Paris triathlon: Team Germany win gold in the mixed team relay as Team GB take bronze

The defending Olympic champions had a second gold medal whisked from under their noses in the closing stages of today’s mixed team relay triathlon.

Alex Yee, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sam Dickinson and Beth Potter had led for almost the entire four-leg race, but were agonisingly out-kicked at the end by Germany’s Laura Lindemann and, as it would eventually transpire, Team USA’s Taylor Knibb.

A photo finish then decided the silver and bronze, with Team GB’s Potter narrowly taking it from Team USA’s Knibb – or so we thought, and so the result initially showed. But that decision was soon reversed, and Team USA were announced silver medallists, Team GB bronze.

Pre-race favourites Team France, however, had a day to forget, after a leg-one bike accident saw Pierre Le Corre taken down by Hayden Wilde (NZL), meaning the home side, which won bronze in Tokyo, was playing catch-up all morning before finishing a valiant fourth.

What happened pre-race?

Following the one-day delay to the men’s race due to poor water quality, both the individual races took place as triathlons on 31 July and saw two epic battles to crown two new Olympic champions – Cassandre Beaugrand delighting the home crowds for the women and Alex Yee snatching victory at the eleventh hour in the men’s.

Yet just two days later and the water quality was down again, meaning swim familiarisations were off over the weekend before the mixed relay. What’s more, Paris Test Event bronze medallists Team Belgium had been forced to DNS due to Claire Michel falling ill.

But the relay got the green light on the evening of Sunday 4 August, athletes eager to know sooner than with the individual men’s event which came at 4am on 30 July.

And so 16 teams would contest the one-lap 300m swim, two-lap 7km run and two-lap 1.8km run.

What happened on leg one?

Gold medallist Yee led out for defending champions Team GB, taking to the Seine for the first 300m swim leg. Joining him was silver medallist Wilde (NZL) and fourth-place finisher Le Corre for favourites France.

Portugal were put on the back foot from the off thanks to a false start for Ricardo Batista, but it was Spain’s Alberto Gonzalez Garcia who got the better of the tricky currents and was the first out.

Yee managed seventh fastest, Wilde 13th, the latter missing the eventual lead pack which came together on the start of the second of the two-lap 7km bike leg. Wilde joined them later but like in the individual event had to burn more matches than he’d have liked to claw back the deficit.

Just before T2 and Wilde was seen taking an uncharacteristic spill on a corner, but on his wheel was Le Corre, who also hit the deck. While Wilde was quickly back up, Le Corre was seen reattaching his chain – and in an instant, France were out of the running.

On the bell lap of the 1.8km run, Wilde was 23secs back but for Le Corre it was a colossal 37secs. Meanwhile up front, Yee was back where he belongs, right at the front, and passing the baton to Tokyo silver medallist Taylor-Brown.

Tim Hellwig for world champions and Test Event winners Germany wasn’t far behind in second. But France was now in last place, Le Corre handing over to fellow individual race fourth-place finisher Emma Lombardi 40secs back.

What happened on leg two?

Taylor-Brown, sixth in the individual race on Wednesday, maintained the lead out of the Seine, with Germany’s Lisa Tertsch in second and Alice Betto in third for Italy, the pair working as a pair for the first lap before the chase pack of eight joined them for the bike bell lap.

The 2020 world champion Taylor-Brown meanwhile had strung out a 20sec lead. But in that second pack was Paris silver medallist Julie Derron (SUI), Taylor Spivey (USA) and Maya Kingma (NED), now working together to reduce that gap to G-TB.

Lombardi was 43secs down at the end of the swim, the Frenchwoman seen racing solo, the home crowds willing her on.

By T2, Taylor-Brown’s lead had been reduced to 14secs. At the other end came Lombardi, 54secs down.

Hunting down Team GB was Derron and Tertsch, running 10secs down at the bell lap. By the handover, though, Tertsch was narrowly ahead of Taylor-Brown, tagging Lasse Lührs as Dickinson took over Team GB duties.

Bronze medallist Léo Bergere was next up for France, with a 53sec deficit to reduce over his third leg.

What happened on leg three?

Dickinson was first in and out of T1, but he was swiftly joined by Lührs. Despite Derron’s efforts on leg two, her compatriot Sylvain Fridelance was soon swallowed up on the swim pack.

Little changed on leg three as the leading pair were chased by a group of four – Morgan Pearson (USA, and Tokyo mixed team relay silver medallist), Vasco Vilaça (POR), Alessio Crociani (ITA) and Fridelance, 18secs down by T2.

Tokyo champion Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) was 34secs back, while Bergere wasn’t able to eat into the gap, hitting the blue carpet for the run 54secs down.

Dickinson did a stirling job, however, proving any detractors wrong about his decision to not only get the nod for the squad over Jonny Browlee, but also to DNF on purpose in the men’s individual race. He handed over to Paris bronze medallist Potter 5secs over Team Germany’s Laura Lindemann.

Taking over for France for the final leg was Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand, an agonising 59secs behind.

What happened on leg four?

Fifth into the water for leg four was Team USA, but Taylor Knibb had a cracking swim to exit in third place, behind Lindemann in second and Potter in first.

Knibb and Lindemann worked beautifully together to reel in Potter on the second and final bike lap, the trio leading into and out of T2 together. Potter gained a few crucial seconds in transition as both Lindemann and Knibb fumbled with their run shoes, but the German and American were not going to give this up.

The gap to Beaugrand meanwhile was 1:10mins, yet she’d managed to get into fourth place.

Olympic champion Yee could be seen shouting “Believe” at Potter as she ran through for the bell lap. But was it going to be enough? Rounding the final corner, Lindemann had the measure of the chasing pair, Potter digging deep to sprint to the line alongside Knibb.

As Germany celebrated a clear gold, GB and USA had to wait for a photo finish to be assessed. A few seconds later and it was announced – Team GB had the silver, USA the bronze. And then the result was reversed – the final decision concluding that Team USA had in fact taken silver, and Team GB bronze.

Paris Olympics 2024 mixed team relay triathlon top 10 results

1. Team Germany 1:25:39

2. Team United States 1:25:40

3. Team Great Britain 1:25:40

4. Team France 1:26:47

5. Team Portugal 1:27:08

6. Team Italy 1:27:11

7. Team Switzerland 1:27:16

8. Team Brazil 1:27:23

9. Team Spain 1:27:30

10. Team Netherlands 1:27:37