In a matter of days, 55 men and 55 women will toe the start line for the individual triathlon events at the Paris Olympic Games. By definition, only three athletes in each race can come away with a medal. To adopt a fairly blunt outlook, it can almost be claimed that only three athletes will therefore come away truly happy from their respective individual event. However, as important as the podium is, it does not have to define everything about the race.
It is the nature of sport that every athlete starting can hit a personal milestone, such as finishing higher than the ever dared dream or nailing the best possible race they can produce on the day. At the same time, between medals and personal satisfaction also lies a third area where success can be found.
Every triathlete in Paris will have the chance to make a piece of Olympic history. It could be the fastest split ever recorded at the Games, the greatest comeback achieved, or even something as simple as the most places gained during transition. While it might not be as glorious as a gold medal, it is nonetheless a chance to ink one’s name to the history of the sport. With that in mind, in this article we will take a look at some of the most significant Olympic triathlon achievements from a stats perspective that could be surpassed next week.
The splits
The obvious starting point for any lookback at Olympic triathlon history is with the splits. Every triathlete can relate to taking succour from a particularly fast performance in one of the disciplines and those at the Games will be no different. In the swim, the times to beat are 16:56 and 18:16. The former was clocked by Richard Varga at the London Olympics in 2012 while the latter was produced by Lucy Hall at the same event. Jessica Learmonth actually came close to taking the top swim split with her time of 18:24 in Tokyo but Hall’s leading time endured.
Olympic bronze medallist Henri Schoeman holds the top bike split of any male racer at the Games with his effort of 55:01 from Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Of course, every bike course is different and comparing splits can be challenging. Then again, Rio was a particularly tough course with plenty of climbing, making Schoeman’s time all the more impressive. Another Olympic medallist, Lisa Norden, holds the top female bike split. She clocked 1:01:19 in Rio, pipping Rachel Klamer by 1 second.
On the run, Flora Duffy’s effort of 33:00 in Tokyo takes the cake as the fastest 10km split. Her time knocked Emma Snowsill’s gold medal-winning effort of 33:16 in Beijing from the top spot. Meanwhile, Alistair Brownlee still holds the fastest ever men’s 10km time with his 29:07 from London 2012. However, given the speeds seen at last year’s Paris Olympic Test Event and more broadly in the WTCS lately, both Duffy’s and Brownlee’s times will likely come under threat. Indeed, it seems highly likely that we could see the first ever sub-29 and sub-33 minute 10km times in an Olympic triathlon this summer.
Talking transition
Rob Barel remains the only man to have clocked the fastest T1 and T2 in the same Olympic race. In Sydney 2000, he took a rapid 17 seconds in T1 and an even faster 14 seconds in T2. Michellie Jones is the only woman to have matched that feat. She also had the top T1 and T2 in Sydney, stopping the clock at 21 and 19 seconds apiece.
Elsewhere, Jonathan Brownlee is the only man to have had the top split in a transition at two different Games. He was the fastest man in T2 in both Rio and Tokyo with times of 33 seconds and 26 seconds, respectively.
We love a comeback
Sometimes, an athlete gets off to a slow start in the water. As the old adage goes, you cannot win the race in the swim but you can lose it. However, sometimes an athlete can recover from a seemingly lost position and snatch back Olympic success just when it seems to have slipped away.
When it comes to making a comeback from a precarious post-swim position, 43 is the number you need to know. That is how many places both Kate Allen and Richard Murray have previously made up on their way to a successful finish. In Rio, Murray exited the water in 47th place however rose 43 spots across the remainder of the race to claim a sterling 4th place overall. Allen went even better. In Athens, she found herself in 44th place at the conclusion of the swim. When all was said and done, she had climbed all the way to 1st place and ended the day with the gold medal around her neck.
In Paris, we could see an even bigger comeback as the currents in the Seine could make for a tricky swim in which athletes could lose time. Two of the reigning men’s Olympic medallists are also no strangers to a post-swim comeback. Alex Yee jumped from 32nd out of the water in Tokyo to 2nd by the end of the race, claiming a 30 spot rise. Hayden Wilde went even bigger. He exited the water in 37th and rose to 3rd place, earning a 34 place climb.
Moreover, the comeback trend is not new. The first two male Olympic champions, Simon Whitfield and Hamish Carter, made identical post-swim comebacks from 28th to 1st place in Sydney and Athens. Gwen Jorgensen also rose from 23rd to 1st to win in Rio while Nicola Spirig rose from 23rd to 2nd in London.
Catch me if you can
At the other end of the race, there are the athletes that fly through the field on the run. Classically, there have been some scorching conditions at the Olympic triathlon events, most notably in Athens in 2004 and most recently in Tokyo. Pacing oneself and conserving energy can therefore be a challenge at an event that tends to combine intense heat and pressure.
Igor Sysoev stands out as the man with the biggest rise in the run. In Beijing, he left T2 in 38th place but ended the run having picked off 29 rivals to claim 9th overall. Andriy Glushchenko made a similar surge in Sydney as he rose from 39th to 11th.
The only woman to have gained more than 20 places on the run at an Olympic triathlon is Kate Allen. In Athens, she improved her position by 28 places to rise from 29th to 1st. Ana Burgos Acuna holds the next best run improvement with the 19 places she gained in Beijing (going from 39th to 20th).
In Paris, then, there will never be a point where all is truly lost. Even if athletes find themselves down and out of the action at the start of the run, there is always the chance of making Olympic history by soaring through the field.
Altogether, then, there are multiple ways in which athletes can make their own piece of triathlon history this summer, including several others that have not been touched upon here. Every athlete therefore will have their chance to be their extraordinary, in whatever way that manifests in Paris. With the final few days upon us, stay up to date with every development across all World Triathlon channels.
WOMEN’S RACE: 31 July: 8AM CET
MEN’S RACE: 31 July, 10.45AM CET
MIXED RELAY: 5 August: 8AM CET
