IM Hawaii

The 2025 female World Championships in Kona had all the drama anyone might have looked for: Strong swims and bikes, leaders in problems on the run, late DNFs, a rookie win and a run course record. The following table lists the Top 10 finishers and some notable DNFs:

Here’s how the race developed for these athletes (click for a hi-res version):

To get started, here’s a summary of how the race played out:

• Lucy Charles-Barclay broke away from the rest of the field in the first 100m, building a lead of 90 seconds to the first chasers led by Haley Chura. From the pre-race favorites, Holly Lawrence, Taylor Knibb and Chelsea Sodaro were also in that group. The main group was more than six minutes back, including Solveig Loevseth, Kat Matthews and Laura Philipp. The final Pros out of the water were almost 16 minutes back, among them Leonie Konczalla and Sara Svensk.
• There was one big incident in T1: Kat Matthews had dumped ice cubes in her helmet to cool down after the swim. However, that ice had frozen into a solid block in the humid air after the night’s rainfall, and it took her some time to get rid of the ice before she could put on the helmet. Kat lost about 20 seconds to Laura and had to put in some extra work in the first half hour of the bike leg to close that gap. 
• At the front of the race, Lucy maintained a lead of about 2 minutes over Taylor until Taylor closed the gap in the climb to the turn at Hawi. On the return leg, these two stayed together until Mauna Lani where Lucy had to serve a one-minute penalty for unintentional littering. After that, Taylor was slightly faster than Lucy and built a lead of 1:43 into T2.
• Behind the two leaders, Solveig rode away from Laura and Kat after mile 30. Solveig was third into T2, almost six minutes behind Taylor. Laura and Kat stayed together but a few more athletes were able to join their group. They continued to lose time to the leaders and started the run almost 13 minutes behind.
• On the run, Lucy was able to close the gap to Taylor along Ali’i Drive and passed her shortly before Palani. But she was never able to extend her lead and needed extra time in the aid stations. Taylor took the lead again before the halfway mark. Lucy lost more time to Taylor in the Energy Lab and was taken out of the race by husband Reece. Taylor’s lead over Solveig was shrinking but it looked as if Solveig would come up just short of catching her. But then Taylor started to wobble and also had to end her race, less than two miles before the finish.
• Behind the top three, Laura and Kat ran together out of T2 but after the turn on Ali’i, Kat moved away from Laura. Kat was running at course record pace and bit by bit got closer to the lead of the race and Solveig in front of her. When Kat passed Taylor two miles before the finish line, she was still two minutes behind Solveig but running at a quicker pace.
• Solveig was first across the line, winning Kona on debut and matching her Norwegian friend Casper Stornes on the men’s side. Kat almost ran up to her, she was second only 35 seconds behind. After winning Nice last year, Laura finished third in Kona. 

The Top 3 Finishers (ltr Laura, Solveig, Kat, Credit: Ironman)

A few observations and notable data points:

• Solveig’s race was another win by a World Champs rookie. This is only the second time except for the Oahu years (1978 to 1980 when almost everyone racing was an Ironman rookie) that both the men (Casper Stornes in Nice) and the women had rookie World Champions – the other year was 2022 with Chelsea Sodaro and Gustav Iden. 
• With Solveig and Casper from Norway, it’s the first time since 2019 that both winners are from the same nation. (In 2019 it was Germany’s Jan Frodeno and Anne Haug.)
• Kat’s 2:47:23 was a new run course record, beating Anne Haug’s 2023 marathon which was exactly one minute slower. 
• There were only 35 seconds between Solveig in first and Kat in second. It was the third-closest finish in Kona history. The smallest gap is still from the February 1982 race between Kathleen McCartney and Julie Moss at 29 seconds, followed by the men’s 1983 race when Dave Scott edged out Scott Tinley by 33 seconds.
• With Taylor and Lucy dropping out, this was the first Pro race where both T2 leaders did not finish the race, not just in Kona but in any long-distance race!

Let’s dive into how the race unfolded for the key contenders in this year’s Kona Pro race.

