Rather than look at individual race results, this post shows aggregate data on 2017 races and answers the questions of which athletes have won multiple IM-distance races, which athletes have continued a “winning streak” on the same course, and which nation was able to score the most long-distance podiums and wins.

Multiple 2017 Winners

In 2016 Daniela Ryf was the only athlete who was able to win three Ironman-distance races. For 2017 the list of athletes with three wins is quite a bit longer:

• Daniela Ryf (IM South Africa, Challenge Roth, and Ironman Hawaii)
• Lucy Gossage (IM UK, IM Wales, and IM Italy)
• Yvonne Van Vlerken (Challenge Wanaka, Challenge Almere, and IM Barcelona)
• Lisa Roberts (Challenge Madrid, IM Louisville, and IM Cozumel)

There are also a number of athletes that had two wins:

• Sarah Crowley (IM Cairns and IM Germany)
• Rachel Joyce (IM Boulder and IM Mont Tremblant)
• Sebastian Kienle (IM Germany and IM Cozumel)
• Bart Aernouts (Ironman Lanzarote and Challenge Roth)
• Diana Riesler (Challenge Regensburg and Ironman Malaysia)

Winning Streaks

In November, Diana Riesler was able to win IM Malaysia for the fourth time in a row (see photo on the right, credit: Darren Ch’ng, Creative Clicks).

Diana’s “four-peat” is the longest currently active winning streak, and there are not many longer winning streaks that I could find: Meredith Kessler won IM New Zealand five times in a row (between 2012 and 2016, even if 2012 was shortened to a half IM) and Jo Lawn even six times in a row (between 2003 and 2008). On the male side, Cam Brown also won IM New Zealand five times in a row between 2001 and 2005. The longest winning streak I could find is Ronnie Schildknecht who won IM Switzerland between 2007 and 2013 seven times in a row.

Other currently active winning streaks are:

• 3 in a row (i.e. wins from 2015 to 2017):
  • Daniela Ryf at IM Hawaii
  • Lucy Gossage at IM UK
  • Lionel Sanders at IM Arizona
• 2 in a row (i.e. wins in 2016 and 2017):
  • Mel Hauschildt at IM Western Australia
  • Terenzo Bozzone also at IM Western Australia
  • Sebastian Kienle at IM Germany
  • Ben Hoffman at IM South Africa

Wins by Nation

Here’s a look at how the different nations did in the 2017 Ironman-distance races:

The USA continues to be the most successful nation, but while they were able to have 42 podium results in 2016, there were “only” 34 podiums in 2017. Germany continues to be in second place with 29 podiums (a slight reduction from last year’s 33). Great Britain have made a huge step forward compared to last year when they “only” had four wins and 19 podiums in total. Australia was also able to increase their total (16 podiums last year, 23 this year).

Fastest Times

The trend of an increasing number of fast times is continuing on the men’s side as well. While the there were only a handful in 2011 to 14, that number increased to eleven in 2015, 13 in 2016 and now 19 in 2017. The fastest time in 2017 was Tim Don’s 7:40 in Brasil, the second-fastest time ever on the IM-distance.

Best Performances

As on the female side, the best performances are dominated by the Kona results: The new course record by Patrick Lange is the best performance overall, while the Kona Top 5 take ranks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. Only Lionel Sanders and James Cunnama managed to have two of the ten best performances, their Kona races are complemented by wins with a fast time in Arizona and Hamburg.

2017 Ratings

With his Kona win, Patrick Lange has stormed to the front of the overall rankings. He has a solid gap to the next athletes, but his low number of IM races so far means that one weaker result could see him drop back quite a bit. But so far he’s been able to race well in each of his IM races (a win at a shortened IM Texas, third in Kona, a controlled sixth place at IM Frankfurt to qualify and a win in Kona), it appears that he is able to maximize his potential.

Foto: Patrick winning IM Kona, celebrated by six-time winners Dave Scott and Mark Allen. Credit: Ingo Kutsche

Behind Patrick, there are two more Germans: Sebastian Kienle after a good season but without the crowning achievement in Kona he was looking for and Jan Frodeno who had a solid summer IM but then problems in Kona but still finishing. Both of them will already be planning for Kona 2018 and how to put even more pressure on Patrick and the other top contenders.

After fast races in 2016, Patrik Nilsson put this year’s focus on Kona and was able to continue with his solid improvements. A third in Frankfurt and an eight in Kona indicate his potential. Lionel Sanders and David McNamee made huge steps forward in their Kona racing. Lionel had a great all-around day to finish second and David took third after missing out on a Top 10 result for a few years before. Both appeared happy with their achievements but hungry for more.

Fastest Times

In 2017 we’ve had a total of 23 sub-9 finishes – compared to 17 the year before. This ties the record number from 2014 and continues the series of “20 or so” sub-9s per year that’s been going on since 2013. Daniela continues to dominate the fast times, this year she had three of the four fastest times!

Here’s a list of all the sub-9 times from 2017:

As in all lists, I don’t count IM Frankfurt as it had officially a shortened bike-course.

Best Performances

It’s not a surprise that there are a lot of Kona results in the list of best performances – everyone tries to be in top shape for the most important race of the year! This year the Top 5 from Kona are in ranks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7. Daniela’s three races are in the Top 6, Kaisa Sali also has three performances in the Top 10 (though in ranks 7 to 9 a bit behind Daniela ).

2017 Ratings

After three wins with fast times in three big races, there can’t be any doubt that Daniela continues to be the #1-ranked female athlete. She has extended her lead to a dominating 25 minutes, only partially because last year’s #2 Mirinda Carfrae has dropped from the rankings. (Rinnie’s rating would be close to 9:01, still more than 20 minutes behind Daniela.)

Nonetheless, we’ve seen a number of promising improvements in the female field, meaning that Daniela won’t be able to become complacent. You could see that in this year’s Kona race: Last year she had 13 minutes on her competitors at 90 miles on the bike (with the sole exception of Anja Beranek who was just five minutes behind), this year she had two athletes (Lucy Charles and Lauren Brandon) five minutes in front of her, two riding with her (Sarah Crowley and Annabel Luxford) and Heather Jackson just 90 seconds behind her. This situation put some pressure on Daniela, but she responded with a monster bike-effort, taking the lead by T2 and not giving her competitors the slightest chance for a Kona win.

Foto: Daniela after crossing the finish line in Kona. Credit: Ingo Kutsche

But there a number of athletes that will work hard to challenge Daniela even harder in 2018. Lucy Charles entered the ranks of top athletes with a bang, Susie Cheetham returned after injuries with a successful 2017 season, Kaisa Sali and Heather Jackson continued their improvement on the long-distance (improving their ratings by six minutes and more), Carrie Lester also repeated in the Kona Top 10, Sara Crowley made a huge step forward (rating improvement of almost 16 minutes!) and is now a Kona podium finisher, Mel Hauschildt seems to be always struggling with injuries but finished the season healthy. In addition, there are a few “Super Moms” returning to racing: Rachel Joyce already qualified in 2017 but then was too tired to race well in Kona, Mirinda Carfrae is already back in training, as are Liz Blatchford, Meredith Kessler or Caroline Steffen. At the end of the 2017 season, Daniela is still way ahead of the rest of the female field, but there is a long list of athletes looking to become more than just a threat to her.