Ironman World Championships split between Kona and France

Ironman Kona World Championship
Getty
0 Comments

The Ironman World Championships for men and women will be split between Nice, France, and the traditional home of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, for the next four years.

Back in November, Ironman organizers announced that the event, founded in Hawaii in 1978, would be split into different hosts for men and women starting in 2023 so that the two fields can “have a focused” race experience.

On Thursday, Nice was named this year’s men’s venue, holding the 140.6-mile triathlon on Sept. 10. The women were previously announced as racing in Kona on Oct. 14.

In 2024, the men will move to Kona and the women in Nice. The rotation will continue in 2025 and 2026.

Nice held the half Ironman world championship (70.3 miles) in 2019.

It’s the latest in a string of changes for the Ironman, which combines a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile marathon run.

The world championships were canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. The 2021 race was rescheduled for this past May 7 and held in St. George, Utah. This past October, the men and women were split up to race on different days as worlds moved back to Kona.

Chelsea Sodaro was the surprise winner of the women’s title, ending the longest American victory drought in the event’s 44-year history.

Sodaro, then a 33-year-old mom to an 18-month-old, became the first American to win in Kona since Tim DeBoom in 2002 and the first American to win the women’s race since Zimbabwean-turned-American Paula Newby-Fraser in 1996. She was an All-America runner at Cal, then placed 19th in the 10,000m at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.

Norwegians Kristian Blummenfelt (Tokyo Olympic gold medalist) and Gustav Iden won the men’s races in St. George and Kona, respectively, last year.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Gwen Jorgensen announces return to triathlon

Gwen Jorgensen
Getty
0 Comments

Gwen Jorgensen, who in 2016 became the first U.S. Olympic triathlon gold medalist and then switched to distance running, is going back to triathlon for a 2024 Olympic bid.

Jorgensen, 36, said she was motivated to do triathlon again by watching the U.S. team that won a silver medal in the first Olympic mixed-gender triathlon relay in Tokyo.

“It’s going to be hard to come back,” Jorgensen said. “I’m also getting older, and a lot of times they say you lose your speed when you get older, but I think that’s a myth, and I want to prove that wrong.”

Jorgensen was arguably the most dominant triathlete in history in the Rio Olympic cycle, winning a record 13 consecutive top-level events — going undefeated for nearly two years — en route to her gold medal.

Then in 2017, she had baby Stanley and, having accomplished every triathlon goal, announced a switch to the marathon with a goal to win the Olympic marathon.

She moved from Minnesota to Oregon. She ran two marathons, placing 13th in New York City in November 2016 in 2:41:01 off triathlon training and then 11th in Chicago in October 2018 in 2:36:23 after a weeklong fever. She didn’t race at all in 2019, sidelined by heel pain, and then opted not to race the Olympic marathon trials in February 2020.

Jorgensen had her second child, George, in October.

The U.S. can qualify up to three women in 2024 for the Paris Games. This past season, the U.S. had the world’s third-, fourth- and 12th-ranked triathletes (Taylor Knibb, Taylor Spivey and Kirsten Kasper). Katie Zaferes, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist, said last month that she plans to return to racing in 2023 for the first time since 2021. She had son Kimble this past July 7.

The next World Triathlon Championship Series season starts in mid-May. Jorgensen will be 38 come the Paris Games, older than any previous U.S. Olympic triathlete, according to Olympedia.org.

“I’m probably going to be forced to race earlier than I’d like to, before I’m fit, before I’m kind of totally ready,” Jorgensen said. “But I’ve just got to dive in and get it started.”

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

2022 Ironman Kona World Championships results

0 Comments

2022 Ironman Kona World Championship top-10 results and notables (full, searchable pro and age group results are here) …

Pro Women
1. Chelsea Sodaro (USA) — 8:33:46 
(First American winner since 2002)
2. Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) — 8:41:37
3. Anne Haug (GER) — 8:42:22
4. Laura Philipp (GER) — 8:50:31
5. Lisa Norden (SWE) — 8:54:43
6. Fenella Langridge (GBR) — 8:56:26
7. Sarah Crowley (AUS) — 9:01:58
8. Daniela Ryf (SUI) — 9:02:26
9. Skye Moench (USA) — 9:04:31
10. Laura Siddall (GBR) — 9:07:49
16. Heather Jackson (USA) — 9:22:17
DNF. Sarah True (USA)

Pro Men
1. Gustav Iden (NOR) — 7:40:24 
(Course Record)
2. Sam Laidlow (FRA) — 7:42:24
3. Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) — 7:43:23
4. Max Neumann (AUS) — 7:44:44
5. Joe Skipper (GBR) — 7:54:05
6. Sebastian Kienle (GER) — 7:55:40
7. Leon Chevalier (FRA) — 7:55:52
8. Magnus Ditley (DEN) — 7:56:38
9. Clement Mignon (FRA) — 7:56:58
10. Patrick Lange (GER) — 7:58:20
11. Cameron Wurf (AUS) — 8:00:51
13. Tim O’Donnell (USA) — 8:02:58
25. Ben Hoffman (USA) — 8:21:55
34. Lionel Sanders (CAN) — 8:32:28

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!