World Champion: Solveig Loevseth

Kona Rookie Solveig Loevseth kept a cool head all day and was the first athlete to finish the 2025 course:

Solveig’s day started with a solid swim at the front of the main pack, she reached T1 6:14 behind Lucy but a few seconds ahead of Lisa Perterer, Kat Matthews and Laura Philipp. She started the bike right behind Laura but was maybe a bit surprised at the quick pace of Lisa and Laura in the section through town. At the turn on Kuakini (about mile 6.5), she had fallen almost 30 seconds behind them. But soon after, Kat caught up to Solveig, and the two worked together to bridge up. After the return leg, they were only 15 seconds behind, and after 20 miles, they all rode together. While the others may have settled down a bit, Solveig continued to ride strong, and after mile 30 she slowly opened a gap to the others. After the race she said it wasn’t an intentional attack but when she turned around to have someone else to lead, no one had been able to stay with her. By mile 40, she was in third place, having overtaken all the faster swimmers except for Lucy and Taylor. At the turn in Hawi, her gap to Lucy in the lead was 7:08, it had stayed more or less the same. She was also more than two minutes ahead of Laura and Kat who rode in a bigger group behind her. Riding on her own, Solveig was impressive in the return bike leg to Kona: She had the fastest split from Hawi back to Kona and into T2, 90 seconds quicker even than Taylor, reaching T2 5:44 behind. Her 4:31 bike split is now the second-fastest ever by any female Kona finisher. The strong bike also extended her gap to the Laura/Kat group: Her second half was more than six minutes quicker, and in T2 she was 8 1/2 minutes ahead of Laura. 

Solveig also ran well on the section along the Ocean and looked to be at least in solid podium contention. When she made the turn in the Energy Lab, she had chopped a minute off Taylor’s lead, and behind her only Kat was making up significant time to her. When Lucy stepped off the course in the Energy Lab, Solveig moved into second place and continued to run faster than Taylor. With about 10k to go, she had gotten another minute closer, and while she was happy to be in second, she decided to push for the win. In the next 5k, the gap came down by 86 seconds but she was still 2:45 behind Taylor with just over 7k to run. (It’s hard to tell with the imprecision of the split points, but it seems she didn’t pick up her pace but was able to continue to run the pace she had set before.) By 24 miles (38.7k), she had taken another minute out of Taylor, but it seemed she would simply run out of course and finish maybe 40 seconds behind Taylor.  When Taylor had to drop out about 2.5k from the finish, Solveig saw her on the side of the road, but still had a cool enough head to notice that there were people around her to take care of Taylor. Quickly, Solveig needed to switch from chasing down Taylor to holding on to her lead over Kat. “Somebody said two and a half minutes, and it was two and a half k left. I looked a lot at my watch and actually tried to just calculate in my head, which pace do I need to run and still win? Kat is probably not running any faster than 3:45. So then I can run this and this and still be in front.” Even though Kat was running a bit faster (“when I looked at it after [the race], she was actually running the last k’s like 3:30”), Solveig found the right balance between running fast while making sure to find a pace she could maintain across the line: Without too many celebrations in the finish chute, across the line she was still 35 seconds ahead of Kat.

Solveig raising the finish banner (Credit: Ironman)

After the race, there was some discussion that Solveig “only” won because both Lucy and Taylor were not able to finish. However, that statement sounds fundamentally flawed to me and could be applied to almost any win in any sport. Champions win the race they’re in, against the field that shows up, under the conditions on the day. Solveig did exactly that, and did it with exceptional splits. For example, her bike leg was faster than Lucy’s and only 53 seconds slower than Taylor’s, and Solveig also had the second-fastest run of the day. Ironman is not only about going fast – it’s also about managing the heat, nutrition, pacing, and everything that can go wrong over 8+ hours in brutal conditions. The fact that Solveig executed her race plan successfully while others couldn’t is a testament to her skill, preparation, and mental toughness – not a diminishment of her victory. And she was first across the line, faster than anyone else in this year’s world-class field. Solveig won because she was the best athlete on the day in Kona, full stop.

Second: Kat Matthews

Kat Matthews scored another second place at an Ironman World Championship race:

