Ironman Worlds: An all-women Ironman World Championship is a must, says Chelsea Sodaro
The 2022 Ironman world champion believes returning to a one-day event where the men and women share the race course would be a backward step for triathlon
Chelsea Sodaro said she’s “a strong advocate for an all-women world championship” after returning to the podium with third place in Nice behind German champion Laura Philipp and Britain’s Kat Matthews.
Following Hawaii in the last two years, it was the third time women’s event was given its own dedicated race day at the full distance, and the 2022 Ironman world champion added: “I think it’s really important that the women’s world champion crosses the finish line first, has proper media coverage and that you are all here to witness the women doing amazing things.”
Sodaro’s view underscores the stance taken by Ironman following the pandemic that it was time to split the men’s and women’s Ironman World Championship races and give each gender its own day.
That decision will now face further scrutiny following a women’s field of around 1,200 starters in Nice that despite a changed and more relaxed qualification criteria is fewer than half the number of slots Ironman would have ideally liked to fill.
As well as the race being moved from Kona reducing demand, another question organisers will wrestle with is whether the tough bike course in the Maritime Alps with over 8,000ft plus of climbing put off women from signing up.
“I thought it was a spectacular day and we were all very well equipped to handle a course like this,” Sodaro added. It’s a point that would certainly be endorsed by the day’s oldest competitor, Missy Lestrange who, 72 years young, finished in 15:13:39 to win her age-group at the World Championship for a 19th time.
While there might be strong opinions on where Ironman goes from here, what wasn’t in doubt was the intensity of women’s racing on Sunday on the Cote d’Azur.
“It was a pretty hard fought swim, bike and run for me today,” Sodaro continued. “When competing against athletes like this you have to put it all on the course and see where you end up and I did my best at that today.”
Sodaro had to dig particularly deep in the second half of the marathon, when the lack of run training in the build-up caught up with her. “I cracked my patella and had Achilles tendinitis, so about a month ago it was too painful to run even on the Boost [anti-gravity machine],” she said. “I was driving 3hrs a day to get treatment and it was pretty gnarly, but so much of the sport is getting through your preparation in one piece and I did my very best to do that this year.”
Sodaro said it was only thanks to her team that she made it to the start, taking the time to thank and list each one of them in the reply. “About a month ago I thought this was unlikely, but it has been an adventure getting here,” she added. “I’ve an amazing team around me and they’ll do a really good job of keeping me on course heading into Kona next year.”
The lack of run volume eventually meant that her quads fatigued on the punishing four loops along the Promenade des Anglais, but while it ended any hope of chasing down Kat Matthews for second place, having come off the bike in fourth and overtaken Marjolaine Pierre, Sodaro didn’t look in danger of being caught for the podium either. Despite the suffering, a 2:54:25 marathon was still the third fastest of the day.
“It took a lot of grit to get to the finish line, but I have such an amazing team here that have supported me so well, I wanted to bring them home some hardware,” she continued.
“I am really proud of what I’ve accomplished. When you reach the top step at the Ironman World Championship all you want to do is achieve that again. I continue to work for that goal, but was bested by two amazing athletes today and I’m really happy for Laura, she deserves this title.”
Tim Heming
Freelance triathlon journalist 
