Are you not entertained.
Are you not entertained.
The self-declared greatest women's Ironman world championship ever.
Nice special edition: Sept. 22, 2024
Reminder: This is a special edition from the women’s Ironman World Championship in Nice, France. Will be back with a shorter regular newsletter on Wednesday.
- Kelly
There was something Kat Matthews said to me after the race, when we were chatting in the sorta sad little pro athlete lounge area, about how a neck-and-neck run battle is something she’s always dreamed of. (Side point: Nightmare for the rest of us, right? Like please, if I catch you on a run, just kindly give up. But, I guess that’s why I’m never going to be on an Ironman World Champs podium.) Kat said it’s so exciting to have that kind of shoulder-to-shoulder fight, it’s so great the women can really be racing this, it’s amazing for the spectators, and isn’t that what sports are, entertainment?
And all I could think was: WERE YOU ALL NOT ENTERTAINED.
When Laura Philipp caught Kat (and Marjolaine Pierre) on the bike — and then Kat clawed her way back, and then they went back and forth along the rolling plateau up in the mountains, and then Kat pulled ahead on the descent; when the two of them entered T2 together and did the whole first loop of the run step for step, through all of that, everyone kept saying ‘omg, we’re going to have another Iron War! omg it’s just like Iron War.’ It’s Iron War, but for ladies.
Except, maybe, it’s actually a totally different and entirely new exciting race all of its own.
Sebi Kienle once told me: There are only 20 guys in the world that can win this race and half of them won’t make it to the start line or they’ll show up so injured they won’t make it to the finish, then three of the ones left will be too overcooked, two of them will have something go wrong in the race — and so all you have to do is beat four guys. (And, presumably, not be one of the unfortunate 15.)
That doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. It just means that’s part of what it takes to be the best in the world: talent, hard work, timing, luck. Not necessarily in that order.
You only have to beat four athletes. They’re just the fittest, fastest, most ready-to-go four athletes in the world.
From last year’s World Champs top ten: Daniela Ryf was pushed into early retirement with an injury, Skye Moench is pregnant, Lisa Norden has been open about the fact that she was pregnant and isn’t anymore, Jocelyn McCauley needs surgery, Sarah True collapsed in the last few miles of IM Lake Placid, and Taylor Knibb, well, she didn’t actually race enough to validate and I think she isn’t actually doing Ironmans right now, maybe, hard to say.
Then you get to this week and it was clear so many of the athletes left had pushed it a little too far this season, it’s been a packed year, a lot of them were struggling with different things, nursing various issues and injuries and pushed to the brink. Lucy Charles-Barclay pulled out the day before with a muscle strain and reports of multiple days of food poisoning. Anne Haug made it a few hundred meters into the bike before flatting, and then changed her tire and flatted again, and then race mechanics couldn’t get back to her because they were farther out on course, and now all of a sudden her day was done. 35 of the pro women finished, out of 44 who started.
That’s sometimes just how a world championships goes. You push it to the edge and then the edge comes and you fall right over it.
And, so, “all” that was left for Laura Philipp to do was beat Kat and Chelsea and everyone else. That’s all. Nbd. And she did it.
There’s been a lot of talk all week about what happens now with the men’s and women’s split location world championship races. We’ve not even fully gone through one cycle and already everyone wants to pronounce it a success or a failure, wants to draw conclusions about start rates and DNF rates and participation and financial feasibility, wants to know if it will keep going and what’s the solution, wants to forget all the reasons we ended up here in the first place. It’s the big question.
And it’s a question that’s nearly always framed as if it’s up to women to solve the systemic barriers inherent in the asking, up to us to make this a success (nevermind all the other reasons moving or rotating a world championship course and location makes sense), as if the athletes racing have to prove something. But I’m not sure that’s right.
I think the women racing have already proved everything that needs proving.
Look, Iron War was a legend created through media and repetition. Yes, it was an exciting race that happened 35 years ago. But it only became the myth you’ve heard of after a book was written in 2011 and self-declared it ‘the greatest race ever in endurance sports.’
We can do that, too, though, you know.
So, here goes: This was one of the best world championship races I’ve seen in the history of women’s Ironman world championships. On a new and thrilling course that created unique dynamics, and that every athlete said they loved. It was hard, it was epic, it was drama-filled even in the build-up. And we got to see every little bit of it, fairly officiated, without men mixed in or broadcast coverage split.
In short: Were you not entertained?
A few odds and ends:
Lucy Charles-Barclay set the course record at Ironman France (very similar course) back in the summer in 9:03. Today, the top two were well under that and Chelsea was right at it. Not that Lucy wouldn’t have also gone faster than she did, just that Laura P. went very very fast.
Rumor is Anne Haug’s tire was some kind of prototype, which I’m sure no one is happy about.
Surprise of the day actually wasn’t Marjolaine Pierre (I had her in like 6th or 7th, so 4th is amazing but I wasn’t totally wrong); it was definitely Nikki Bartlett’s solid day for 5th. And, she’s apparently getting married next weekend — which I don’t think I could deliver a championship-level performance ahead of, but again there’s a reason I’m not a world champion podium finisher.
Chelsea Sodaro looked the absolute most spent, roughest, 100%. Not just in the way everyone does, but in the way where you’re worried she needed immediate and drastic medical attention.
Marjolaine told us all about how she had amenorrhea for five years and only just got her period again and is now focusing on fueling enough to not have bone density problems. (She also gave the funniest speech at the finish line, which included a little bit of swearing and the explanation that she got very dropped by Kat & Laura on the descent because she’s only 24 and didn’t want to die.)
Yes, we all want to know how she runs with her hair down. For the record, I watched her undo her biking braid as she started the run.
Out of all the pro DNFs, I think the only crash was Anne Reischmann — but she said she’s OK. It does seem like Daniela Bleymehl was also almost taken out by a car, but thankfully wasn’t.
When it started to drizzle in the early afternoon and was super windy, I got very worried about the bulk of age-groupers coming down the descent, but I haven’t heard of any terrible crashes yet.
Around 1,300 athletes actually started the race. (1,471 was the number of registered starters/bibs — but obviously not everyone actually gets in the water.) It’s hard to tell for sure, but it looked earlier like ~1,150 of those had made the bike cut-off and were out on the run. Even with the harder bike course adding 50-80 minutes, depending on your speed.
We didn’t stay awake until midnight finishers (because it’s really 12:50 a.m. finishers here), but did go back down for the late night finishers in the dark. I was worried it’d feel sparse with so many fewer athletes, but it actually didn’t yet. There was still the dancing unicorn and the crowds cheering in the stands and enough people out that it very much still felt like a thing.
Yes, Daniela Ryf was out on course later in the afternoon handing out water. (However, while the pros were racing, she was definitely intently watching and cheering.)
Jan Frodeno was here, too, hanging out. As was George Hincapie. Word is Chris Froome was too, but I didn’t actually see him
Here’s your Triathlete bike count.
And, we’ll have all our interviews with the podium and from the press conference on tomorrow’s final post-race podcast.