Kat had a solid swim but probably not quite the start of the day she was looking for. She wouldn’t have been overly concerned about the six-minute gap to Lucy after the swim, but she would have preferred to build a gap to other favorites such as Laura, Solveig or Lisa. Last year in Nice, she was able to put 3 1/2 minutes into Laura. While she swam with Laura and Solveig earlier this year in Hamburg, Kat was hoping that the deeper Kona field with a few more good swimmers might help her to gap the others. But Kat quickly fell behind the chase group and also athletes such as Steph Clutterbuck or Hannah Berry who ended up 2 to 2 1/2 minutes behind Lucy. Behind them there was a large gap to Kat’s swim group just over six minutes back, and Kat was just seven seconds ahead of Laura on the steps out of Kailua Bay. Then things went sideways for Kat: Just like Sam Laidlow last year, she had put ice cubes into her helmet so she could dump them over her head for a little cool-down after the warm swim. But with the high humidity after the morning rain, the cubes had frozen solid and wouldn’t come out. Kat lost about 30 seconds to tear out a big block of ice. (Check out this reel by ProTriNews: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DPraHgyDPUS/) Instead of leading over Laura, she had to make up 20 seconds to her. The gap even increased a bit in the out-section on Kuakini (it was 36 seconds after 6.5 miles) but then she put in some harder work. By mile 13, the climb on Palani, she and Solveig reduced the gap to 15 seconds, and they had worked their way back to Laura by the next timing mat at mile 19. Before the race, Kat’s husband Mark had said that they planned to ride with Laura without putting in too much work, and Kat continued with Laura even when Solveig slowly pulled away. For the following timing mats into T2, Kat was a few seconds behind Laura. Back at the pier, Kat was in fifth place, 3 seconds behind Laura but a massive 14 minutes behind Taylor and also 8 1/2 minutes behind Solveig. 

Kat and Laura ran together for the first section on Ali’i with the two fastest intermediate run splits, but after the turn Kat slowly pulled away from Laura. At the climb on Palani (about 7.5 miles), they still had the two fastest splits, but Kat was running in fourth place, 41 seconds ahead of Laura. Kat had made up 90 seconds to the lead and about a minute to Solveig in third, but with the remaining gaps of almost twelve minutes to the lead and just over seven minutes to Solveig, it didn’t look like she’d be able to gain any more positions. Kat’s intermediate splits were right around Anne Haug’s 2:48 run course record from 2023. (Subtle changes in the positions of the timing mat positions make it hard to compare their splits directly.) Not much changed in the next few miles – Kat continued to push the pace and close down the gaps. She was still running about course record pace, clearly the fastest in the field. But gaining positions still seemed unlikely until Lucy and Taylor ran into problems and had to DNF – all of a sudden, Kat found herself in second place. She was less than two minutes behind Solveig, but with just over 2k to go, catching her seemed unlikely. Still, she pushed herself as much as possible, and though she was 35 seconds behind Solveig across the line, her 2:47:23 marathon broke Anne’s run course record by exactly a minute, clearly satisfied with her performance.

Kat crossing the finish line after running a new marathon course record (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

Kat now has three second places on three different Ironman World Champs courses: St. George 2022, Nice 2024 and now Kona 2025. Of course that is something to be proud of, and she has indicated after crossing the line that she is happy with her race. But with a gap of just 35 seconds to Solveig in first place, she’ll also be asking herself if and where she might have made up such a small gap in 8 1/2 hours of racing. The “easy answer” would be her helmet incident in T1 when she lost about that time removing a block of ice from her helmet. Maybe she’d have saved a bit of energy if that chase hadn’t been needed, but I don’t think that made a big difference to her race as she quickly rode back up to Laura at the start of the bike and then stuck with her for the rest of the bike leg as she clearly had planned. Wanting to stay with Laura also kept her from chasing Solveig when she rode away from the field. Clearly, following Solveig would have impacted how the race unfolded but it probably would have meant that she’d also have dragged Laura with her up to Solveig, and clearly Kat’s strategy was to make Laura work as much as possible on the bike. Kat’s strong run showed that she saved her legs on the bike and that maybe she should have invested a bit more on the bike to keep the gap to Solveig from growing quite as much. It’s easy to say after the race that staying with Laura on the bike made it next to impossible for Kat to win the race and that Laura wasn’t her main competitor since she wasn’t able to run to her potential as in Hamburg. But that is hindsight and was anything but obvious as the race unfolded. If anything, it might influence Kat’s strategy for future Kona races – just one more reason to look forward to Kona 2026!

