to the 10,000m on the track. After another successful Games at Rio 2016, Brownlee first tried his hand at Ironman 70.3 racing the next season, while his fellow Rio gold medallist Gwen Jorgensen took time away to become a mum.

Cut to 2025, and Paris Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand has already raced 5k track events this February, posting a French national record of 14:53 after a final kilometre split of 2:49.

But the most noteworthy move from the Olympic treadmill thus far is the other Paris gold medallist, Alex Yee, taking on the London Marathon in his home city on 27 April.

The Brit’s hero and marathon superstar Eliud Kipchoge has offered his help as a mentor, and Yee is already targeting a 2:07-2:10hr finish—an ambitious target given only two British athletes, Mo Farah and Emile Cairess, have run under this time.

However it ends, it’ll be a fascinating subplot to the London Marathon weekend. Let’s all head to Tower Bridge to cheer him on, tri-style!

Rivalries resumed

Paula Newby-Fraser and Erin Baker. Mark Allen and Dave Scott. Simon Lessing and Spencer Smith. Emma Snowsill and Vanessa Fernandes. The Brownlee brothers and Javier Gomez. Chris McCormack and everyone!

If Lego Batman taught us anything, it’s that superheroes need a rival to get them out of bed in the morning to achieve greater things.

Triathlon’s history has been littered with furious feuds and bitter rivalries, with the result being some of the most epic encounters in endurance sporting history.

The year 2024 can now be added to 1989, 1993, and 2012 as a classic season thanks to the dueling dynamos, Britain’s Yee and New Zealander Hayden Wilde.

First, Yee made that famous comeback win over the Kiwi at the Paris Olympics, before his ice-cold, Cole Palmer-esque celebration while winning Supertri Boston launched a thousand memes.

Wilde, who mirrored the expression of a man who’s just had his chips raided by a seagull at the beach, would romp home in the next Supertri events to clinch the overall championship.

Yet he was again defeated by Yee at the Supertri series finale in Saudi Arabia in another finishing chute classic, with Yee also victorious in the 2024 World Triathlon Championship Series.

Wilde would then suffer more heartache at the Ironman 70.3 Worlds on home soil in Taupo after being edged by Belgium’s Jelle Geens to the title.

With an off-season no doubt spent thinking about those near-misses, you can bet your bottom dollar that Wilde will come back even hungrier for gold in 2025.

The 27-year-old is reportedly targeting T100 and Supertri in 2025 and, having been on the WTCS Abu Dhabi start list, we can expect to see him lock horns with Yee throughout the season in his bid to turn silver into gold.

Jonny be good

After his non-selection for the Paris Olympics, 2024 won’t go down as a season to remember for Jonny Brownlee.

Speaking at a Brownlee Fitness Q&A session in January, the 34-year-old—who somewhat rolled back the years to finish sixth in a stacked field at the Supertri series finale in Neom in November—focused on the need to rediscover his multisport mojo in 2025.

“Without sounding too kind of clichéd, my aim for the next couple of years is to enjoy it. I feel like I’ve lost the enjoyment over the last few years of maybe taking it a bit too seriously.

My body has had niggles, so I just want a couple of years of really enjoying it. More than anything, I want to be competitive in all those races. Go back to why I really started the sport.”

Brownlee has already laid down plans for non-drafting middle-distance racing, hinting at a return to Challenge Gran Canaria in April, where he finished ninth in 2022 in his third middle-distance race.

There’s also his management of the Supertri Brownlee Racing team which remains a key focus, but the Yorkshireman admitted that the debut Ironman Leeds on home soil might be a step too far.

As for his sibling Alistair Brownlee, who announced his retirement from triathlon racing in 2024, he will continue to be a major influence on the present and future of the sport.

From the Brownlee Foundation to Brownlee Fitness and Brownlee Racing, his impact extends beyond competition. He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission and is involved in the new nutrition brand Truefuels and the performance tech company Incus.

Brownlee may also continue to provide a sounding board for athletes beginning the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle, including Britain’s Beth Potter, and we’d love to see him racing some gravel bike events again.

Flora spreads her wings

Tough as teak. Strong across all disciplines. As technical as they come. As her Olympic Games gold, ITU World Championship, Commonwealth Games, and multiple Xterra World titles prove, Flora Duffy is one of the all-time greats of triathlon.

And while there’s never a sure thing in elite triathlon racing, hopes are high for more world-topping feats as the 37-year-old fully transitions to middle-distance racing.

Despite the 2024 Paris Olympics—where she gamely took control of the race on the bike leg before finishing fifth—being her chief focus after an injury-ravaged 2023, the Bermudan still finished the 2024 season fifth in the overall T100 standings after podiuming in Las Vegas and at the Grand Final in Dubai.

Duffy is now targeting T100 glory in 2025 for her first full season on the T100 Triathlon World Tour, while there’s also the matter of the Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Marbella, Spain, on 9 November.

The T100 (2km swim/80km bike/18km run) season starts in Singapore from 5-6 April before heading to San Francisco (31 May-1 June), Vancouver (13-15 June), and the French Riviera from 27-29 June.

The series, which also hosts age-group triathlons and duathlons, ventures to London’s Docklands from 9-10 August, Spain and Las Vegas (dates TBC), before Dubai from 15-16 November and the Grand Final in Qatar from 12-13 December.

Some $7 million in prize money will be awarded to T100 athletes, with 2024’s undefeated T100 champ Taylor Knibb of the USA back to defend her title alongside a host of short-course racers, including Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle, Paris silver medallist Julie Derron, and Brits Lucy Byram, India Lee, Emma Pallant, and Lucy Charles-Barclay.

