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Women’s Ironman World Championship 2023 – How the Race Unfolded

Here are the Top 10 finishers from the women’s 2023 Ironman World Championship in Kona and a few others who played an important role as the race progressed:

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money
1 Lucy Charles-Barclay GBR 00:49:36 (1) 04:32:29 (1) 02:57:38 (4) 08:24:31 -13:42 US$ 125,000
2 Anne Haug GER 00:54:10 (18) 04:40:23 (10) 02:48:23 (1) 08:27:33 -06:13 US$ 65,000
3 Laura Philipp GER 00:56:49 (26) 04:35:52 (3) 02:55:24 (3) 08:32:55 -04:23 US$ 45,000
4 Taylor Knibb USA 00:51:16 (7) 04:34:00 (2) 03:05:13 (10) 08:35:56 n/a US$ 25,000
5 Daniela Ryf SUI 00:54:11 (19) 04:38:34 (4) 03:02:11 (7) 08:40:34 02:06 US$ 20,000
6 Chelsea Sodaro USA 00:54:00 (12) 04:50:35 (23) 02:53:02 (2) 08:42:25 07:34 US$ 18,000
7 Skye Moench USA 00:56:47 (24) 04:38:44 (6) 03:02:40 (8) 08:43:34 -07:59 US$ 15,000
8 Sarah True USA 00:54:02 (14) 04:46:15 (14) 03:02:09 (6) 08:47:06 -00:27 US$ 13,000
9 Lisa Norden SWE 00:54:08 (17) 04:38:36 (5) 03:11:18 (16) 08:49:36 -02:31 US$ 12,000
10 Jocelyn McCauley USA 00:54:04 (15) 04:38:53 (7) 03:12:56 (19) 08:50:39 -09:40 US$ 11,000
11 Hannah Berry NZL 00:53:39 (10) 04:46:31 (15) 03:08:39 (13) 08:53:45 -11:46 US$ 8,000
12 Ruth Astle GBR 00:59:39 (31) 04:39:03 (8) 03:11:54 (18) 08:55:35 -02:49 US$ 6,000
13 Penny Slater AUS 00:56:52 (28) 04:47:17 (17) 03:08:08 (12) 08:57:17 -18:41 US$ 5,000
14 Svenja Thoes GER 00:56:51 (27) 04:55:12 (30) 03:01:07 (5) 08:58:30 -09:28 US$ 4,000
15 Els Visser NED 00:56:48 (25) 04:43:53 (12) 03:14:02 (22) 08:59:16 -04:16 US$ 3,000
16 Laura Siddall GBR 00:59:55 (37) 04:43:17 (11) 03:11:19 (17) 08:59:51 -05:51
Katrina Matthews GBR 00:54:06 (16) DNF

You can find the full results in my Kona Results post.

The following graph shows how the race developed (click for a hi-res version):

Top10 Women.

Here’s a short summary of the race:

  • Lucy Charles-Barclay took control of the race in the swim – and never surrendered her first position. Posting the fastest bike leg and a strong 2:57 marathon, she won her first Ironman World Championship after finishing in second place four times.
  • Behind Lucy, Ironman rookie Taylor Knibb was in second place for most of the day before losing two spots after the Energy Lab and crossing the finish line in fourth place.
  • There were a lot of small shifts behind Lucy and Taylor but no big time gaps were created on the bike. On the run, Anne Haug had the fastest marathon of the day and ran herself into second place.
  • Laura Philipp overcame a small swim deficit in the first part of the bike, then also ran well to overtake Taylor in the final miles, claiming her first full-distance World Championship podium.

0 IMHawaii2023-Podium.

(All photos are kindly supplied by Marcel Hilger.)

Let’s have a closer look at each of the top finishers.

Ironman World Champion: Lucy Charles-Barclay

Leading from start to finish, Lucy won her first Kona title and also set a new course record:

Lucy erased any doubts about how aggressive she would swim and gapped the rest of the field very early. Until the turn, her lead was relatively small, but then she grew the gap on the way back, reaching T1 90 seconds ahead of Haley Chura, Lauren Brandon and a few more strong swimmers. Once on the bike, only Taylor Knibb rode at a similar pace to Lucy. Their pace in the first half was off-the-charts: Both rode the first 59.5 miles to the turn in Hawi with exactly the same split of 2:23:02 – five(!) minutes quicker than Daniela Ryf in 2018 when she set the bike course record.

1 IMHawaii2023-LucyBike.

Behind Taylor, everyone else fell further behind, and by T2 Lucy had a gap of almost eleven minutes to third place. Daniela had ridden the return leg in 2018 exceptionally well and the conditions were not quite as fast in 2023. Even if Lucy’s 2023 bike split of 4:32 was six minutes slower than Daniela’s 4:26, Lucy had the fastest bike split, in the second half she put another two minutes and more into the rest of the field. Even though Lucy struggled with a painful calf tear, she was running well and there was only the occasional misstep that showed she was racing on the edge. Outwardly, there was never any doubt about her win, and she posted a fourth-best 2:57 marathon, a new run PR. She also set a new Kona course record, two minutes quicker than Daniela in the calm 2018 conditions.

Second Place: Anne Haug

With her second place, Anne now has a full set of Ironman World Championship medals (after winning in 2019 and third places in 2018 and 2022):

Anne’s day started with a solid swim, about 4:30 back in a bigger group with most of the favorites. Even with a few slower swimmers catching up, that group was getting smaller in the early miles on the bike. Anne didn’t seem too happy with the on-and-off pace in the group and she let them ride away in the climb to Hawi. On balance, riding at her own pace seemed to be a good decision: She lost more time to Lucy at the front and some time to those she let go, but a lot of others fell back and Anne was riding well in the Top 10. In previous years, Anne struggled a bit in the last hour of the bike – this year she was the fastest athlete in that section, almost catching the first big chase group with Laura and others. She started the run in seventh place just over 12 minutes behind Lucy – when she won in 2019 she was over eight minutes behind.

2 IMHawaii2023-AnneRun.

Once again, Anne was clearly the fastest runner in the field, climbing into fourth place in the first few miles, then catching and overtaking Laura after the climb on Palani after mile 10. At that point she had already halved the gap to Taylor who was running in second place, eventually catching her in the Energy Lab. Even if Lucy seemed out of reach, Anne kept up the pace, set a new run course record and finished in second place.

Third Place: Laura Philipp

After two fourth places in 2019 and 2022, Laura Philipp improved one spot to claim her first podium result:

Laura was probably looking for a swim as in Roth earlier this year, close to Anne and her other main competitors, but she lost contact with them early in the swim and had to settle for leading the group behind them. She entered T1 seven minutes behind Lucy and almost three minutes behind the group around Anne. But she was not discouraged and started the bike riding hard. Only Els Visser was able to ride a similar pace to her, and they quickly gained ground to the Anne group: In the first 25 miles, they had closed the gap to just a few remaining seconds. Laura had overcome her swim deficit and now had a chance to recover from a hard first hour on the bike.

3 IMHawaii2023-LauraBike.

After Kawaihae (about mile 45), she moved forward in the group which quickly shattered in the climb up to the turn in Hawi. After Hawi, she was riding in a small group with Lisa Norden and Jocelyn McCauley – with only Lucy and Taylor in front of them. But after mile 80, their pace slowed down slightly: Lucy and Taylor started to increase their lead over them and others behind them were able to make up a bit of time to them. Laura’s small group had been able to ride away from Daniela and Anne, but Anne had been able to close the gap to them from over three minutes at mile 80 down to about 90 seconds in T2. By then, Laura was also more than ten minutes behind Lucy and six and a half behind Taylor.

On the run, she quickly asserted that she was the fastest runner in her little group, but it also quickly became obvious that Anne was running faster and should be able to catch her. Laura seemed to struggle a bit with the heat running up Palani, and soon after Anne caught and overtook her, quickly putting time between them. Coming out of the Energy Lab at about mile 21, Laura was in fourth place, two minutes behind Taylor. Her husband and coach Philipp Seipp gave her some extra encouragement for another push in the final 10k. Laura continued to run well but the gap to Taylor didn’t shrink fast enough. But after mile 24, Taylor ran a bit out of steam, and within the last 5k Laura was able to run almost five minutes into Taylor. With the third-best marathon of the day, Laura claimed third place.

