The World Triathlon Podcast

Fresh from his mammoth debut World Triathlon Championship Series win in Karlovy Vary, Germany's latest triathlon talent Henry Graf joins Doug Gray and Tommy Zaferes for a full run-down of the latest and greatest Battle of Bohemia! 📈 Being nearly two metres tall in an era of smaller, faster triathletes 🍿 Winning your debut the same day as Ironman short-distancers light up Nice – shouts to Casper Stornes, Gustav Iden, Kristian Blummenfelt and friend Jonas Schomburg 💪 Taylor Spivey’s mega bike effort to catch onto Maya Kingma’s mega bike effort 🐠 Oliver Conway’s impressive debut with 4th place new talent coming off the GB production line 💥 Beth Potter back on top of the podium and Jeanne Lehair bouncing back from bashing the barrier 🦿 Hitting the KV roads hard with breakaway boys Tjebbe Kaindl and Mark Devay ✍️ Hayden Wilde’s pre-race car incident, Swim behaviour penalties, John Reed clocking the rapid runs, prospects for a Series podium and his chances of taking Csongor Lehmann’s crown in Tiszy

The newly crowned European Sprint Triathlon Champion, Belgium's Jolien Vermeylen now heads to Istanbul chasing the Olympic Distance title at the end of August. On episode 105, the 31-year-old opens up about having her post-Paris 2024 words twisted and the resulting social media pile-on, putting her 70.3 ambitions on hold to chase a career-best Series ranking and the career arc of taking up the sport after reading the Brownlee book on holiday and then winning supertri gold for Brownlee Racing in Toronto. "You can read subtitles on my face. If I like something I show it and if I don’t you’ll know it. But maybe for racing I need it!"

In recovery after suffering a bad bike crash at WTCS Hamburg in mid-July, Roksana Slupek is our guest this week, and the Poland number one shares her reflections on the highs and lows of her journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic start line. From attacks of self doubt and depression to ultimately qualifying for her life’s dream, and the harsh realities of racing on – and crashing out of – the world’s biggest triathlon series, the 26-year-old shares an eye-opening hour of life as an elite athlete, and how recent events have made her re-evaluate her attitude towards her fellow competitors on the World Triathlon Championships Series.

A second individual gold in the 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series strengthened Matt Hauser's grip on the Series Rankings after WTCS Hamburg marked the halfway point of the season. The 27-year-old followed it up with one of the greatest Mixed Relay legs you will see as he reeled in a 20-second deficit to 2023 World Champion Dorian Coninx and helped secure Australia their first World title since 2017. Now it's all eyes on France and the WTCS French Riviera at the end of August to see if he can take the maximum 3000 points into a home Championship Finals in Wollongong, Australia, in October, where he will look to become the country's first men's world champion for 20 years.

The first Brazilian to win a World Triathon Championship Series gold in the modern era, Miguel Hidalgo now has his sights set on a first World Championship title, but knows all too well just how far there is still to go if he is to be challenging in October's finals in Wollongong, Australia, against the likes of home favourite Matt Hauser.

If you achieved your dream double of becoming Olympic and World Champion in the same year, what would you do? For Alex Yee, the answer was simple. Test himself over running's marquee distance on one of the biggest stages of them all: The London Marathon. We headed to Brockley, south London, just a few miles from that start line, to speak to one of the most understated, unflappable and, quite simply, impressive triathletes of all time and hear about the emotion and exhaustion of the day as he strived for something remarkable. From the training loads to the heat of battle and what lies ahead, Yee is the epitome of relaxation and ambition as he recounts the journey from the backyard of the house he grew up in. FOLLOW HIS RACE ON STRAVA: https://strava.app.link/iZJX5Kxn2Sb [00:00:00] Post-Marathon Reflections Yee reflects on the surreal experience of finishing 14th in the marathon and the emotional significance of the start line. [00:03:00] Marathon vs. Triathlon Pain The unique physical challenges of marathon running—mental endurance vs. muscular fatigue. [00:05:00] Purpose Beyond Olympic Success Seeking purpose and new challenges post-Olympic and World Championship victories. [00:09:00] Training Volume and Adaptation The training details - up to 600km/month- with triathlon elements still retained. [00:16:00] Philosophical Perspective and Gratitude Maintaining internal motivation, gratitude, and broader perspective after his serious crash in 2017. [00:20:00] Emotional Finish Line at London Marathon The powerful emotions and pride of his hometown Marathon [00:26:00] Performance Analysis and Heat Impact The performance dip in the final 8km and hitting the data, including heat and heart rate drift. [00:29:00] Collaborative Coaching Approach Just how he and coach Adam Elliot worked with experts across disciplines to prepare for the marathon. [00:39:00] Physiological Learnings from Marathon The unexpected physical adaptations and how they may influence future triathlon training. [00:45:00] Triathlon culture and his Blue Carpet Future Where next for the Marathon Man as he builds towards defending his triathlon title at LA 2028