Third: Laura Philipp

Laura Philipp didn’t quite have the days as when she won the World Championship in Nice, but she secured another podium finish in Kona:

Laura’s day started well: She swam in the main group together with Kat Matthews, and her gap to Lucy at the front was 6:24, her smallest ever in Kona (2019: 10:01, 2022: 6:57, 2023: 10:10). She also had a solid T1, and found herself with Lisa Perterer a few seconds ahead of Kat and Solveig in the early part of the bike leg. While that didn’t last very long (as described in Kat’s section), she quickly gained positions in the field. After about 25 miles, Solveig started to move ahead of the group. Laura described her perspective after the race: “Solveig went to the front, Kat was behind her but then stopped pedaling, she probably wanted someone else to close the gap to Solveig. We were passing a few other athletes, and somehow I lost track of Solveig. It didn’t feel I was going too hard, just a confusing race situation that worked in her favor.” After that, Laura was often seen leading the group she was riding in, but the size of the group was a clear indication that she didn’t have her best day. In Nice, only Kat was able to stay with her, in Kona a group of five (Laura, Kat, Lisa, Hannah Berry and Jocelyn McCauley) was together at the turn in Hawi and also at the end of the bike. Jocelyn had to serve a penalty after Hawi and was able to ride back up to the group. Laura’s goal for the bike leg was probably to ride a similar pace to Lucy and Taylor at the front. While that’s what Solveig was able to do, Laura and her group continually lost time to the front. At the turn in Hawi, they were 9 1/2 minutes behind the lead, in Kawaihae it was almost eleven and by T2 the gap was over 14 minutes. It’s not that Laura had a bad bike leg – she still had the fifth best bike (if you include Taylor and Lucy) but it was far from the bike demonstration she had shown last year in Nice. Laura told herself, “to stay in the moment and not to think too far ahead. One of the keys in Ironman racing is to think just step by step. I didn’t feel great on the bike, so I focused on limiting the losses, then finding a good rhythm on the run and seeing what happens then.” In the marathon, she ran a fast pace in the first 3 1/2 miles along the Ocean with Kat. “But it was already a lot of work, so I had to move from my dream scenario to managing my body so I could finish.”

Laura working hard to run a sub-3 marathon in the Kona heat (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

Kat continued to run at their initial torrid pace, and slowly moved away from Laura who was now running in fifth place. “It’s disappointing to realize that you can’t show what you’ve been training for so hard. But I’m proud of my performance and that I was able to slow down at the right moment to be able to finish.” Last year in Nice, Laura was able to run 9 minutes into Kat, this year Kat was 8 1/2 minutes quicker. But Laura still had the third-fastest marathon of the day, just a few seconds slower than Solveig. With Lucy and Taylor not able to finish, the Nice Champion matched her third-place finish in Kona from two years ago. 

Fourth & Fifth: Hannah Berry & Lisa Perterer

One of the closest battles – unfortunately not caught in the broadcast pictures – was between Hannah Berry and Lisa Perterer for fourth and fifth place:

Hannah had the better swim of the two, she was 12th into T1 just 2:36 behind Lucy Charles-Barclay. Lisa was only six spots behind her but already more than six minutes behind Lucy. At the start of the bike, Hannah was 3:55 ahead of Lisa, the biggest gap between them for 138 miles of racing. Hannah initially rode in a small group but was losing time to the front but also to the group around Laura, Kat and Lisa. Around mile 30, the two groups merged at the same time that Solveig was able to sneak away. For the rest of the bike, Hannah and Lisa rode in the group with Kat and Laura, only a few seconds apart. 

Lisa lost some time in T2 and the initial miles along the Ocean, but shortly after the turn on Ai’i, she was able to pass Hannah but then didn’t manage to distance her by more than 40 seconds. After the far turn in the Energy Lab (roughly mile 16 of the marathon), Hannah slowly worked her way back to Lisa. At mile 21, Hannah passed Lisa and slowly extended her lead to over a minute at mile 25. Across the line, Hannah was fourth, 1:34 ahead of Lisa in fifth. 

Hannah starting the run, just a few seconds ahead of Lisa (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

Lisa trying to cool down on the Kona marathon (Credit: Ironman)

Sixth: Holly Lawrence

Just one year after giving birth to daughter Poppy, Holly Lawrence proved she’s back at the highest level, finishing sixth with three solid legs:

In the swim, Holly was one of the fastest swimmers behind Lucy, she was third into T1 1:31 behind. Once on the bike, she did not try to follow Taylor and instead established herself in third place.

Riding through town, Holly still had the time to smile at friends cheering her on (Credit: Talbot Cox)

Until the turn in Hawi, only Solveig was able to catch her and she made the turn in fourth, 8:46 behind Lucy and Taylor. She continued to ride mostly on her own, but then was overtaken by the Laura/Kat group shortly after Kawaihae and lost some more time in the closing miles of the bike. She reached T2 in 11th place, 16:30 behind Lucy but also two minutes behind Kat and Laura. There were doubts that she had gone too hard in the first half of the bike, but Holly quickly gained a few spots on the run. When she climbed Palani after seven miles, she was in eighth place, losing time to those in front of her but still faster than anyone in striking distance behind her. With Lucy and Taylor having to DNF, Holly crossed the line in sixth place – a very solid result in her Kona debut.

