Tri Talking Sport

Taylor Knibb is a two-time Olympic silver medallist, a four-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, and a little over three weeks ago was crowned the 2026 IRONMAN World Champion in one of the most dramatic closing stages of the race we have ever seen on the Big Island.  Kona has been part of her story since childhood. She watched her mum race there from a young age and made her own IRONMAN World Championship debut in 2023, finishing in fourth place. In 2025, despite an incredible race, she did not finish, ending her day with heat stroke. Twelve months later, she came back and won the coveted World Title on the back of a very unorthodox and remarkable season.  She raced three world championship events in 28 days: the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, the UCI World Time Trial Championships in Montreal eight days later, and Kona 20 days after that.  In Nice, she claimed her fourth IRONMAN 70.3 World Title breaking the tape in 4:19:24. In Kona, she retook the lead in the final kilometre to win on Ali'i Drive in 8:36:29, to become one of only five athletes to win both World Titles in the same year.  In this conversation, Taylor talks us through her recovery from Kona last year and how advice from Paula Newby-Fraser kept her focused on looking after herself in Kona this year, why nerves are good, how she struggles with rest, and why, for all her cycling success, triathlon is still where her heart is. Taylor is refreshingly honest, thoughtful, insightful and unchanged by her new title. This is a great chat, centred on resilience, courage, letting go, and a reminder that sometimes the biggest wins come from learning to listen to yourself. 

Jen Done didn't grow up sporty. She swam a bit as a youngster, tagging along to galas beside a sister who was the 'sporty one of the family'  and other than a handful of pre-baby marathons, a life in sport was never really part of her master plan.Seven years ago, after the birth of her daughter, she found herself in a very different kind of race, a race against postnatal depression so severe she could not get out the front door, convinced her husband and daughter would be better off without her. Dismissed as "baby blues" by three separate doctors before a female GP finally gave her the diagnosis and help she needed. Somewhere in the middle of it all, her husband suggested she try running again; she managed 30 seconds out the door and back. It was enough to change everything.That 30 seconds became a habit, and the habit snowballed; an IRONMAN 70.3 in Weymouth, her first full IRONMAN in Hamburg, the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona in 2023 racing with the IRONMAN Foundation. She launched her own podcast, 'The Toughest Finish Line', to share other people's stories of using sport to fight through trauma and mental health struggles and she is also a triathlon coach. A little over three weeks ago, Jen took on her biggest challenge yet: two full IRONMAN races, on consecutive days, in two different countries. IRONMAN Kalmar in Sweden on Saturday and IRONMAN Copenhagen in Denmark 24 hours later. In this episode Jen recalls and shares insight into her Viking IRONMAN adventure, the highs and the lows, the chaos to the calmness, from lost luggage, to the hectic hours before the race weekend even started and the nausea that almost derailed her ambitious racing plans which saw her become an eight time IRONMAN. Jen talks openly about her postnatal depression and the transformational journey she has been on since that 30 second run seven years ago. She reflects on what she's learned about her own capacity to cope, how strong she is and how far removed this version of herself is from the woman who once couldn't leave the house.This is a lovely episode centred on courage, resilience, self-belief and the importance of a loving support crew to help you take one small step at a time, even when that small step seems impossible.

British professional triathlete Harry Palmer recently took the title for the third year in a row at IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea, an accomplishment that is not often achieved in sport.  A home race, a stacked field and a run battle right to the finish line, Harry held his nerve, held the gap  and took the tape in style in front of a spectacular crowd in South Wales.  In this episode Harry shares how patience, confidence and a mid-run mental reset helped him manage the race pressure to hold off his chasers to secure his third straight victory in Swansea.  Following a decorated age group career he switched to the pro ranks in 2019 and has had lots of success in the sport in recent years. From his three-peat in Swansea, to winning the Challenge "The Championship" Samorin this year, which he backed up with a third place at the 2026 IRONMAN 70.3 Jönköping European Championship after a 4th place last year. He also took third at the 2025 edition of IRONMAN Leeds and finished in eighth place at the 2024 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship.  Just like all journeys in sport and life, the road hasn't been smooth along the way, gut issues derailed multiple races, before a deep dive with a sports doctor and his team at Precision Fuel and Hydration uncovered the fix, lowering carb intake and refining fuelling.  He also endured a rough 2025 that left him stretched thin, but 2026 has been good to him so far and with his 2027 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship slot secured, Harry heads to IRONMAN Wales - the race that broke him on his first attempt at the full distance - chasing redemption, a slot for the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona and the ultimate quest to take the tape in Tenby and do the double in Wales in 2026. In the world of triathlon, where endurance meets mental fortitude, Harry Palmer stands out as a beacon of perseverance and triumph. His journey has not been without challenges, but with dedication, patience and his own self-confessed delusional self-belief he has conquered and overcome many obstacles on his way to sporting success. This is a great chat with Harry, if you'd like to hear more from him, give his podcast Uncomfortable Triathlon with fellow pro Andrew Horsfall-Turner a follow and a listen.