A very special guest joins the podcast to mark the 100th episode, the Paris 2024 Olympic Triathlon Champion Cassandre Beaugrand! It is a deeply honest hour in the company of our Olympic and World Champion, each story revealing a little more about just where all the grit, determination and competitive spirit that has taken the 27-year-old to the very top of the sport came from. Cass explains why she so cherished the support of teammate Leonie Periault, even when she was being ‘a nightmare’ to train with, why she was so envious of the cool, calm spirit of Andrea Hewitt, and why she threw up all over her feet next to Georgia Taylor Brown in Paris. SHOW NOTES 02:20 – "All change" - Why she is joining coach Glenn Poleunis in Girona and saying goodbye to Loughborough 13:17 – ‘How success feels’ - Releasing the pressure, the 5km French record and Lievin 19:40 – ‘Early years’ - Growing up in Paris, losing her mum, moving to Antibes 23:50 – ‘All change’ - Leaving her father as coach and moving to Montpelier 27:45 – ‘Bad mindset’ - Being hard to coach and pushing too much in training 31:37 – ‘Good people’ – Support of Stephanie Gros and Leonie Periault 33:25 – “Christmas present’ – Being the youngest woman at Rio 2016 37:20 – “Shattered dreams” – The trouble with Tokyo 41:40 – “I need a plan” – The move to Loughborough 45:26 – “Pain threshold” – Pain and gains in WTCS Cagliari 52:08 – “Paris panic” – The rain returns on Olympics day 57:00 – “Lost at sea” – Turning it around in TorremolinosA very special guest joins the podcast to mark the 100th episode, the Paris 2024 Olympic Triathlon Champion Cassandre Beaugrand!

🚨 RACE WEEK! 🚨 Two of the stars of the Paris 2024 Olympic Triathlon - and indeed Tokyo 2020 - Hayden Wilde and Morgan Pearson (Morgan from 20m30s) look ahead to the weekend's big season opener WTCS Abu Dhabi. They talk title chances, the young contenders ready to try and ramp the run pace up even further in 2025, and the prospect of some big T100 debuts. Stand by for full the in depth interviews coming to a screen near you soon! 📺 WATCH WTCS ABU DHABI ON TRIATHLONLIVE.TV 15 February from 2pm

Australia's Matt Hauser joins us for a rewind across the comings and goings of an almighty WTCS Yokohama that finally got the 2024 Series underway in dramatic style, and a look ahead to WTCS Cagliari, the final race of the Paris 2024 Qualification Period. The 55 men and 55 women are soon to be finalised, and the races to become Olympic Champions in the French capital are heating up already!

The second Olympic Qualification Period saw a meteoric rise to the Paris 2024 start line for Sweden's Tilda Mansson. From 2022 Junior World Champion to multiple World Cup podiums in the space of a whirlwind 12 months, the 20-year-old has bypassed U23 racing entirely and heads for a remarkable third Championship Finals of a young career in Torremolinos. With LA 2028 the next major target, the interim years will be earmarked for refining her talent, but the memories - and stories - from the Paris swim and beyond still have plenty of time to be told... Watch Mansson's brilliant Bergen World Cup win

USA's John Reed heads into this year's U23 World Championships on a mission to crown what has already been a brilliant breakthrough 2024. The rising star discusses his debut Series appearances, first World Cup win in Karlovy Vary and a sparkling WTCS Weihai, and hits his last U23 start line knowing that if he can take home a medal, it would catapult him into the next Olympic cycle and towards a huge home Games at LA 2028.

She is just 28 years old, but Italy's Veronica Yoko Plebani has already squeezed more into her young world than most do in a lifetime. Contracting bacterial meningitis at 15 could have been the end, too, but instead signalled a new beginning, one that has taken her to representing her country at three Paralympics in snowboarding, canoeing and triathlon, grace the cover of Italian Vogue and write a celebrated novel telling the story of a young woman whose life is altered but refuses to lie down.