Seventh to Tenth: Jocelyn McCauley, Sara Svensk, Leonie Konczalla & Marlene De Boer

Even though their days developed in very different ways, Jocelyn, Sara, Leonie and Marlene crossed the line within 47 seconds:

Jocelyn and Marlene swam with Kat and Laura, a bit over six minutes behind Lucy. Both quickly lost contact with Laura’s group on the bike, and Marlene decided to ride her own pace. She lost some time to them, by T2 she was six minutes behind Kat and Laura and started the run in 14th place. Jocelyn implemented a different strategy: It took her all the way up to Hawi to work her way back to the group – only to have to serve a 3-minute drafting penalty. After another 35 miles of riding on her own, she was once again able to ride back to them by the Scenic Outlook, riding with them into T2.

Things were very different for Leonie and Sara: They were 51st and 52nd into T1, almost 16 minutes behind Lucy. At the end of the Pro field only two athletes were just a few seconds slower in the water, and Leonie even lost a few more seconds in transition and was the last Pro onto the bike course. Things went better once they were on the bike, but they only made up a few spots in the first half up to Hawi. Sara was 38th (25 minutes behind), Leonie another 21 seconds and four places behind. Sara continued her slow advance into T2 – at the end of the bike she was 36th, just over 35 minutes behind. Leonie had a great return leg: She had the fourth best time from Hawi back to Kona behind Solveig, Taylor and Lucy, riding 20 seconds quicker than Laura and Kat, putting herself into 24th position, almost 30 minutes behind the lead and 13 1/2 minutes behind tenth. 

Leonie on the bike, moving through the field after her slower than expected swim (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

On the run, the gaps between the four athletes were shrinking. Out of T2, there were 21 minutes between Jocelyn in seventh and Sara in 34th. Sara was clearly the fastest runner outside the Top 5, passing one athlete after another. After the initial section along the Ocean on Ali’i Drive, she had already moved into 23rd while Jocelyn was losing ground – their gap had come down to under 15 minutes.

Sara running well on Ali’i Drive (Credit: Marcel Hilger). 

Running down the road in the Energy Lab, Marlene passed Jocelyn for ninth place.

Marlene in the early parts of the run in Kona (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

At the turn in the Energy Lab (mile 16), there were under six minutes between the athletes who by now had moved into 9th (Marlene), 10th (Jocelyn), 14th (Leonie) and 17th place (Sara). Coming out of the Energy Lab at mile 20, they were now 8th to 11th, after Lucy had to drop out and Leonie and Sara overtaking a few more athletes. In the next miles, the gaps continued to shrink. At mile 22.4, they were within two minutes and at mile 24 within 58 seconds, but still in the same order. By mile 25, there were three changes: Jocelyn rallied and overtook Marlene, Sara passed Leonie, and Taylor dropped out at the front of the race, so our four athletes were now 7th to 10th with only 39 seconds between them. Fighting for position, Sara and Leonie continued to run well, and both passed Marlene. Across the line, Jocelyn was seventh, just 24 seconds ahead of Sara in eighth with Leonie in ninth just six seconds further behind. Marlene finished in tenth place, just 47 seconds behind Jocelyn. 

Here’s  the race development graph for the thrilling, final section of the run for these four athletes:

Jocelyn celebrating her seventh place finish (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

Early DNF: Chelsea Sodaro

As the Kona 2022 Champion and third in 2024’s World Championship in Nice, Chelsea Sodaro was one of the pre-race favorites. However, her day was over after less than three hours:

Chelsea had a good swim in the chase pack behind Lucy. She was 1:43 behind in eighth place and also rode well for the section through town. But then she couldn’t hold the pace of the groups around her, slowly losing time to the field. She was passed by the Laura/Kat group at about mile 25 but then also wasn’t able to stay with them. She reportedly experienced GI issues, possibly from nutritional issues or swallowing saltwater in the swim. At mile 49 on the bike, she had to call it a day. It was a disappointing end for the 2022 champion who had worked hard for another strong Kona performance.