On the men’s side, 2024’s T100 champ Marten Van Riel, Ironman 70.3 world champ Jelle Geens, and Ironman Pro Series winner George Barnaby are already contracted.

Meanwhile, non-contracted superstars Hayden Wilde, Leo Bergere, and Vincent Luis have been awarded Hot Shot status for 2025.

Lucy bounces back

After four silver medals in the Ironman World Championships, Lucy Charles-Barclay finally achieved her dream at Kona in 2023 with a course record-smashing 8:24:31 split to boot.

However, 2024 wasn’t so kind to the Hoddesdon hero. After two second-place finishes in the T100 events in Miami and Singapore and a convincing win at Ironman France, an Achilles injury at the T100 London event and a calf issue just before race day saw the Brit unable to defend her Ironman World Championship title in Nice.

“2024 has been a year of significant tests and challenges, marked by few highs and many lows,” said Charles-Barclay in an Instagram post (@lucycharles93) in late December.

“Despite its difficulties, I’ve come to realize that it’s in the toughest times we experience the most growth, and for that, I am grateful for everything 2024 has thrown my way.

One thing is for sure: despite the hard times, I love my job more than ever, and this leaves me optimistic and excited for what 2025 has in store.”

So, what does 2025 have in store for the now 31-year-old Brit? She was the final contracted female athlete to join the 2025 T100 series, meaning we can expect to see her racing across the globe in the 2km swim/80km bike/18km events.

But what of the Ironman Worlds, which return to the hallowed ground of Kona in 2025 for female racers?

Having watched the 2024 event from the sidelines, we’d be surprised to see the fierce competitor resist the urge to return to the scene of her greatest triumph and resume rivalries with fellow Brit Kat Matthews, Chelsea Sodaro, Anne Haug, and reigning champ Laura Philipp.

As for the men’s 2025 Ironman World Championships, these are set for Nice on 14 September, where Patrick Lange will be defending his title from 2024.

Attempting to wrestle it from him will be Sam Laidlow and Kristian Blummenfelt—the Norwegian colossus who has dubbed 2025 his ‘revenge’ season and Nice as his ‘A-race,’ along with Ironman Pro Series glory. Ditto his compatriot Gustav Iden. The stage could be set for a classic race.

Short-course choices

If T100 versus the Ironman Pro Series is the key decision for long-course athletes in 2025, for short-course speedsters, it’s all about balancing the Supertri League Series with the World Triathlon Championship Series.

It’s fair to say Supertri has shaken up the elite side of the sport since its debut in 2017, with its multi-discipline races and the chopping up of the standard swim/bike/run order making it required viewing for armchair tri fans.

The 2024 series was arguably the best Supertri season yet, thanks to the epic encounters between Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde in the men’s events, as well as Brit Georgia Taylor-Brown’s dominant displays in the women’s.

The full 2025 series is still TBC (head to 220triathlon.com for news), but Chicago from 23-24 August and Toulouse from 4-5 October are confirmed, while our Supertri source says there could be some new destinations in the globe-trotting tour.

The WTCS, meanwhile, mixes a host of regular series locations with some new additions to the draft-legal circuit, including Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic on 14 September, Weihei in China on 26 September, and the Grand Finals in Wollongong, Australia, from 15-19 October.

There, Alex Yee and Cassandre Beaugrand will be defending their 2024 titles against the likes of Hayden Wilde, Léo Bergère, Beth Potter, and Emma Lombardi.

André: The sporting giant

Challenge has announced a humdinger of a pro field roster for the 2025 edition of Challenge Roth on 6 July.

The men’s field will see a Bavarian battle between long-distance forces and ITU graduates, with the 2023 Ironman world champion, Sam Laidlow, as the major star on one of 226km racing’s fastest courses.

The outspoken French racer faces familiar competition in Bart Aernouts, Matt Hanson, and Denis Chevrot, as well as a host of short-course racers, including Vincent Luis, Henri Schoeman, and Aaron Royle, who will line up on the starting pontoon in the Main-Donau-Kanal.

The women’s field, meanwhile, will feature the British triumvirate of Nikki Bartlett, Laura Siddall, and Fenella Langridge, taking on reigning Ironman world champion Laura Philipp on home soil.

There’s also the news that German football World Cup winner André Schürrle is set to race in Bavaria. Schürrle, 34, may have hung up his football boots at the young age of 29, but he has so far avoided the usual post-football path of punditry, golf, or coaching, instead pursuing high-adrenaline activities such as extreme mountain climbing (often in sub-zero temperatures and often topless), swimrun, trekking, and the Barcelona Marathon.

While Schürrle’s four-hour marathon personal best is unlikely to see him trouble the pointy end of one of triathlon’s fastest 226km races, if he can attract more people to the sport and to the famous Solar Berg incline in Bavaria, then everyone is a winner. As long as he remembers to wear more than just a pair of shorts…

Key 2025 races: The major pro races of the season

• 6 July 2025 – Challenge Roth, Bavaria, Germany.
• 14 September – Ironman World Championships (Men), Nice, France.
• 11 October – Ironman World Championships (Women), Kona, Hawaii.
• 15-19 October – World Triathlon Championship Series Grand Final, Wollongong, Australia.
• 9 November – Ironman 70.3 World Championships, Marbella, Spain.
• 12-13 December – T100 Grand Final, Qatar.