Fourth Place: Taylor Knibb

Taylor didn’t disappoint at all in her first Ironman, making the race more interesting and finishing in fourth place:

As Taylor had received her Kona slot based on her win at the 2022 70.3 World Championships and had never raced a full Ironman race, there was a lot of discussion before the race about her chances, how aggressive she should race in her first Ironman race and what decisions she would make on race day. Once the gun went off, it quickly became apparent that this race would start differently to the two head-to-heads between Lucy and Taylor in 2022 when Taylor was just a few seconds behind Lucy after the swim. In Kona 2023, Taylor reached T1 in seventh place, 100 seconds behind Lucy. Taylor rode well at the start of the bike and overtook everyone who swam with her.

4 IMHawaii2023-TaylorBike.

After 20 miles, Taylor was alone in no-man’s land – one and a half minutes behind Lucy but also about four minutes ahead of the other favorites. Taylor stayed calm and rode her own pace, not making up time to Lucy but still putting more time into the chasers. At the turn in Hawi, Lucy was two minutes ahead but the next athlete behind Taylor was Daniela who was five minutes behind.

With the camera on Taylor, you could see her lose a couple of water bottles from her behind-the-saddle cage. Before the race, Ironman had announced that they would more strongly enforce the no-litter-rule and that referees would give out one-minute penalties for unintentional littering. After about four hours in the race, Taylor dropped another bottle and she was given a penalty. She wasn’t able to serve the penalty before T2: The penalty tent at mile 28 – on the way towards Hawi on the northern side of the road – becomes the penalty tent at mile 85 – on the way back to town on the southern side of the road – by moving the tent across the road. However, that is only viable when all athletes have already passed the penalty tent on the way out – and Taylor reached mile 85 before the tent was no longer needed at mile 28. Therefore she had to continue past the tent and ride on until shortly before T2. As she was told before mile 85 that she had to continue she did not lose any time for this organizational issue and it probably didn’t impact her race.

After a short stop at the tent half a mile before T2 to finally serve her penalty, Taylor started the run two minutes behind Lucy and ran at a similar pace to her. In the Energy Lab, she needed a quick bathroom break and was about to be overtaken by Anne. Somewhere around mile 24, it seems that Taylor ran out of energy and had to slow down a bit, giving Laura a chance to catch and overtake her. Still, Taylor was about five minutes ahead of fifth place and could cruise to finish in fourth place.

Fifth Place: Daniela Ryf

Daniela tried a few things early on in the bike to push the pace but never quite got into contention for the win. Still, she ran well to finish fifth:

Daniela’s race started with a typical swim for her with most of the favorites, starting the bike about four and a half minutes behind Lucy. Her first hour on the bike was also typical: She gained a few spots in the field but there were no big changes in the race situation. But then after about 30 miles, Daniela started to move away from the other athletes she was riding with, quickly building a lead of about a minute to Anne and others.

5a IMHawaii2023-DanielaBike2.

But Daniela was still losing time to Lucy, by the turn in Hawi she was seven minutes behind and the gap to the athletes behind also started to get smaller. By mile 70, she was caught by Laura, Lisa and Jocelyn and wasn’t able to stay with them for long, quickly falling a minute behind them. But that also wasn’t a decisive change, the gap stayed about the same for the next 30 miles and then even started to shrink in the last half hour on the bike.

By T2, Daniela had almost ridden up to them, starting the run in sixth place eleven minutes behind Lucy but only 25 seconds behind the podium ranks. In the first few miles of the run, Daniela gained two spots by overtaking Lisa and Jocelyn but then also lost one spot to Anne who was clearly running faster. At the run turn on the Queen K after 6k, Daniela was in fifth place and nothing would change for Daniela in the remaining two and a half hours of the race. Daniela was running a solid marathon just over three hours – those in front of her were putting time into her while she was running faster than those behind her. Even running on her own, she was able to keep her mind engaged, probably knowing that it was her final Kona race. (She made an official announcement after the race.) She had a much better marathon than last year when she ran a 3:22 to finish eighth. This year, she ran a 3:02 to finish fifth and when Chelsea was getting closer, she was even able to pick up the pace at the end.

Sixth Place: Chelsea Sodaro

The defending champion fell out of contention after the first third of the bike and lost a lot of time, then had the second-fastest marathon to run into sixth place:

In the swim, Chelsea was only a few more seconds behind Lucy as last year (4:23 vs. 3:50 in 2022), but last year she had been able to swim slightly quicker than most of the other favorites while this year Anne, Daniela, Lisa and others were within seconds of her at the start of the bike. That was more or less the group Chelsea was riding with for the first 45 miles until the climb up to Hawi started and Chelsea lost contact to them. After the race she revealed that a hip injury made it hard for her to ride hard. When others forced the pace, Chelsea fell further and further back.

6 IMHawaii2023-ChelseaBike.

By T2, she was 21st, more than 22 minutes behind Lucy and ten minutes behind Anne. It would have been easy to call it a day, but Chelsea felt she had more to give – and what a marathon she delivered! The second-best marathon of the day saw her move back into the Top 10 by mile 15, and after 40k of the run and eight and a half hours of racing, she climbed into sixth place, showing remarkable persistence in making the best of a bad bike ride and proving once again that she is one of the best runners in women’s triathlon.

Seventh Place: Skye Moench

After losing time in the swim, Skye ran her own race and finished seventh:

Among the Top 10 contenders, Skye probably had one of the slower swims, starting the bike with Laura over seven minutes behind Lucy in 24th place – while she probably would have liked to be with Anne and others who were two and a half minutes ahead. But that almost didn’t seem to matter to her, she was riding her own pace and not losing any additional time to the chase group. For the first 50 miles, not much had changed but when things started to get hard on the climb to Hawi Skye quickly climbed the ranks.

7 IMHawaii2023-SkyeBike.

By T2 Skye was in eighth place, still only two and a half minutes behind Lisa Norden or Jocelyn McCauley who she should be able to catch on the run. By mile 12, Skye had caught both of them and was running in sixth place. Around mile 15, she had to slow down a bit and her forward progress in the field didn’t continue. In the last miles, Skye was caught by a much faster-running Chelsea and had to settle for seventh place. Still, being the first finisher behind the six title contenders ahead of her and after a sub-standard swim is a very respectable result for Skye.

Eighth Place: Sarah True

A solid day for Sarah True saw her finish in eighth place:

Sarah was able to swim in the first big chase group with most of the top favorites, and she was also able to ride with them for the first 45 miles. Just like Chelsea, she had to drop back once the race for the podium started for real. After the turn, Sarah was able to move away from Chelsea in the first half of the bike and in the final miles caught a few athletes who had ridden too hard. She reached T2 in tenth place but the gaps to the slower runners ahead of her were quite big. In the end, a 3:02 marathon was the sixth-best of the day and enough to climb into eighth place.

8 IMHawaii2023-SarahT.

Ninth Place: Lisa Norden & Tenth Place: Jocelyn McCauley

Once again, Lisa and Jocelyn used their strong bike legs to claim Kona Top 10 finishes:

09 Lisa 10 Jocelyn.

After swimming in the main chase group with Anne and Daniela, Lisa and Jocelyn took their time before playing the “bike card”.

9 IMHawaii2023-LisaBike.

On the climb to Hawi, they teamed up with Laura and started to put time into the rest of the contenders. But they weren’t able to close the gap to the front and also started to fade a bit towards the end of the bike, allowing Daniela and Anne to get back most of the time they had lost earlier.

10 IMHawaii2023-JocelynBike.

Out of T2, Jocelyn was slightly faster but then Lisa moved ahead, and for the whole run course they were never more than two minutes apart. Both are not known as strong runners and they were overtaken by Anne, Daniela, Skye, Sarah and Chelsea – but their 3:11 and 3:12 marathons were still good enough to claim the last two spots in the Top 10.