Two stars of the Para Triathlon visually impaired class, Italy's 2023 World Champion Francesca Tarantello and Australia's Continental Champion Sam Harding are ready to hit their first Paralympic Triathlon start lines on 2 September, and reveal their rapid rises through the ranks to the sport's biggest stage: Paris 2024.

As the Multisport World Championships hit Townsville, we rewind to Ibiza last year with Great Britain's Georgia Bell, when she became Age Group Duathlon World Champion before embarking on an Olympic odyssey that saw her win 1500m bronze in one of the most nail-biting Paris 2024 finishes since... well, Yee vs Wilde. Hear why she credits cycling and duathlon racing with her staying power on the track, and how she was able to turn the tables on broken dreams and return to the biggest stage of them all having thought world-class racing was behind her.

With just hours to go to the Opening Ceremony, we look ahead to the Paris 2024 Olympic triathlon events with the expert analysis and insight from Norway's Casper Stornes, revealing the complexities of the Paris Olympic course from swim to bike to run, and why you should never write off Kristian Blummenfelt... or the French.

Standing at #32 in the Olympic Rankings at the start of 2024, Kiwi Dylan McCullough looks set to join Hayden Wilde on the New Zealand team for Paris 2024 if he can continue the form he produced in 2023. He talks team tactics for the big races, becoming Youth Olympic Champion and going face to face with Justin Bieber.

We continue our look back at some of the names breaking out in 2023 and with ambitions set fully on Paris in the company of Hungary’s exciting talent Marta Kropko. Still only 20 years old, this season saw Marta cement her place in the Hungarian Mixed Relay squad after what was a tough debut in Leeds in 2022, this time helping the team to 5th place at the World Championships in Hamburg, 3rd at the European Games Krakow and now suddenly eyeing an Olympic qualification spot that would guarantee two men and two women on the Paris start lines. The U23 Aquathlon World Champion after winning in Ibiza, Marta scored a first World Cup top 10 in Weihai in August and is now hunting a first WTCS start in 2024, all fitting around an Economics degree in which she is in her third year at Budapest University.

Could Vincent Luis be a CrossFit Champion? Who are the ultimate athletes - triathletes or CrossFitters? Could you row a marathon? Hailing from San Diego, California, Lauren Fisher is a 7 x CrossFit Games athlete and former Junior national weightlifting champion in the US who tuned in to the world of CrossFit from a young age initially to help with her basketball training. The multi-dimensional fitness competitions soon took over as her sport of choice, however, and after a decade competing at the top level, she now also runs her own signature fitness programmes and retreats for those looking for a slice of the Lauren lifestyle. Lauren hit her first Olympic distance triathlon in Hamburg's open races and thinks there could be more crossover potential between the sports. Listeners can receive a 50% discount for Lauren's Grown Strong fitness programme for women using the code worldtriathlon

Will McCloy is best know to triathlon fans as the commentary voice behind the Arena Games and Super League, for whom he has been calling races for over five years. The Australian took a first dip into Age Group World Championship racing in Hamburg in mid-July, where he puked, fought walls and raced actual former elite champions. McCloy reveals the importance of testing himself, the power of preparation and the potent competition to be found among middle-aged men on an AG triathlon start line.

Rasmus Henning (DEN) Two-time top 10 Olympic triathlete ✅ Multiple World Cup and Ironman winner ✅ One of Denmark’s most successful triathletes of all time ✅ Back in 2010 he joined an elite club of male athletes to complete a sub-8hour Ironman and posted one of the fastest ever times at Challenge Roth, a four-time Kona vet, he could most recently be seen rolling back the years and tearing up the course at the WTCS Hamburg Age Group Sprint World Championships, winning silver in the 45-49 category. He is also the CEO and performance director of Triathlon Denmark after recently working with the Danish Olympic Committee. Denmark's triathlon titan Rasmus Henning found his competitive edge was as sharp as ever as he returned to the blue carpet in Hamburg. After picking up silver at the AG World Championships as legends like Daniel Unger and Stuart Hayes took to the opportunity to get back to competition, the Great Dane relives the Hamburg magic, the unique tussles of the $200,000 Hy-Vee race and missing out on winning a Hummer.