Olympic updates: Who’s hot, who’s not and more as we gear up for the biggest triathlon event of 2024

Sure, the Ironman World Championship might be the sport’s oldest race, and there’s no doubt that event put swimming, biking and running on the radar for endurance junkies around the world. But triathlon’s acceptance into the Olympics for the 2000 Games in Sydney helped spur the growth of the sport. This summer’s Olympic Games Triathlon promises to be an incredible event – in addition to the incredibly talented athletes, the course takes in so many of Paris’ famous spectator sites. The swim is in the Seine River, the Eiffel Tower in the background and that passes sights like the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais and the Champs Élysées

This week we’re starting a weekly update on news around the upcoming Olympics with some injury and sickness updates, along with some news about athletes who appear to be on track to compete for a chance to represent their countries at the Games this summer.

The Norwegians – one’s hot, one’s not

According to the latest video from Santana Tech, the company founded by Kristian Blummenfelt, Gustav Iden and their coach Olav Aleksander Bu, Tokyo gold medalist Blummenfelt is in frightening shape based on the latest testing, while Iden is struggling  with the Achilles tendon injury that shortened his season last year.

The pair spent some time at the end of last year at a training camp at altitude in Morrocco, but Iden had to cut the camp short to go and get some treatment on his Achilles. After that they headed back home for some intensive testing. While Iden wasn’t able to do the bike and run tests, his swim performance was, according to him, better than it’s ever been.

“Kristian is significantly higher on power output, not just for this time of year … but than he’s ever been before,” Bu says in the video. “Everything is so much higher – we are breaking references, we’re into the unknown.”

Bu also says that Blummenfelt’s running numbers were so high that he didn’t want to publish the numbers.

“Kristian has exceptionally responded to the last bout of training we’ve done,” Bu says.

So, do we take all this as fact? We’ll leave that up to you. Blummenfelt is certainly sending out a clear message to his competition – they better be training hard if they are planning to win gold in Paris.

Cassandre Beaugrand gets COVID

The French star who is based in Loughborough, England, is coming off a spectacular year that saw her take second at the Paris Test event and finish second in the world championship race behind Beth Potter, the best finish ever on the world scene for a French athlete. Her Olympic prep seemed to get derailed for a bit at the end of the holiday when she tested positive for COVID, but based on this Instagram post yesterday, Beaugrand appears to be back in training.

 

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A post shared by Cassandre Laure Beaugrand (@cassandrebeaugrand)

Crazy competitive team #1

It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to try and make the British team for the Olympics next year. Beth Potter clinched her spot for Paris, but she had to win both the Test Event and the world championship to do that. (In other words, she had an incredible pre-Olympic year!) The other two spots for the Olympic team are still up for grabs, with the most likely contenders being Tokyo silver medalist Georgia Taylor-Brown, and Super League champ Kate Waugh. Add to that mix Jess Learmonth, who was part of the gold-medal relay team in Tokyo, and Vicky Holland, the 2016 bronze medalist, who are both returning from maternity leave and will contend for a spot on the team for Paris.

According to Tri247.com, this weekend Coldwell showed she is getting into great running shape with a win at the Leicestershire and Rutland XC Championships, taking the title alongside her husband, ultra runner Tom Evans, last year’s winner of the Western States 100.

Crazy competitive team #2

The only team that might be more competitive than the British team to make is the American team. Once again there’s one athlete who has qualified – Taylor Knibb – with a number of potential takers for the second and third spots including Taylor Spivey (fourth in the world rankings), Tokyo competitor Summer Rappaport (10th in the rankings), Kirsten Kasper (19th), Rio gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen (29th), Gina Sereno (30th), Tokyo silver medalist Katie Zaferes (31st) and Erika Ackerlund.

Yes, if you’re counting, the US has seven women who would be almost guaranteed a spot if they were from any other country who are vying for a chance to compete in Paris.

Last week we reported that Jorgensen had just signed a deal with Canyon. Earlier today she posted this video, outlining a typical day of training.

Stay tuned for more news on the Olympic front!