Eleventh to Sixteenth Place .. and a DNF

Here’s a look at a few more interesting athletes at Kona:

For the first three hours of the race, Hannah Berry was in a good position in the big chase group with most of the favorites. But when the pace picked up in the climb to Hawi, she started to fall back and by T2 had lost six minutes to Anne. Starting the run in 11th place, she ran well but wasn’t able to make up any ground and also finished in 11th.

Ruth Astle had struggled with a run injury for most of the season so it wasn’t clear what she’d be able to do after finishing the bike in ninth place. With a 3:11, she lost three spots to finish in twelfth, still well inside the money ranks.

Penny Slater‘s race went well for the first two hours before she received a penalty and instead of riding in the second chase group she fell back into 31st place. By T2 she had worked herself back into 20th, and with a solid 3:08 marathon she gained a few more spots on the run to finish thirteenth.

After a good swim in the chase group, Svenja Thoes was losing time on the bike, and she started the tun in 28th place. It took a fifth-best 3:01 marathon to climb into the money ranks.

After Els Visser lost some time in the swim, she rode with Laura back into the chase group. Then she stayed with Anne but started to fall back in the final bike miles. At the end of the marathon, she won the fight with Laura for the last money spot.

Laura Siddall had received a wild card for Kona and was able to show that she deserved it: It was only in the last few miles that she fell out of the money ranks, finishing 16th just 35 seconds behind Els.

Before the race, Kat Matthews was considered one of the top favorites. However, she fell behind the chase group on the climb to Hawi and was forced to end her race when she was weaving across the road.

Men’s Ironman World Championship 2023 – How the Race Unfolded

Here are the Top 10 finishers from the men’s 2023 Ironman World Championship in Nice and others who played an important role as the race progressed:

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money
1 Sam Laidlow FRA 00:47:50 (5) 04:31:28 (1) 02:41:46 (6) 08:06:22 -26:44 US$ 125,000
2 Patrick Lange GER 00:49:01 (13) 04:43:24 (10) 02:32:41 (1) 08:10:17 -10:04 US$ 65,000
3 Magnus Ditlev DEN 00:49:14 (19) 04:35:54 (2) 02:41:07 (5) 08:11:43 -07:30 US$ 45,000
4 Rudy Von Berg USA 00:47:50 (5) 04:37:23 (4) 02:42:44 (7) 08:12:57 -19:35 US$ 25,000
5 Leon Chevalier FRA 00:51:11 (31) 04:39:30 (5) 02:39:26 (4) 08:15:07 -21:08 US$ 20,000
6 Arthur Horseau FRA 00:53:19 (36) 04:42:19 (6) 02:37:17 (3) 08:18:36 -11:16 US$ 18,000
7 Bradley Weiss ZAF 00:47:55 (11) 04:44:23 (11) 02:43:22 (8) 08:20:54 -12:06 US$ 15,000
8 Gregory Barnaby ITA 00:47:51 (7) 04:44:23 (11) 02:44:04 (11) 08:21:15 03:05 US$ 13,000
9 Robert Wilkowiecki POL 00:47:48 (4) 04:44:36 (13) 02:43:45 (10) 08:21:23 -16:40 US$ 12,000
10 Clement Mignon FRA 00:47:59 (12) 04:43:03 (9) 02:47:55 (12) 08:24:10 -04:41 US$ 11,000
11 Matthew Marquardt USA 00:47:46 (1) 04:49:11 (17) 02:43:44 (9) 08:26:17 -03:30 US$ 8,000
14 Cameron Wurf AUS 00:51:07 (28) 04:36:03 (3) 02:58:40 (22) 08:30:42 -07:37 US$ 4,000
16 Braden Currie NZL 00:47:46 (1) 04:46:37 (16) 02:58:01 (21) 08:38:50 08:38
24 Jan Frodeno GER 00:47:47 (3) 04:44:59 (14) 03:08:12 (26) 08:48:42 22:04

You can find the full results in my Nice Results post.

The following graph shows how the race developed (click for a hi-res version):

Men Top10

Let’s start with a short summary of the race:

  • In the swim, a group of eleven athletes including Jan Frodeno, Sam Laidlow and other pre-race favorites was able to break away from the rest of the field, the first chase group including Patrick Lange and Magnus Ditlev was  just a minute behind.
  • The front group split up as soon as they hit the first hills. Sam Laidlow pushed the pace, for the first 40 miles Clement Mignon was able to ride with him but then had to let Sam go as well. Sam posted the fastest bike split of the day and built a lead of about five minutes into T2.
  • In the second half of the bike leg, Rudy von Berg and Magnus Ditlev were the closest chasers of Sam. Cam Wurf was able to improve his position on the bike but never got further ahead than fourth place. All other athletes were at least ten minutes back, and most of the other “big names” reached T2 within 2 minutes of each other.
  • On the run, Sam had a very solid 2:41 marathon and his win never was in doubt. Once he found his rhythm, Patrick Lange was the fastest runner of the field, with his 2:32 marathon he was able to move into second place. Magnus Ditlev ran slightly quicker than Rudy von Berg, they finished third and fourth.

(All photos are kindly supplied by Marcel Hilger.)

Compared to earlier Ironman World Championships in Kona, how unusual were these results in Nice?

  • Sam Laidlow was the first French winner of IM Worlds.
  • The French men further increased their impact on the race. Before 2022, there were a few French in the Top 10 – the first one was Nice race director Yves Cordier in 1989. There were two French Top 10 athletes in May in St. George (Chevalier and Laidlow) and three in October in Kona (adding Mignon). In Nice there was another new athlete (Horseau), leading to a record four French athletes in the Top 10.
  • Nice also had the first Italian (Barnaby) and first Polish (Wilkowicki) athletes in the Top 10.

The next Ironman World Championships in Kona will indicate how much of these trends were influenced by the different location in Nice instead of Kona.

The rest of this post is a closer look at the main athletes and how their days unfolded.

Ironman World Champion: Sam Laidlow

After finishing second in Kona the year before, Sam Laidlow was able to win the 2023 title:

1 Sam

After a good swim in the front group, Sam took some extra time to put on his “aero socks”, losing almost a minute in T1. He quickly closed that gap in the flat section along the Mediterranean and with Clement Mignon started to move away from almost everyone else in the first climbs. 25k into the bike, they were already more than a minute ahead of Braden Currie and one and a half minutes ahead of a shrinking chase group. Sam and Clement stayed together in the second big climb as well, but then Sam slowly built a lead in the flatter middle section.

By 100k, Sam was four minutes ahead of Rudy von Berg and Magnus Ditlev. In the final descent back to sea level, Rudy was only able to get back a few seconds, and at the start of the run Sam’s lead was 5:36 over Rudy and 6:00 over Magnus. Sam posted the fast bike leg of 4:31, four and a half minutes quicker than Magnus and Cam Wurf.

At the start of the run in Kona 2022, Sam was 6:19 ahead of Gustav Iden, Kristian Blummenfelt and Max Neumann. But other than last year, his chasers in Nice weren’t really able to reduce his lead: After three of four run laps, he was still six minutes ahead of Magnus. In the end, Sam ran a 2:41 marathon, the sixth-best in the field, and won the Ironman World Championships with a final gap of 3:55.

Second Place: Patrick Lange

Patrick Lange had the best marathon of the day which saw him finish second:

2 Patrick

Patrick just missed the first fast swim pack, in T2 he was a minute behind the trailing swimmer in the first group but leading the second group that included some strong bike riders such as Magnus Ditlev. Once Patrick hit the hills, he was not able to stay with Magnus. Even if he was riding in 15th and continued to lose time to the front, he got a boost from catching up to Jan Frodeno after three hours of racing. He must have felt even better when he was able to ride away from Frodo in the climb to Coursegoules around mile 75. He was overtaking a few other athletes and was in a solid Top 10 position – but already more than ten minutes behind the lead. He lost some more time in the final flat section and started the run in ninth place, exactly 13 minutes behind Sam and seven minutes behind Magnus in third. How far ahead would a good marathon carry him?

