The World Triathlon Podcast

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!

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.

We take a look ahead to the fourth stop on the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series - WTCS Montreal - with former World Champion Non Stanford and Tommy Zaferes, to figure out just where the race can be won and lost - and by whom. The chase for World Championship points continues over a demanding sprint-distance course, Vasco Vilaça of Portugal and USA's Taylor Spivey wear the golden #1 and look to continue their chase for the 2023 world titles.

After switching from the tricolor of France to the tri-suit of Luxembourg in 2022, Jeanne Lehair has been in the form of her life, seizing the new opportunities that have come her way to post career-best Series finishes and become the Champion of Europe. She gives us the lowdown on squaring off that difficult decision to switch ahead of Paris 2024, the battle in Madrid and her targets for the rest of what is already a season for the ages. You can watch her race in June's French Grand Prix and WTCS Montreal over on TriathlonLive.tv.

The USA's Erika Ackerlund spoke out recently about the paralysing nerves she felt at the start of the 2022 season, and where the pressure she had unwittingly placed on herself had put her mental health. The 26-year-old reveals what helped her through it, and how she hopes to channel her nervous energy into something positive in 2023.

It was one of the most gripping climaxes to a season possible as a dramatic final 500m of the men's 2022 World Triathlon Championship Finals saw Leo Bergere eventually emerge with gold and the world title at the end of a hard-fought campaign. Ahead of his return to the desert for the 2023 season opener, we caught up with Bergere in Girona to hear how he finally got the better of Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde and what makes the French squad such aa force to be reckoned with heading in to the new year of racing. Watch WTCS Abu Dhabi on 3 March on TriathlonLive.tv

With the start of the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series just around the corner, World Triathlon met up with Vincent Luis in the Girona hills where he lives and trains. This bonus episode is a short excerpt from the full interview with the two-time World Champion, and will be available to watch soon exclusively on TriathlonLive.tv along with all of the new season's action from the blue carpet. Stand by for the season launch on 17 February.

With a huge Olympic year ahead it is the perfect time to look back at some of the younger names that made an impact in 2023 and suddenly have Olympic places in their sights. We get underway with 22-year-old Cathia Schar, who anchored the Swiss Team to Mixed Relay World Championship bronze in Hamburg, took 4th place in the U23 World Championships Pontevedra and then crushed her first World Cup podium with bronze in Rome. Currently 33rd in the Olympic Rankings, Paris 2024 is suddenly a very real prospect for both the individual and mixed relay, so we get to grips with the journey there, overcoming self-doubt and proclivity for a party to emerge from the COVID years as a new force in Swiss triathlon.

In mid-December, the word was finally out - Rio 2016 Olympic Champion Gwen Jorgensen was coming back to World Triathlon racing in 2023. A seven-year break from the blue carpet, two children and some serious marathon running since she hung up her tri-suit, one of the best of all time is back and eyeing a spot on the USA Mixed Relay squad for Paris 2024. You can hear Gwen reveal how it all came about and why on the latest episode of the World Triathlon Podcast.

Netherlands' Maya Kingma kicks off the new season of World Triathlon podcasts. The rising talent fought through the pain barrier at the end of 2022 to help determine the outcome of WTCS Bermuda, was caught up in a bike crash in Abu Dhabi, and is looking to ease into the new year at her own pace to be fully fit and ready to consistently hit the heights she has shown over the past two campaigns. After a little glitz at the first ever Global Triathlon Awards!

Gillian Sanders and Tommy Zaferes join the podcast to give their own inside takes on a season that has had it all, and look ahead to the big one - the 2022 Championship Finals Abu Dhabi, where the headline battles between Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee, Flora Duffy and Georgia Taylor-Brown for the men's and women's world titles are set to provide the season's final chapter of unmissable action!

Ahead of his first race back from an injury that has kept him off the blue carpet since Abu Dhabi 2021, we are in Chile to speak with USA's Morgan Pearson at the Vina del Mar World Cup and catch up on where the Olympic Mixed Triathlon Relay silver medallist is at mentally and physically as he builds back towards the all-important Paris 2024 campaign.