Rather than look at individual race results, this post shows aggregate data on 2017 races and answers the questions of which athletes have won multiple IM-distance races, which athletes have continued a “winning streak” on the same course, and which nation was able to score the most long-distance podiums and wins.
Multiple 2017 Winners
In 2016 Daniela Ryf was the only athlete who was able to win three Ironman-distance races. For 2017 the list of athletes with three wins is quite a bit longer:
- Daniela Ryf (IM South Africa, Challenge Roth, and Ironman Hawaii)
- Lucy Gossage (IM UK, IM Wales, and IM Italy)
- Yvonne Van Vlerken (Challenge Wanaka, Challenge Almere, and IM Barcelona)
- Lisa Roberts (Challenge Madrid, IM Louisville, and IM Cozumel)
There are also a number of athletes that had two wins:
- Sarah Crowley (IM Cairns and IM Germany)
- Rachel Joyce (IM Boulder and IM Mont Tremblant)
- Sebastian Kienle (IM Germany and IM Cozumel)
- Bart Aernouts (Ironman Lanzarote and Challenge Roth)
- Diana Riesler (Challenge Regensburg and Ironman Malaysia)
Winning Streaks
In November, Diana Riesler was able to win IM Malaysia for the fourth time in a row (see photo on the right, credit: Darren Ch’ng, Creative Clicks).
Diana’s “four-peat” is the longest currently active winning streak, and there are not many longer winning streaks that I could find: Meredith Kessler won IM New Zealand five times in a row (between 2012 and 2016, even if 2012 was shortened to a half IM) and Jo Lawn even six times in a row (between 2003 and 2008). On the male side, Cam Brown also won IM New Zealand five times in a row between 2001 and 2005. The longest winning streak I could find is Ronnie Schildknecht who won IM Switzerland between 2007 and 2013 seven times in a row.
Other currently active winning streaks are:
- 3 in a row (i.e. wins from 2015 to 2017):
- Daniela Ryf at IM Hawaii
- Lucy Gossage at IM UK
- Lionel Sanders at IM Arizona
- 2 in a row (i.e. wins in 2016 and 2017):
- Mel Hauschildt at IM Western Australia
- Terenzo Bozzone also at IM Western Australia
- Sebastian Kienle at IM Germany
- Ben Hoffman at IM South Africa
Wins by Nation
Here’s a look at how the different nations did in the 2017 Ironman-distance races:
The USA continues to be the most successful nation, but while they were able to have 42 podium results in 2016, there were “only” 34 podiums in 2017. Germany continues to be in second place with 29 podiums (a slight reduction from last year’s 33). Great Britain have made a huge step forward compared to last year when they “only” had four wins and 19 podiums in total. Australia was also able to increase their total (16 podiums last year, 23 this year).