Two Late DNFs at the Front: Lucy Charles Barclay & Taylor Knibb

Lucy and Taylor had a big impact on how the race developed, even if they both had to end their races on the run:

It’s almost as if Lucy and Taylor were in a separate race from the rest of the field. Right after the gun went off, Lucy powered away from everyone else. After 150m, she had clear water and continued to build her lead for the rest of the swim. 

Lucy already “in the tunnel” before entering the water (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

When she exited the water, she missed her own 2018 swim course record by more than a minute, but she was 1:29 ahead of Haley Chura who was second out of the water, leading a group of seven athletes including Taylor. Lucy and Haley were also first and second into T2 in 2023 when Lucy won the race – their gap then was a very similar 1:33. The T1 gap between Lucy and Taylor was also similar (2025: 1:34, 2023: 1:40). Lucy has been first out of the water in all her six Kona Pro races. 

On the bike, Taylor quickly rode away from her swim companions and moved into second place, but she wasn’t riding faster than Lucy. The gap hovered around two minutes, after 2 1/2 hours of racing at Kawaihae (mile 42), Lucy was 2:21 ahead. After the race, Taylor said that she was feeling hot and needed some time to cool down after the swim in the warm Ocean. Up to this point, Lucy had the fastest bike split extending her lead, Taylor was third-fastest on the bike and second in the race, more than four minutes ahead of Solveig in third. 

Taylor must have felt a bit cooler after Kawaihae and started to close the gap to Lucy. She pushed the pace in the climb to Hawi: When the broadcast showed Lucy making the turn, the camera zoomed out a bit and all of a sudden Taylor was right behind her. At the special needs aid station in Hawi, Taylor stopped to take on extra bottles, losing less than 30 seconds and quickly bridging up to Lucy again. (You can’t even see her stop in the official splits – by the next timing mat 9 miles after the turn, they were already back together.) But Taylor didn’t power away from Lucy, instead the two rode together for the next 25 miles. In 2023, Taylor had received a one-minute penalty for “unintentional littering”, meaning that she lost one of the soft plastic bottles from her behind-the-saddle bottle cage. This year, Lucy received the same penalty, and at mile 88, she had to stop in the penalty tent and let Taylor ride away. Afterwards, Lucy settled back into her pace instead of chasing Taylor. Taylor was first into T2 with what would have been the fastest bike split of the day (does it count if you don’t finish?), she was three minutes quicker than in her first Kona race in 2023. Lucy was 1:26 behind, her bike split was three minutes slower than Taylor’s but would still have been the third fastest in 2025. If you account for the time lost because of the penalty, her split was about the same as when she won in 2023 (2025: 4:33:58 with a one-minute penalty, 2023: 4:32:29). In 2023, Lucy had been able to run almost eight minutes into Taylor, and even if it was expected that Taylor would be able to improve on her 3:05 marathon from two years ago, Lucy was in a great position to repeat her 2023 win.

Taylor leading out of T2 (Credit: Marcel Hilger)

The run along the Ocean on Ali’i unfolded along this script: Taylor ran maybe 7 seconds per mile quicker than in 2023 but Lucy methodically closed the gap to her. When they hit Palani, Lucy was only a few seconds behind and then passed Taylor on the climb with a quick tap on her back. Until then, Lucy was about 15 seconds per mile quicker than Taylor, but after making the pass she was never really able to move away from Taylor. Her lead was 22 seconds at mile 11.3 but then Taylor started to make up ground again. At the next aid station, Lucy slowed down to a walk to take on extra ice and to cool down as much as possible. One aid station later, Lucy had to walk again, and Taylor caught up to her. When Taylor took the lead, Lucy put in a big effort to stay with her. However, at the aid station at mile 13, Lucy slowed down again and Taylor ran away from her. But then Lucy rallied again, looking relatively normal and holding a gap of about 20 seconds to Taylor. The next station saw another step-down, this time she stopped completely to dump as much ice as possible into the back of her race suit. Her deficit to Taylor was now at about 1:15 but again she was able to run a similar pace to Taylor for a short while. In the Energy Lab, it quickly became apparent that she had pushed things too far. Her pace fell off and at about mile 17.5, shortly after the turn in the Energy Lab, the outstretched arm of husband Reece Barclay told her to end her race. Of course, she was disappointed but quickly accepted Reece’s judgment not to push further and create much bigger damage. On the day after the race, Lucy said that she was very thirsty for the whole race and was probably drinking too much water, ruining her electrolyte balance and pushing her into hyponatremia. Clearly, ending her race was the right choice.