As is typical for him, Patrick’s start of the marathon looked “slow”, for example Gregory Barnaby was able to put forty seconds into him in the first 4k of the run. But Patrick’s run pace is unrelenting – once he has dialed into his pace, he won’t slow down. At the end of the first run lap, Patrick had caught Gregory Barnaby and already moved into fifth place. The gap to the podium had come down to just under five minutes, even if Sam seemed out of reach for him with a lead of over eleven minutes. In each of the final three laps, Patrick was able to make up one spot: In lap 2 he caught Cam Wurf, in lap 3 Rudy von Berg and at the start of the final lap he passed Magnus for second place. Patrick ran a 2:32 marathon, the fastest of the day by almost four minutes over Matt Hanson (who finished 21st) and also the fastest ever in an Ironman World Championship.

Third Place: Magnus Ditlev

After a strong bike and run, Magnus Ditlev claimed the final podium spot:

3 Magnus

Similar to Patrick, Magnus also lost some time in the swim (he exited the water 12 seconds behind Patrick) and then some more time in T1. At the start of the bike he was more than a minute behind Patrick, but made up most of that in the flat section at the start and quickly overtook Patrick in the first climbs. But at that point, Sam had already started to push the pace at the front, and by mile 20 Sam was almost three minutes ahead. Then Magnus started to ride a bit quicker than Sam and also gained quite a few spots: By mile 35 he had ridden into 4th place, and the gap had slightly shrunk down to just over two and a half minutes.

It was expected that the rolling middle section would suit Magnus and others who could push big watts, but Sam rode that part hard and faster than everyone else. Magnus continued to lose time to Sam, and Rudy von Berg was even able to ride away  from him in the closing downhill. Magnus was able to almost bridge up to Rudy in the final flat section, but he started the run in third place, almost six minutes behind Sam.

Once on the run, Magnus closed the final 30 seconds to Rudy and then ran away from him after the first turnaround. At the end of the first run lap, he was 28 seconds ahead of Rudy but still six minutes behind Sam. Magnus continued to push the pace but ran a bit out of steam at the end of the second loop – he only made up another 30 seconds to Sam but was able to increase his gap to Rudy to almost two minutes. In the final loop, Patrick stormed by Magnus – Magnus ran a 2:41 marathon but wasn’t able to match Patrick’s 2:32 speed. A third place was nonetheless his first Ironman World Championship podium and a solid improvement over his eighth place from Kona 2022.

Fourth Place: Rudy Von Berg

Rudy Von Berg used his “local knowledge” to finish in fourth place:

4 Rudy

Rudy started his day with a good swim in the lead group and was close to the front when the climbing started. When Sam and Clement rode away, he wasn’t following them but rode at his own pace. After about 30 miles, he had lost about two minutes to Sam, and Magnus had ridden up to him. Then he rode together with Magnus until the top of Coursegoules, about mile 80, riding in second and third almost five minutes behind Sam. In the descent back to sea level, Rudy used his course knowledge, made up a few seconds to Sam but also put a gap of about a minute into Magnus. He gave up some of this in the final flatter section but was still 37 seconds ahead of Magnus at the end of the bike.

On the run, Rudy was quickly caught by Magnus in the first 5k and then had to let Magnus run away. When Patrick passed him at about 28k (run lap 3), he was able to slightly increase his pace for the final 14k. Magnus was ahead by just under two minutes, and Rudy was able to gain back only a few seconds. He crossed the finish line in fourth place, 1:14 behind Magnus. His 2:42 marathon was a new personal best for him, about 6 minutes quicker than when he won IM France in 2022 (on what was then probably a slightly shorter run course than for the World Championships).

Fifth Place: Leon Chevalier

After a seventh place in Kona 2022, Leon Chevalier improved two spots and finished in fifth place:

5 Leon

Leon was the top finisher from the athletes not in the first or second swim group, he exited the water 3:21 behind the swim leader in 30th place. Once on the bike, he started to move forward in the field, rode well in the climbs and entered the Top10 before Andon, roughly at mile 50. He wasn’t quite able to match Sam’s pace on the bike and continued to lose time to the front, but he was able to make up even more places on the bike. By T2, he was eleven minutes behind Sam but had moved into fifth place, posting the fifth-best bike split of the day.

Leon also had a great 2:49 marathon, which was the fourth-best in the field. Especially in the second run loop, he was able to put time into almost everyone who was slightly behind him, only Patrick Lange was able to overtake him.

Those in front of him also ran well, and Leon was only able to overtake Cam Wurf. In the end, he finished in fifth place, 2:10 behind Rudy in fourth but also with a 3:29 gap to sixth place.

Sixth Place: Arthur Horseau

After losing time in the swim and on the bike, Arthur Horseau had a solid run through the field all the way into sixth place:

6 Arthur

Arthur’s result is proof that patient racing can give you a great overall result in the end even after a slower swim. He was among the last Pros out of the water, losing five and a half minutes to the leaders, and in the first half of the bike he lost another ten minutes to Sam. But then he started to show that he was racing with a plan: He had the fourth fastest split for the last 85k, quicker than Magnus Ditlev and Cam Wurf. At the start of the run he had advanced into 16th place, just four minutes behind the Top 10.

He showed great pacing for the run as well. After taking some time to ease into the run, he ran the second fastest among the top finishers (only Patrick Lange was faster, further down the field Matt Hanson was also slightly quicker) and started to climb in the field: 13th after lap 1, 10th after lap 2, then seventh after lap 3.

In the final lap, Arthur was also able to overtake Gregory Barnaby and finished in sixth place (and third Frenchman!).

Seventh Place: Bradley Weiss

Even with a five-minute penalty, Bradley Weiss showed a great performance and finished seventh:

7 Bradley

Going into the race, Brad was very excited about his chances for a great race in Nice. His day started well: He swam in the lead group, exiting  the water in 11th place just 9 seconds off the lead. In Roth, he had lost almost two minutes to Sam and Magnus – in Nice he swam in the group with Sam and was 1:20 ahead of Magnus. When Sam pushed the pace in the early climbs on the bike, Brad did not follow him but rode among the chasers with the group getting smaller and smaller.

Very early on the bike Brad received a drafting penalty – according to him “while climbing a 10% switch back at less than 10km/h”. When he took his penalty right after mile 50, you could see his frustration in the TV pictures. Would he be able to keep things together? Before being forced to stop, he was in third place riding with Rudy and Magnus – after the penalty he was eight minutes behind the lead, even if still inside the Top 10. He rode for a while with Leon but eventually had to let him go.  He fell back into the group behind that had a lot of strong runners, reaching T2 in tenth position.

He had a quick transition and was running most of the first lap with Robert Wilkowiecki in ninth position. Towards the end of lap 1 he was able to run away from Robert but then had a tough patch around the half-marathon mark and fell back to tenth place. But he was able to come back to run well after 30k, making up three spots in the final lap to finish in seventh place. On a physically and mentally tough day Brad showed a lot of resilience and handled the challenges of the race very well.

Eighth Place: Gregory Barnaby

In his first Ironman World Championships, Gregory Barnaby was in a great position all day and finished in eighth place:

8 Gregory

In his only previous Ironman race at IM Israel in November 2022, Gregory swam in the first big group with some fast swimmers. In Nice he managed to stay in the lead group as well. While he didn’t follow Sam and Clement when they rode away in the first hills, he stayed in the chase group. But when Magnus rode up to that group and the pace picked up, he was no longer able to follow and he started to fall back. For some time, he was riding alone between the groups, then in a small group with Niek Heldoorn and Matt Marquardt and by mile 80 with Patrick Lange and Robert Wilkowiecki.

Gregory reached T2 in 8th place, and after a fast transition he moved into 6th place in the first run lap. In the second lap, he was overtaken by Patrick but also gained back his sixth place by overtaking Cam Wurf. Not much changed for him in run lap 3, but then he lost two spots in the final 10k when Arthur Horseau and Brad Weiss were able to run quicker. However, eighth place was the best finish by an Italian at an Ironman World Championship – before him it was Daniel Fontana’s 12th place in 2011.

