Who are the triathlon Olympic podium contenders at Paris 2024?
While Team GB boasts several medal favourites, Yee, Potter and co. won’t have an easy swim, ride and run of it in Paris. So, let’s meet their main rivals...
Team GB’s triathlon squad heads to the Paris Olympic Games with a target on its back. Boasting both a men’s and a women’s gold-medal favourite (in Alex Yee and Beth Potter), they’re also the reigning mixed team relay Olympic champions (both Yee and teammate Georgia Taylor-Brown were part of the winning quartet in Tokyo).
But who will be out to spoil their week in Paris? Let’s take a look at the qualified men, women and teams who we think are Olympic podium contenders in 2024…
The men to watch
Hayden Wilde
The Falcon’s been flying since his Tokyo bronze medal with four World Series wins. Yee has usually pipped him in their evolving rivalry, but Hayden Wilde has plenty of incentive following Commonwealth silver when he received a harsh transition penalty and a freak injury on the morning of last year’s test event that meant he had to quit on the run.
Matt Hauser
Given its rich tradition in the sport, it’s almost embarrassing that no Australian male has won an Olympic triathlon medal – Matt Hauser could change that. The 26-year-old Queenslander secured a first World Series win in Montreal last year and a runner-up spot in May’s Yokohama WTCS showed he’s a maturing threat on the world stage.
Léo Bergere
Had to wait until early June to confirm his place, but 2022 world champion Léo Bergere makes up a French trio alongside Dorian Coninx and Pierre Le Corre that is so formidable it kept Vincent Luis on the sidelines. Ever consistent, victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Final in 2022 shows Bergere has the temperament to win on the big stage if the opportunity presents.
Also in the mix
The reigning Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt cannot be written off, but having cut down his hectic racing schedule to focus on the Olympics, results haven’t been forthcoming and he’s not been on a World Series podium for almost three years since winning the 2021 grand final.
Portugal’s improving Vasco Vilaça was second in the test event behind Yee and will hope to patch himself up sufficiently from a crash in Yokohama in May.
Morgan Pearson, who won in Japan, only rolled on to the start-list on the eve of the test event last year and yet grabbed an automatic qualifying spot on the US team. Electric on his day, he is a typical boom or bust performer.
The women to watch
Cassandre Beaugrand
Leading French hopes for a first Olympic gold, Cassandre Beaugrand was the only woman to officially hit the host’s tough selection criteria by finishing runner-up in last year’s test event and then proving form with a top six in Cagliari. The 27-year-old put down a marker in Sardinia by finally winning a standard-distance World Series race.
Flora Duffy
The Bermudian and defending Olympic champion Flora Duffy was troubled by injury before Tokyo yet turned form and fitness around in time. Three years on, aged 36, and returning from another long spell on the sidelines, expectations are lower, but the level will need to be lifted even higher to find more medal success in Paris.
Taylor Knibb
Taylor Knibb will have a different run-in to the individual competition because the 26-year-old, who trains in Colorado, is competing in the cycling time-trial four days earlier. The reigning Ironman 70.3 champion will look to add a fast swim and rapid run to the powerhouse biking as she leads the US medal hopes.
Also in the mix
That the French don’t need to pin all medal hopes on Beaugrand was evidenced in May’s Yokohama WTCS where Léonie Périault and Emma Lombardi placed first and third, respectively. The 22-year-old Lombardi’s swim-bike combo puts her consistently in the mix while Periault can unleash a threatening run leg.
So too can Germany’s Lisa Tertsch. The Harvard Economics graduate is emerging from the shadow of junior and U23 champion and team-mate Laura Lindemann. Both are medal chances.
The teams to watch
France
Favourites to dethrone GB’s defending Olympic champions and with the full complement of six athletes to choose from, the French don’t look to have a weakness. They retain the bulk of the squad that landed four consecutive team mixed relay titles from 2018 and with the women on legs two and four, having the fast-finishing Beaugrand or Periault on the anchor could be key.
USA
Taylor Knibb and Morgan Pearson return from the team that picked up silver in Tokyo and will be joined by Seth Rider, picked above the higher ranked Matt McElroy as a relay specialist. Both Taylor Spivey and Kirsten Kasper offer plenty of super sprint pedigree thanks to their success in the Supertri series.
Germany
Victory over GB in the test event and being the reigning relay world champions underline the Germans credentials, and like the French they also have the full quota of six triathletes to pick from. Tim Hellwig, Lasse Lührs and Jonas Schomburg have enough about them to stay in the mix for Tertsch or Lindemann to land a medal on the anchor.
Also in the mix
Elsewhere there will be plenty of nations who believe their best chance of sneaking on to an Olympic podium comes in the relay and not the individual events. Among them are Belgium, who have proven performers in Marten Van Riel and Jelle Geens (who was part of the bronze-medal winning squad at the test event, seen second from right in image above).
Switzerland have a well-rounded quartet with plenty of bike power, and the Antipodeans of Australia and New Zealand, led by Hauser and Wilde respectively, have had success at Commonwealth level, where relays have been taking place since 2014.
Tim Heming
Freelance triathlon journalist 
