Kristian Blummenfelt knows what his competition is going to try to do on Saturday … and he’s looking forward to it

After a “failed” Olympic mission where he wasn’t able to defend his Olympic gold medal (his words, not ours), Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt blasted back with an impressive win at the Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt less than two weeks later. That win, coupled with a few months of Ironman training, has made the 2021 Ironman world champion (the race was held in St. George in May, 2022) the man to watch here in Kona.

Blummenfelt appears to be fit and confident heading into Saturday’s race, and he knows exactly what his competition is likely to try and do. In Frankfurt Blummenfelt dropped off the pace a bit over the last part of the bike, but was able to follow that up with an exceptional run. With that in mind, he’s sure that some of the Uber-bikers in the field like defending champion Sam Laidlow and last year’s runner-up, Magnus Ditlev, are sure to push the pace on the bike.

“I’m feeling good … Stuff went really well in Flagstaff,” Blummenfelt said in an interview yesterday. “I’m looking forward to race day. It seems like there’s a little horsepower out there on the bike, with Magnus and Sam. The level is quite high, but I’m just looking forward to getting to the race and get a feeling of how the pressure will be, in terms of power wise. How the gaps will be ..  how much the gap will be from the from the gun. I had a good race in Frankfurt … the other  guys who want to win the race will put pressure on the bike to try to break me, so I’m sort of looking forward to getting to that.”

After focusing on the Olympics, even Blummenfelt was surprised at his Frankfurt race.

From Olympics to Ironman in 2 weeks – after two year hiatus, Kristian Blummenfelt dominates in Frankfurt

“I was surprised to have good running legs, especially because I was struggling the last 50 km (of the bike),” he said. “I think I will be put more under pressure here on the bike course with a lot of stronger cyclists. So, in Frankfurt, we only had the Kristian (Hogenhaug) from Denmark putting pressure on the bike, while here there’s probably going to be more cooperation in the front and I just hope that I can come off the bike with fresher run legs than what I did two years ago.”

After the Olympics there was lots of talk about Blummenfelt’s next steps in the sport. His coach talked about possibly turning to professional cycling, and recently the word has been he might make another Olympic run. For now, though, the Norwegian is all in on long-distance racing.

“I’m not thinking about that now,” he said. “For now, it’s more long course and. We will see what’s happening in 28, but now I’m quite eager to race the longer distance.”

Even with all his impressive results, winning here in Kona would still mean a lot to the Tokyo gold medalist.

“It would mean a lot,” he said. “After coming in third place two years ago … it was OK to be on the podium, but you always want to be two better. It’s a race that I think every triathlete wants to win. So, to be able to get that one ticked off would be amazing.”