Ninth Place: Robert Wilkowiecki

After a disappointing 39th place in Kona 2022, Robert Wilkowiecki improved to ninth place in Nice:

9 Robert

Robert swam with the front group and exited the water in fourth place. Once the lead group hit the hills, he quickly fell back, losing just under ten minutes in the first half of the bike. Riding with Gregory and Patrick in the second half, he didn’t lose much more time to the front and entered T2 in the Top 10. He also ran a solid 2:43 marathon in a close back-and-forth with Brad Weiss. In the end, he almost caught Gregory in the final kilometers, finishing 8 seconds behind him in ninth place, becoming the first Polish athlete in the World Championship Top 10.

Tenth Place: Clement Mignon

After leading the race early on the bike, Clement fell back in the second half but still ran well enough to finish in the Top10:

In last year’s Kona race, Clement lost 90 seconds to the front group in the swim and got  a penalty when chasing on the bike. In Nice, he was able to hold on to the front group in the swim and went with Sam Laidlow in the first hills. Clement was able to stay with Sam until the end of the climbs in the first third on the bike, but then had to let Sam ride away in the flatter middle section. But he still had a sizable lead to the next chasers, and it took Rudy and Magnus until mile 70 to catch him. Their pace was too hot for Clement and he continued to lose more positions and more time to Sam. By T2, he had dropped to sixth place, eleven minutes behind Sam and less than two minutes ahead of a group of fast runners. His first half marathon was only 68 seconds slower than Sam’s, but then he had to slow down in the third lap, dropping from seventh to tenth place.

Clement tried to rally at the start of the fourth lap in order to make up some positions late in the marathon, ran out of steam but was still able to secure his tenth place.

Bonus: Matthew Marquardt, Cameron Wurf, Braden Currie and Jan Frodeno

A look at some more athletes:

Men More

Matt Marquardt was first out of the water, but similar to most of the field he then fell back as soon as the hills started. For the first half of the bike he was just inside the Top 10, almost ten minutes behind Sam. He also lost more time in the second half, by T2 he fell back to 17th, almost 17 minutes behind the leader but only four minutes outside the Top 10. He ran a good 2:43 marathon, the ninth fastest of the whole field and advanced into 11th place.

As usual, Cameron Wurf lost some time in the swim, he was 28th in T1, 3:21 behind swim leader Matt Marquardt. That was another small step forward for him, he was 4:36 behind in Kona 2022. But as in Kona last year, his bike leg was overshadowed by Sam Laidlow: Sam rode four and a half minutes quicker. Cam finished the bike in fourth place but was quickly caught by the faster runners and had fallen out of the Top 10 by the half-marathon mark. In the end, a 2:54 marathon was only good enough for 14th place.

The day started well for Braden Currie, he was second out of the water. But then things did not go according to plan: The zipper of his race suit broke and he had to ride with the top flapping in the wind. With his team scrambling in the background (potential penalty? what to do in T2?), he lost time to the front but rode in the second group until halfway on the bike. He then received a penalty for littering which seemed to break his spirit. By T2, he was more than 16 minutes behind in 14th place. He had decided not to serve his penalty before T2 and ran a decent first half-marathon, still in 15th place. His pace dropped in run lap 3, and in the end he crossed the line in 16th place, the first position outside the money. After being DQ’d for not serving his penalty, he appealed and the penalty and his DQ were overturned.

Jan Frodeno‘s goodbye to professional racing ended not quite in the way he was hoping for. The swim went well, he was in a good position in the big front group and exited the water just one second behind swim leader Matt Marquardt. However, without any swim specialist willing to push the pace the lead group consisted of eleven athletes, probably more than Frodo was hoping for. [tearing race suit] Once Sam and Clement rode away at the front, Frodo rode in the chase group. But then he was no longer able to stay with Rudy, Brad or Braden in the climb up to the Col d’Ecre, and Magnus passed him as well. By mile 40, he had fallen back to the group around Patrick Lange, and the two stayed together until mile 80 when Patrick was able to ride away in the last big climb to Coursegoules. At that point, Frodo was more than twelve minutes behind and it seemed clear that he wouldn’t be able to win his last Pro race. To a German TV cameraman he shrugged and said “A gladiator dies in his arena”. Nonetheless, he was almost able to ride back up to Patrick by T2. At the start of the run, he took some extra time to hug his family, losing some more time and making it clear that he wouldn’t run all out but still finish respectably. Later on the run, he also hugged and thanked his coach Dan Lorang who was out on the run course. In the end, he ran a 3:08 marathon, finishing 24th. He was given a rousing reception by the spectators at the finish line and said goodbye to them and all triathlon fans.

Frodo Nizza2023

All photos © Marcel Hilger, used with permission.

Ironman Races from 1978 to 2013

The post looks at Ironman Races from 1978 to 2023. How did the series grow from its humble beginnings in 1978 to more than 40 full-distance events under the Ironman label? All in all, I could identify 67 different Ironman races across the globe in these years – some of them no longer being held in recent years. As usual, my specific focus is on Professional racing. Up until 2014, Ironman races always had a Pro category (as noted below with one exception), in recent years more and more events are held as an agegroup-only event.

Overview

Here’s a graphical overview of the Ironman history, showing the number of races and their geographical distribution (click for a hi-res file):

All IM Events

Main developments:

  1. In the early years, Hawaii was the only Ironman event. After Honolulu from 1978 to 1980 the location was moved to Kona on Big Island.
  2. The first international events added were New Zealand (Auckland) and Japan (both 1985) followed by Canada (Penticton) in 1986. After that it was Europe (Roth) and Australia (Foster) in 1988. Lanzarote (added in 1992) is the oldest event that is still held in its original location.
  3. The next expansions started around 2000: Switzerland in 1997, followed by Austria and Brasil in 1998. Lake Placid and Florida in 1999 were the first US additions. In 2000 and 2002, four new events per year were added.
  4. The expansion of the race continued at a steady but more leisurely pace in the 2000s. WTC also started to eliminate non-Ironman-branded events as Kona qualifiers, such as Wildflower, St. Anthony’s or Chicago.
  5. In 2008, WTC (owner of the Ironman brand) was sold to Private Equity, and they started to take over licensed events and to run them on their own rather than licensing the Ironman brand to other organizers. They also added more races: Five new events in 2012 and a record six new events in 2014. With 35 Pro races, 2014 also had the largest number of Pro events on the full distance – “Peak Pro Ironman”. 2014 was also the year with the most Pros, 662 athletes finished a professional ironman, compared to 519 in 2006 and 489 in 2023.
  6. Starting with the 2015 season, not all Ironman events also offered a Pro category. Before that, AG-only events were very rare (the only one I was able to confirm was IM Malaysia 2010, the other “grey blip” in the graph above from 2005 to 2007 was from single-gender Pro races). In 2015 there were  nine AG-only events and ten in 2016, almost all of them in North America. (That number went up to 15 AG-only events in 2023.) Ironman also re-introduced “single-gender Pro” races and rolled this out to more events, in many years there are three or four “race pairs”. (Each single-gender event counts as half a Pro event and half an AG event in the totals.)
  7. The total number of Ironman events stayed almost the same between 2015 and 2019 but each year there were typically three new races – and three events that were discontinued.
  8. With Covid, there was of course a huge reduction of racing and Pro racing in 2020 (only 3 events) and in 2021.
  9. The number of events increased after Covid, but a growing number AG-only races and single-gender Pro events led to a reduction of Pro Ironman races: From 35 Pro events in 2014 the number went down to only 21 races in 2023.

Which changes in Ironman racing are we going to see in the next years? Which impact is the new Ironman Pro Series going to have?

I also expect another major change in Pro racing: The current qualifying system for the World Championships started as “only Ironman champions will race in Kona”, now races have up to six Pro qualifying slots! I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Ironman Pro Series as the main way to qualify for Kona. There might be some additional Pro races, but likely with a smaller prize purse. What will a reduced number of Pro events mean for the overall number of Ironman races?

