Barely twenty-fours have passed since the electric women’s race at the Paris Olympic Games and we have just about been able to process what unfolded. From the opening moments, the race held no shortage of drama and it gave rise to one of the most captivating Olympic triathlons yet. In this article, we share five of the leading talking points from the action.
Vive la France
Cassandre Beaugrand was majestic as she powered to the gold medal, France’s first in triathlon. Wins at the WTCS stops in Cagliari and Hamburg had marked her out as the woman to beat heading to Paris and she did not disappoint in front of a rapturous home crowd. Whereas last year at the Olympic Test Event she had to settle for silver after an epic battle with Beth Potter, this time the French athlete made her decisive move earlier in the final lap of the run.
While Beaugrand was flawless across the race, it was her run that set her apart. With a split of 32:42, she recorded the fastest women’s time ever in Olympic triathlon history, dethroning Flora Duffy’s effort from Tokyo.
There was more to cheer for the home team as Emma Lombardi also came away with a sterling 4th place. Lombardi was in the hunt for a medal for most of the race but narrowly missed out in the final push for the line. As one of the youngest women in the field, though, she will no doubt be back in the hunt for glory at future Games.
The spirit of Spirig
There is something about triathlon at the Olympic Games that has brought the best out of Team Switzerland. Sven Riederer and Nicola Spirig have each claimed Olympic medals at past editions and in Paris Julie Derron channelled her illustrious sporting forebears to claim a sensational silver medal.
Derron lost time to the leaders in the water but recovered with an impressive turn on the bike. In a way, her power on two wheels aped the racing style of Spirig. Once onto the run, the comparisons with Spirig continued as Derron led for much of the 10km. She ultimately could not respond to Beaugrand’s final move but nonetheless held off the reigning world champion Beth Potter with a determined surge. Derron and Potter also dipped under Flora Duffy’s previous Olympic best split of 33:00 from Tokyo with their times of 32:51 and 32:59, respectively.
Perhaps the most significant detail of Derron’s success was that she had never won a WTCS medal prior to her display in Paris. In that respect, she follows the achievement of Hayden Wilde in Tokyo. Equally, Derron won the Chengdu World Cup earlier this year in a race that bore remarkable resemblance to her silver in Paris and the warning signs of an impending major breakthrough have been clear for the past year.
End of an era
The defending Olympic champion Flora Duffy took 5th place in Paris in what will be her final Games appearance. In the opening discipline, she put on a clinic in the swim as she led the field. Duffy stayed extremely wide in the water, hugging the outside edge of the river at times, which gave her the best route with the currents.
As seen in the Test Event last year, the swim detonated the women’s field and in that Duffy had a significant hand. Having led the Test Event swim, Bianca Seregni was second out of the water behind Duffy this time round. Thereafter, on the bike, Duffy rode courageously on her own to press home her advantage in the opening laps. The lead pack would eventually reel her in but she had certainly set the tone for the proceedings.
It also seemed fitting that Duffy finished in close proximity to Georgia Taylor-Brown. After placing 2nd in Tokyo, Taylor-Brown claimed 6th place yesterday. The two women have pushed one another to immense heights over this Olympic cycle, with their world title battle in 2022 setting new standards for the sport. If this is to be the end of the road for Duffy, then, she will have signed off with yet another classy performance and with her great rival right with her.
When dreams become nightmares
Rain overnight meant that the women faced slick surfaces and a particularly challenging bike course. As a result, there were several crashes, each of which proved costly. Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto was an early athlete to hit the ground while Manami Iijima suffered a big crash as she flew round one corner. Vittoria Lopes went down in the lead group and soon after another crash knocked Jolien Vermeylen, Lisa Tertsch and Kirsten Kasper from front.
Jeanne Lehair’s day was prematurely ended by an incident and then Kasper went down again following a puncture. Later on, Laura Lindemann, the bronze medallist from the Paris Test Event, also suffered a fall when ideally set with the leaders.
It was unfortunate for so many athletes to have their Olympic moments affected by the sudden slip of a wheel. As significant, and perhaps even more so, was that several were able to valiantly push on and finish despite the hits they took which offered as true a testament of the Olympic spirit as anyone else in the race.
Seizing the moment
While attention naturally fell on the top finishers, throughout the field there were plenty of noteworthy stories to track and standout performances to highlight. Maria Tomé was one such athlete as the 2023 World U23 Championships silver medallist placed 11th. Her Paris result far exceeds her best WTCS performance of 27th while Tomé also ended the day with the top bike split in 57:34.
Elsewhere, Roksana Slupek finished 13th. Slupek qualified for Paris through the European New Flag route however she was not in contention to qualify at all at the start of the season. After a superlative start to her campaign, she capped her Olympic run with a highly impressive result at the Games itself and showed that she may be one to watch in the coming years. Speaking of stars of the future, Tilda Månsson, the youngest triathlete at the Games, finished the day in 23rd.
Stay tuned for the next dose of Olympic action with the Mixed Team Relay on Monday. You can follow all the key updates across all World Triathlon channels.