After Lucy had to end her race, Taylor was the clear leader. At the turn in the Energy Lab (mile 16), Solveig was still 4:47 behind her. Around mile 20, the gap had shrunk to under four minutes, and Taylor’s mindset switched from doing what she could to preserving the lead:  “At one aid station, I slowed. In my head I said, ‘you’re not getting second. You need to do whatever it takes to win.’ Second wasn’t an option.” Taylor pushed herself, but in the final uphill that was also too much: She wobbled, then lost control of her legs and had to sit down on the side of the road and said “I wanna be done. Can I be done, please?” It took some time before the referee allowed bystanders to help, then coach Dan Lorang and manager Patrick Lemieux took care of her and made sure she received proper medical attention. For Taylor, it looked like overheating, and that is backed up by reports of her core temperature data that showed she was well above the point of no return, unfortunately just two miles from the finish line. Taylor said in an interview a few days after the race, “I’d rather know I wasn’t good enough on the day than wonder forever if I played it too safe. I learned that my limits are closer than I thought. I raced to win, and I’m at peace with that. I’ll be back, chasing that helicopter again. One day, I’ll make it to the top of Palani, and this time, I’ll finish the job.” I can’t wait for Kona 2026!

Previous Winners

Last Race’s TOP 3

Male Race Results (2024)

Female Race Results (2023)

Course Records

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM World Championships is 03:35.

Race Adjustments for IM World Championships

Kona slots and Prize Money

IM World Championships has 1 Pro Kona slot(s). It has a total prize purse of 375.000 US$, paying 15 deep.

Female Race Participants

Winning Odds

Female Race Participants

• Laura Philipp: 30% (2-1)
• Kat Matthews: 25% (3-1)
• Lucy Charles-Barclay: 15% (6-1)
• Taylor Knibb: 6% (16-1)
• Chelsea Sodaro: 5% (20-1)

Updates:

• Oct 4th: Julie Derron had a crash in August and racing an Ironman is too big a risk for the long term.
• Oct 1st: Els Visser has been struggling with an injury over the summer and isn’t yet ready to race in Kona.
• Sept 23rd: Ironman has released the bib list for Kona. From the qualifiers, Kate Gillespie-Jones, Kylie Simpson and Sarah True have not been assigned a bib number and won’t be racing in Kona this year. 

Let’s hope there are not too many late withdrawals because of injuries, and that athletes on the edge can turn a few corners before Kona. Fingers crossed that those who won’t be able to race will be back to 100% soon!

Qualified Athletes

A famous saying in golf is “Drive for Show, Putt for Dough,” highlighting the idea that while a powerful drive may grab attention, it’s the consistent putting that wins tournaments. This post aims to explore a similar concept in the triathlon world with the phrase “Bike for Show, Run for Dough.” I’ll dig into the performance data from the Ironman World Championships to see how well this holds up. First, I’ll discuss the 2024 men’s race won by Patrick Lange, currently the leading long-distance runner. Then I compare this to the 2022 race in Kona which had slightly different race dynamics. The next step is a broader look at all men’s winners from 2004 to now. Finally, we check the corresponding data for the women’s winner. Let’s get started!

Kona 2024

The graphs in this post look at how well the top finishers have performed on the bike and the run. (Of course, the swim is also an important component as it sets up which group athletes will start in, but as the shortest discipline the swim has a lesser impact on the overall results.) To compare the times from different years I show the bike and run splits compared to the tenth fastest in each leg. This way, I can abstract from developments over the years (e.g. improved race nutrition, aerodynamic advancements on the bike or the effect of the super-shoes on the marathon times) and also remove the effects of faster or slower conditions from year to year.

Here’s the graph for 2024 (for all of the graphs in this post, click for a hi-res version):

To explain the graph further: Each athlete is represented by a small dot with labels for the top finishers. Further to right means that the athlete was faster in relation to the tenth fastest athlete on the bike, further to the top means an athlete was faster on the marathon. For Kona 2024, the tenth fastest biker was Kristian Blummenfelt with a 4:05:47, the tenth fastest runner Gregory Barnaby with a 2:50:33. Consider the dot for winner Patrick Lange: His 4:06:22 bike was 0.2% slower than the tenth time, his 2:37:34 marathon was 7.6% faster. As he was almost eight minutes quicker than Matt Hanson and everyone else, Patrick’s dot is way above everybody else’s. Another dot: Sam Laidlow is shown in the bottom right. His bike was 3.4% faster than the tenth, but then his run ended up a whopping 13.1% slower, resulting in him only finishing in 18th place.