North America

Here’s a more detailed look at the North American races in 2005, 2013 and 2023, clearly showing an “inverted V” (first an up, then a down) of Pro racing in North America:

Event 2005 2014 2023
IM Hawaii X X W
IM Texas X X
IM Coeur d’Alene M X X
IM Lake Placid W X X
IM Mont Tremblant X W
IM Canada X X
IM Wisconsin X X
IM Boulder X
IM Chattanooga X
IM Louisville X
IM Cozumel X X
IM Los Cabos X
IM Arizona X X
IM Florida X X X
IM Maryland X
Total 6 14 7

For 2023, you might add IM Canada which was planned in Penticton but had to be canceled a few days before the race because of wildfires.

Europe

Here’s a similar table for European Pro races:

Event 2005 2014 2023
IM Lanzarote X X X
IM Austria X X X
IM Germany X X W
IM France X X M+M
IM Switzerland X X M
IM Sweden X W
IM Wales X W
IM UK X X
IM Copenhagen X
IM Mallorca X
IM Barcelona X
IM Hamburg M
IM Vitoria W
IM Italy M
IM Portugal X
Total 6 11 7,5

Even though single-gender races started in North America, in 2023 there were a lot more in Europe. With Nice, they even had a location that had two men’s races in the same year: First, IM France as a qualifying race for MPRO, then the men’s World Championships in September.

Deep Dive Into the 2023 Triathlon Money List

After the dip in racing and prize money during the Covid years of 2020 and 2021, we’ve now had two almost normal years of  Pro racing. This post looks at the overall trends and which athletes have been making good money in different categories.

If you want to check out the 2022 analysis, you can find it in my post “Deep Dive Into 2022 Triathlon Money List“.

Money List – Overview

First, here is an overview of the races that are included in the money lists and comparisons to the 2022 and 2019 seasons. The totals are shown in US$, for races that paid their prize purse in a different currency the amounts have been converted into US$.

Type Description Total Money
2023
Change
to 2022
Total Money
2022
# Pro Events
2023 (2022)
Ironman WTC Ironman-branded races $ 2.624.400 – 21% $ 3.338.400 26 (27)
70.3 WTC 70.3-branded races $ 1.758.000 + 12% $ 1.566.100 45 (42)
PTO PTO races (incl. Bonus Pool) $ 3.769.500 – 32% $ 5.563.000 4 (4)
Challenge Challenge- and Clash-branded full and half-distance
races (incl. Bonus Pool)
$ 934.408 + 15% $ 811.920 30 (20)
WTCS World Triathlon Championship Series (incl. Bonus Pool) $ 1.840.000 – 5% $ 1.930.000 9 (8)
SuperLeague SuperLeague Professional Events $ 850.000 – 14% $ 987.000 5 (6)
Other Independent Races (e.g Embrun, XTerra
World Championships, Alpe D’Huez)
$ 716.890 – 12% $ 814.745  26 (24)
Total   $ 12.493.198 – 17% $ 15.011.165   145 (131)

Some observations:

  • Ironman prize money is down by 21% compared to 2022, but that is mostly due to two World Championship events in 2022 which each paid US$ 750.000.
  • Prize money for 70.3s is slightly up, partly because of a small increase in the number of Pro events but also better prize purses. The average money per race has gone up from 37k to 39k. 
  • In previous years, the PTO money has significantly increased. For 2023 they have taken a step back, most of it is because they have skipped the well-paid Collins Cup in favour of preparing for an extended race calendar in 2024. (Details haven’t been announced yet, but there are rumored to be six to eight races on the PTO Tour after three this year.) The PTO events (including their Bonus payments) have the highest average purse at 942k per event. 
  • In 2023, Challenge have extended their race calendar from 20 events last year to 30 races. Even with Clash (counted in the Challenge category) no longer offering Pro purses, Challenge have also increased their prize money by 15%. 
  • Even with one additional event, WTCS numbers are slightly down after restructuring their prize purses. Their average purse (including their Bonus Pool) has gone down from 240k to 204k. 
  • SuperLeague is another well-paying short-course series – with one fewer event their prize money has slightly decreased in 2023, but they still pay 170k on average.
  • The number of independent races that are included has stabilized at a high level. Most of these are smaller events that are just at the minimum 10k US$ to be included in the PTO World Rankings.

At the end of 2023, Ironman have announced their own bonus structure to be paid at the end of 2024. Therefore, here’s a look over a longer period at the development of the Prize Money paid by WTC over the years for Ironman and 70.3 races:

Some key numbers and observations:

  • In 2015, the first year I have usable prize money data for all WTC events, just under 5.35 Mill.US$ was paid to professional athletes, 2.9 Mill.US for 31 Ironman races (an average of 94.2kUS$ per Ironman) and 2.4 Mill.US$ for 68 70.3 races (35.7k US$ per 70.3 on average).
  • The total money was about the same for 2016, with the total money for Ironman races going slightly down and the amount for 70.3s slightly up (mainly because their number also went up to 75 events).
  • Up to 2019, the total WTC prize money has declined to 4.6 Mill.US$, 2.47 Mill. for Ironman (32 events, average purse of 77k) and 2.15 Mill. for 70.3s (71 events, average purse of 30k).
  • With the severely reduced racing in 2020 and 2021, the prize purses also went down. 
  • With two Ironman World Championships in 2022, the money for Ironman races went up to 3.3 Mill (27 events, average of 123.6k) while the 70.3 money went down to 1.57 Mill (42 Pro events, average of 37k).
  • The overall money went down again in 2023, with a total of 4.38 Mill US$ it is the lowest number since 2015 (excluding the Covid years). Money for Ironman races was at 2.6 Mill. (26 events, some of them single-gender races, average of 101k), while 70.3s paid a total of 1.76 Mill US$ (45 events, average of 39k USD, the highest ever average)
  • Ironman’s “Pro Series” will pay a total end-of year bonus of 1.7 Mill. They are not changing the money directly paid at these events, and it’ll be interesting to see if the series will have an impact on the number of Pro events (and the money paid out) throughout the year.

Overall Money List

Anne Haug is the overall leader of the 2023 Triathlon Money List, earning just over 335.00 US$. With the reduced PTO money this is less than last year’s top earner Kristian Blummenfelt (he made almost 500.000 US$ in 2022), but still a fair bit up form the 2021 top earner. (Daniela Ryf made 244.000 in 2021.) The number of athletes making more than $100.000 is only slightly lower this year, there were 29 athletes in 2023 compared to 33 in 2022. There was a total of 818 athletes who were able to earn prize money in 2023, up from 762 athletes in 2022.

Photo: Anne Haug wins the PTO European Open, provided by the PTO.