Aisling Wyer is an Irish triathlete and member of Naas Triathlon Club who has achieved impressive results at home and abroad all whilst working full time as a solicitor. She came to the sport relatively late, inspired by her mother Nora, with a background in horse riding and tetrathlon. She most definitely wasn't a runner, was moved to tears on her first cycling outing along the Waterford Greenway and openly admits she has spent most of her triathlon career battling self-belief as much as she has battled race courses. And yet, Aisling Wyer has quietly become one of the most competitive Irish age group athletes. She is a two time National Sprint Champion and has won multiple races in Ireland including Tri Tyrone 70.3, Skerries Sprint, Camlough Sprint and Naas Duathlon in 2024.  On the international stage she won IRONMAN 70.3 Emilia-Romagna in 2024, qualifying for her first IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship.  In 2025 she raced 11 times across five countries, finishing on the podium nine times, she was third overall female in the Triathlon Ireland National Series, rounding out her season with a 4th place in her Age Groups at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella. Her most recent success came last month when she crossed the finish line as the fastest female overall at IRONMAN 70.3 Mallorca, solidifying her position as a talented triathlete on the rise. Now she is setting her sights on the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France, with the aim of going one better in the results than Marbella. In this conversation we hear about her journey from reluctant runner to two-time IRONMAN 70.3 Champion, the role her mother has played every step of the way, how she manages training, injury and a demanding career without losing her love for the sport, her experience as a guide in paratriathlon and the mindset she has built around consistency and learning to believe in herself. Aisling is grounded and genuinely inspiring, not because of the results alone, but because of the attitude she brings to chasing them. This is a really lovely chat and one that will have you motivated to go out and chase your own sporting and personal goals, whatever they may be.

Endurance adventurer Sean Conway has lived a life defined by adventure, resilience and a relentless desire to do hard things. Driven by curiosity and an appetite for pushing beyond what most consider possible, Sean has built a career out of testing the very edges of human endurance. He is the man who completed 105 full distance triathlons in 105 consecutive days, breaking the world record for the most consecutive full Iron distance triathlons. He became the first person to swim the length of Britain, a 900 mile journey from Land's End to John o' Groats.  He has cycled 4,000 miles self-supported across Europe from Portugal to Russia faster than anyone before him. He completed the world's longest triathlon, a continuous 4,200 mile ultra triathlon around the coast of Great Britain. He has cycled around the world, yes around the world, completed multiple marathon and ultra runs including 15 marathons in 15 national parks in 15 days. And that is only a tiny snapshot of an extraordinary endurance resume he has achieved since first delving into the wonderful world of endurance sport. Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa on vast wildlife conservation parks, Sean didn't grow up sporty. His first dream was to travel the world as a National Geographic photographer. When that ambition didn't materialise, he pivoted, choosing endurance as his vehicle for exploration and purpose.  In doing so, he wrote himself into the record books on multiple occasions, becoming the first person to complete an Endurance Grand Slam; achieving a world's first, world's longest, world's fastest and world's most. Inspired by boundary breakers who redefined what endurance could look like, Sean has not only chased records himself, he now coaches, mentors and encourages others to test their own limits. A motivational speaker and author of multiple books, in this episode, we explore his philosophy of deliberately choosing difficult paths, what fuels his fear of living an ordinary life and how he continues to test what he's truly capable of. This is an incredible conversation on resilience, reinvention and building a life exploring the hard road, on purpose. An episode well worth tuning into. To find out more about Sean and his incredible achievements go to www.seanconway.com