The background colors show a better run (light blue background), even bike and run (white) and a better bike (orange). Of course the further to the top right an athlete is, the faster he has finished. But each athlete usually has specific strengths; here’s what you can discern in the graph:

1. To place well, a good bike and run (gray annotations) are needed, i.e. fast legs compared to the rest of the field, but not one leg dominant over the other.
2. Winning needed something special; this year it was Patrick’s awesome run. Other athletes with a good run (blue boxes) also finished well overall but a bit further down the field than those in the first group.
3. Having a better bike (orange annotations) but not being able to have one of the ten fastest runs did not lead to a good overall finish in Kona 2024. The best of this group was Kristian Hogenahug in ninth, he also had the best run of this group. The runs of T2 leaders Sam Laidlow and Robert Kallin were 13.1% and 12.7% slower than the tenth run split; they were only able to finish 18th and 23rd.

Kona 2022

Was Kona 2024 unique in how the strengths determined the finishing positions? Let’s have a look at the previous Kona race in 2022:

Let’s have a look at the different groups in the 2022 race:

• Athletes with a better bike had better results than in 2024, but they also had better runs compared to the fast bikers in 2024. Sam Laidlow had a comparably fast bike (3.6% quicker than tenth in 2022 vs. 3.4% in 2024) but a much better run in 2022 (2.1% quicker). With Sebastian Kienle and Leon Chevalier there were two more athletes with a better bike in the Top 10.
• The good runners took the win as in 2024, in 2022 they also claimed third and fourth place.
• There were fewer balanced athletes in 2022 compared to 2024.

Men’s Winners

The 2022 and 2024 data support the theory that Kona favors good runners, but athletes with different profiles haven’t been too far back. Will the data also hold up for other years? Here’s the graph showing the Ironman World Champions since 2004:

Which groups do the winners come from?

• Athletes with a  “Better Run” are clearly the largest group. (Depending on where exactly you want to determine the borders between the groups, it’s about 12 out of 20 winners.)
• There have been only four winners who took the title based on a “Better Bike.” Normann Stadler won Kona 2004 and 2006 with great bike legs, in similar fashion Sebastian Kienle basically decided the 2014 race on the bike. But even with their great bike legs, they still had marathons that were at least among the ten fastest of the day. The most recent win with a better bike was Sam Laidlow’s win in Nice 2023. Later this year we will get another data point if the tough bike course supported Sam’s strategy to attack on the bike. (There was also a challenging bike course in St. George 2022, but Kristian Blummenfelt won with a dominating run.)
• There are a few winners who won based on “Good Bikes and Runs” 

In summary, the men’s Ironman World Championships can be simplified to “Bike for Show, Run for Dough”. No winner had a run that was not among the ten fastest of the day, and only five that were not at least 2% quicker. Looking at the recent run times, the average of the tenth run splits of the last five years is 2:50:09. You have to be ready to run sub-2:50 even if you have a strong bike leg. If you can’t be among the fastest on the bike, then you have to run at least five minutes quicker (sub-2:45) if you want to have a chance for the win. There is more leeway on the bike, about half of the winners had a bike split within one percent of the tenth bike time. On the other hand, Kona has not favored athletes going too hard on the bike; there were only five winners with a bike split that was more than 3% quicker than the tenth bike split.

While these rules are based on previous results, there are always athletes looking to rewrite these rules. Let’s see how well they will hold up in future years of racing in Kona and in other locations!

Women’s Winners

There is another aspect of this “Kona Rule” that’s worthwhile to mention. So far, the graphs showed data for the men’s race – does the rule also apply to the women? Here’s the graph showing the Women’s World Champions and how they did relative to the tenth bike and run splits:

In general, the women’s data also supports the dominance of the run over the bike, with at least six women who won Kona based on a better run versus only two that have been pre-determined by a better bike (and even then Natascha Badmann in 2005 and Daniela Ryf in 2018 also ran more than 5% quicker than the tenth run split). 

There is one bigger difference to the men’s: A large group of athletes dominated on the bike AND the run, with Laura Philipp as the most recent example. She had the best bike and run in Nice 2024, just as Daniela Ryf in Kona 2016 and 2017 or Chrissie Wellington in 2007. Everyone in this group always had the best split in one leg and one of the three best splits in the other. No one of the recent men’s winners has been as dominant.