# Name Nation Sex Total Ironman 70.3 PTO Challenge WTCS SuperLeague Other
1 Anne Haug GER F $335,788 $65,000 $3,000 $250,000 $17,788      
2 Kristian Blummenfelt NOR M $325,775     $285,000   $25,775 $15,000  
3 Ashleigh Gentle AUS F $323,821   $18,750 $290,000       $15,071
4 Taylor Knibb USA F $281,700 $25,000 $57,500 $180,000   $19,200    
5 Lucy Charles-Barclay GBR F $246,750 $125,000 $2,750 $119,000        
6 Magnus Ditlev DEN M $202,953 $49,000   $127,000 $26,953      
7 Jan Frodeno GER M $196,500 $7,500 $4,000 $185,000        
8 Jason West USA M $190,500   $8,000 $175,000 $7,500      
9 Hayden Wilde NZL M $190,338   $4,000     $99,500 $76,000 $10,838
10 Leo Bergere FRA M $181,600   $7,500     $69,100 $105,000  
11 Beth Potter GBR F $172,600         $159,600 $13,000  
12 Cassandre Beaugrand FRA F $163,900         $108,900 $55,000  
13 Laura Philipp GER F $163,125 $70,000 $24,500 $60,000 $8,625      
14 Pieter Heemeryck BEL M $162,791 $27,000 $16,900 $113,500 $5,391      
15 Sam Laidlow FRA M $154,801 $125,000   $21,500 $8,301      
16 Kate Waugh GBR F $139,500         $42,500 $93,000 $4,000
17 Mathis Margirier FRA M $132,496   $14,250 $65,000 $53,246      
18 Alex Yee GBR M $126,500         $66,500 $60,000  
19 Katrina Matthews GBR F $125,750 $28,000 $40,750 $57,000        
20 Emma Lombardi FRA F $122,100         $66,100 $56,000  
21 Dorian Coninx FRA M $121,400         $121,400    
22 Paula Findlay CAN F $116,500   $26,500 $90,000        
23 Patrick Lange GER M $116,181 $68,500 $2,750 $30,000 $14,931      
24 Rudy Von Berg USA M $115,500 $68,000   $47,500        
25 Imogen Simmonds SUI F $112,684   $25,000 $55,000 $32,684      
26 Sam Long USA M $106,750 $4,250 $40,500 $59,000 $3,000      
27 Leon Chevalier FRA M $103,500 $57,000 $4,000 $42,500        
28 Max Neumann AUS M $103,478     $100,000       $3,478
29 Jeanne Lehair LUX F $101,550         $26,550 $75,000  
30 Daniela Ryf SUI F $99,953 $20,000 $11,000 $42,000 $26,953      

PTO Events

Ashleigh Gentle continues to be the best money earner in PTO tour events: Last year she topped the PTO Money List at 325k, this year she earned slightly less than 300k. Most of the athletes in the table below made a significant part of their 2023 earnings from the PTO. The exception is usually athletes who did well at WTC events, for example Lucy Charles-Barclay (48% from the PTO), Rudy von Berg (41%) or Laura Philipp (37%). There were 124 athletes who earned PTO money in 2023.

Photo: Ashleigh raising the banner at the PTO Asian Open, provided by the PTO.

# Name Sex PTO Total Share
1 Ashleigh Gentle F $ 290.000 $ 323.821 90%
2 Kristian Blummenfelt M $ 285.000 $ 325.775 87%
3 Anne Haug F $ 250.000 $ 335.788 74%
4 Jan Frodeno M $ 185.000 $ 196.500 94%
5 Taylor Knibb F $ 180.000 $ 281.700 64%
6 Jason West M $ 175.000 $ 190.500 92%
7 Magnus Ditlev M $ 127.000 $ 202.953 63%
8 Lucy Charles-Barclay F $ 119.000 $ 246.750 48%
9 Pieter Heemeryck M $ 113.500 $ 162.791 70%
10 Max Neumann M $ 100.000 $ 103.478 97%
11 Paula Findlay F $ 90.000 $ 116.500 77%
12 Mathis Margirier M $ 65.000 $ 132.496 49%
13 Chelsea Sodaro F $ 62.000 $ 85.000 73%
14 Laura Philipp F $ 60.000 $ 163.125 37%
15 Sam Long M $ 59.000 $ 106.750 55%
16 Katrina Matthews F $ 57.000 $ 125.750 45%
17 Imogen Simmonds F $ 55.000 $ 112.684 49%
18 Daniel Baekkegard M $ 50.000 $ 73.110 68%
19 Rudy Von Berg M $ 47.500 $ 115.500 41%
20 Emma Pallant-Browne F $ 45.000 $ 78.264 57%
21 Leon Chevalier M $ 42.500 $ 103.500 41%
22 Daniela Ryf F $ 42.000 $ 99.953 42%
23 David McNamee M $ 34.000 $ 50.498 67%
24 Aaron Royle M $ 32.500 $ 47.216 69%
25 Tamara Jewett F $ 31.500 $ 59.500 53%

WTC Races

The WTC money list is topped by the Nice and Kona winners, Sam Laidlow and Lucy Charles-Barclay – winning 125k at these events was enough to be placed ahead of everyone else. All in all, there were 524 athletes who earned prize money from WTC in 2023.

Photo: Lucy Charles-Barclay celebrating her win at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, provided by Ironman.

# Name Sex IM 70.3 WTC Total Share
1 Lucy Charles-Barclay F $ 125.000 $ 2.750 $ 127.750 $ 246.750 52%
2 Sam Laidlow M $ 125.000   $ 125.000 $ 154.801 81%
3 Laura Philipp F $ 70.000 $ 24.500 $ 94.500 $ 163.125 58%
4 Taylor Knibb F $ 25.000 $ 57.500 $ 82.500 $ 281.700 29%
5 Patrick Lange M $ 68.500 $ 2.750 $ 71.250 $ 116.181 61%
6 Katrina Matthews F $ 28.000 $ 40.750 $ 68.750 $ 125.750 55%
7 Anne Haug F $ 65.000 $ 3.000 $ 68.000 $ 335.788 20%
7 Rudy Von Berg M $ 68.000   $ 68.000 $ 115.500 59%
9 Leon Chevalier M $ 57.000 $ 4.000 $ 61.000 $ 103.500 59%
10 Rico Bogen M   $ 56.750 $ 56.750 $ 68.709 83%
11 Skye Moench F $ 45.000 $ 11.000 $ 56.000 $ 80.000 70%
12 Magnus Ditlev M $ 49.000   $ 49.000 $ 202.953 24%
13 Sam Long M $ 4.250 $ 40.500 $ 44.750 $ 106.750 42%
14 Pieter Heemeryck M $ 27.000 $ 16.900 $ 43.900 $ 162.791 27%
15 Kylie Simpson F $ 37.000 $ 4.250 $ 41.250 $ 42.120 98%
16 Sarah True F $ 38.000 $ 3.000 $ 41.000 $ 64.500 64%
17 Mike Phillips M $ 20.500 $ 17.500 $ 38.000 $ 54.419 70%
18 Lisa Norden F $ 34.000 $ 3.500 $ 37.500 $ 51.656 73%
19 Steven McKenna M $ 30.500 $ 6.250 $ 36.750 $ 36.750 100%
20 Alice Alberts F $ 36.000   $ 36.000 $ 41.000 88%
21 Braden Currie M $ 34.000 $ 1.750 $ 35.750 $ 47.565 75%
22 Matthew Marquardt M $ 35.000   $ 35.000 $ 49.500 71%
23 Robert Wilkowiecki M $ 33.250 $ 1.500 $ 34.750 $ 44.750 78%
24 Bradley Weiss M $ 30.000 $ 2.000 $ 32.000 $ 62.686 51%
25 Emma Pallant-Browne F   $ 31.000 $ 31.000 $ 78.264 40%

Challenge

As in previous years, the top money earners on the Challenge side are athletes who focus on the Challenge Family “World Bonus”. This year, Mathis Margirier and Magda Nieuwoudt were at the top of the Challenge bonus table and they also lead the Challenge money list. Similar to the WTC side, almost all of the top earners also make significant money from other race organizers. In total, 236 athletes finished in the money ranks in the 2023 Challenge races.

Photo: Mathis Margirier winning Challenge “The Championship” in Samorin, provided by Challenge Family

# Name Sex Challenge Total Share
1 Mathis Margirier M $ 53.246 $ 132.496 40%
2 Magda Nieuwoudt F $ 44.583 $ 50.333 89%
3 Imogen Simmonds F $ 32.684 $ 112.684 29%
4 Caleb Noble M $ 32.046 $ 37.546 85%
5 Thomas Bishop M $ 31.122 $ 48.122 65%
6 Els Visser F $ 27.277 $ 69.277 39%
7 Magnus Ditlev M $ 26.953 $ 202.953 13%
7 Daniela Ryf F $ 26.953 $ 99.953 27%
9 Lucy Byram F $ 25.789 $ 50.789 51%
10 Frederic Funk M $ 19.548 $ 73.048 27%
11 Anne Haug F $ 17.788 $ 335.788 5%
12 Caroline Pohle F $ 16.548 $ 33.798 49%
13 Menno Koolhaas M $ 16.404 $ 35.904 46%
14 India Lee F $ 16.172 $ 54.922 29%
15 Margie Santimaria F $ 15.990 $ 27.490 58%
16 Patrick Lange M $ 14.931 $ 116.181 13%
17 Aaron Royle M $ 14.716 $ 47.216 31%
18 Youri Keulen M $ 12.819 $ 42.569 30%
19 Fenella Langridge F $ 11.439 $ 60.460 19%
20 Amelia Watkinson F $ 10.782 $ 69.190 16%

Short Course

As in previous years, the top earner of “short course money” had to be successful in both major events, the World Triathlon Series WTCS and SuperLeague. Hayden Wilde comes out on top of this list, he was the runner-up in both series. In total, 115 athletes made money in these short-course events, most of which made the majority of their money on these distances.

Photo: Hayden Wilde winning the 2023 WT Sprint Championships in Hamburg, provided by World Triathlon.

# Name Sex WTCS SuperLeague Short Course Total Share
1 Hayden Wilde M $ 99.500 $ 76.000 $ 175.500 $ 190.338 92%
2 Leo Bergere M $ 69.100 $ 105.000 $ 174.100 $ 181.600 96%
3 Beth Potter F $ 159.600 $ 13.000 $ 172.600 $ 172.600 100%
4 Cassandre Beaugrand F $ 108.900 $ 55.000 $ 163.900 $ 163.900 100%
5 Kate Waugh F $ 42.500 $ 93.000 $ 135.500 $ 139.500 97%
6 Alex Yee M $ 66.500 $ 60.000 $ 126.500 $ 126.500 100%
7 Emma Lombardi F $ 66.100 $ 56.000 $ 122.100 $ 122.100 100%
8 Dorian Coninx M $ 121.400   $ 121.400 $ 121.400 100%
9 Jeanne Lehair F $ 26.550 $ 75.000 $ 101.550 $ 101.550 100%
10 Sophie Coldwell F $ 52.700 $ 26.000 $ 78.700 $ 78.700 100%
11 Matthew Hauser M $ 52.100 $ 24.000 $ 76.100 $ 82.422 92%
12 Vasco Vilaca M $ 68.600 $ 3.500 $ 72.100 $ 72.100 100%
13 Taylor Spivey F $ 49.825 $ 15.500 $ 65.325 $ 65.325 100%
14 Pierre Le Corre M $ 54.900   $ 54.900 $ 59.595 92%
15 Henri Schoeman M $ 10.500 $ 37.500 $ 48.000 $ 58.613 82%
16 Jonathan Brownlee M $ 1.000 $ 43.500 $ 44.500 $ 44.500 100%
17 Leonie Periault F $ 22.900 $ 21.500 $ 44.400 $ 44.400 100%
18 Tim Hellwig M $ 42.300   $ 42.300 $ 42.300 100%
19 Kristian Blummenfelt M $ 25.775 $ 15.000 $ 40.775 $ 325.775 13%
20 Georgia Taylor-Brown F $ 31.900   $ 31.900 $ 31.900 100%

Ironman Western Australia 2023 – Analyzing Results

IMWACourse Conditions

As has often been the case in recent years, IM Western Australia has been a fast final race of the year. This year conditions seemed especially favorable, and the bike and run were even quicker than normal. On the men’s side, Matt Burton rode a sub-4 bike leg, improving his own bike course record from last year. Winner Daniel Baekkegard set a new run course record of 2:37 (improving Max Neumann’s time from last year) and also an overall new course record (besting Ali Brownlee’s 2019 time). On the women’s side, we’ve seen a new bike course record by Lisa Norden and a new overall course record by Fenella Langridge, both improving on Teresa Adam’s times from 2019. Lisa’s bike time was also quicker than Daniela Ryf’s bike from Challenge Roth this year and is now the quickest IM bike time. 

Nice and Kona Qualifying

IM Western Australia offered three slots each for the men and women Pros. These will be offered to:

  • Fenella Langridge, Lisa Norden and Lotte Wilms for the women (Nice)
    and
  • Daniel Baekkegard, Matt Burton and Nick Thompson for the men (Kona).

The full list of qualified athletes can be found here

Male Race Results

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money
1 Daniel Baekkegard DEN 00:47:42 (4) 04:03:55 (3) 02:37:43 (1) 07:34:23 -02:15 US$ 12,000
2 Matt Burton AUS 00:52:07 (10) 03:59:08 (1) 02:44:04 (2) 07:40:28 -27:52 US$ 7,000
3 Nick Thompson AUS 00:52:06 (9) 04:00:01 (2) 02:50:10 (4) 07:48:23 -08:41 US$ 4,250
4 Steven McKenna AUS 00:47:40 (1) 04:07:22 (5) 02:54:18 (8) 07:54:32 07:27 US$ 3,500
5 Scott Steenberg DEN 00:47:44 (5) 04:05:48 (4) 02:57:44 (11) 07:56:34 -53:58 US$ 2,750
6 Aichlinn O’Reilly IRL 00:47:46 (6) 04:11:31 (6) 02:54:13 (7) 07:59:04 n/a US$ 2,250
7 Caleb Noble AUS 00:47:48 (7) 04:21:50 (12) 02:51:17 (5) 08:06:31 -12:11 US$ 2,000
8 Kaito Tohara JPN 00:56:39 (17) 04:21:15 (10) 02:48:12 (3) 08:11:39 -05:31 US$ 1,500
9 Jack Sosinski AUS 00:47:41 (3) 04:15:20 (7) 03:08:12 (13) 08:16:31 01:32 US$ 1,250
10 Harry Sinclair AUS 00:56:24 (12) 04:21:20 (11) 02:53:39 (6) 08:17:14 n/a US$ 1,000
11 Liam Duval AUS 00:56:36 (16) 04:20:47 (9) 02:56:55 (10) 08:19:21 -11:00  
12 Mark Radziejewski AUS 00:56:34 (15) 04:24:33 (13) 02:54:23 (9) 08:21:55 n/a  
13 Kosuke Terasawa JPN 00:52:09 (11) 04:31:52 (16) 03:06:50 (12) 08:36:57 n/a  
14 Levi Hauwert AUS 00:56:25 (13) 04:26:48 (14) 03:21:34 (14) 08:51:00 08:07  
15 Harrison Wiles AUS 00:52:05 (8) 04:16:35 (8) 03:37:56 (16) 08:52:25 n/a  
16 Jens Frommhold GER 00:59:04 (18) 04:29:28 (15) 03:30:24 (15) 09:06:17 37:43  
17 Justin Wendemuth AUS 00:56:32 (14) 05:03:38 (17) 03:41:34 (17) 09:48:52 58:08  
  Sam Appleton AUS 00:47:40 (1)     DNF    
  Samuel Doggett AUS 01:05:45 (19)     DNF    

Female Race Results

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money
1 Fenella Langridge GBR 00:51:07 (1) 04:29:42 (2) 03:03:52 (1) 08:29:43 -10:38 US$ 12,000
2 Lisa Norden SWE 00:54:16 (4) 04:21:15 (1) 03:11:47 (5) 08:33:02 -01:42 US$ 7,000
3 Lotte Wilms NED 00:51:09 (2) 04:33:12 (3) 03:10:40 (4) 08:40:59 -05:26 US$ 4,250
4 Els Visser NED 01:02:20 (6) 04:36:07 (4) 03:06:35 (2) 08:50:13 05:07 US$ 3,500
5 Chloe Lane AUS 00:54:15 (3) 04:42:29 (5) 03:12:03 (6) 08:55:04 -11:45 US$ 2,750
6 Maki Takahashi JPN 00:57:10 (5) 05:18:36 (8) 03:07:12 (3) 09:28:20 n/a US$ 2,250
7 Camille Deligny FRA 01:09:47 (8) 04:59:22 (7) 03:18:42 (7) 09:35:05 00:18 US$ 2,000
8 Marion Tuin NED 01:05:11 (7) 04:59:08 (6) 03:49:22 (8) 10:00:20 n/a US$ 1,500
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