The pressure is off for Sam Laidlow … now he’s ready to dominate

After a challenging season that saw him start with a win, then struggle through the rest of his races, Sam Laidlow turned things around dramatically at the Ironman World Championship in Nice, becoming, at 24, the youngest man to ever win the race.

After an impressive win at Challenge Gran Canaria, the rest of Laidlow’s season hardly provided any indication that he was ready for the incredible performance he put together in Nice. After competing at all the PTO events in 2022, he didn’t make it to a single tour stop in 2023. His absence from the first tour event of the year was especially noticeable.

“In hindsight, I definitely regret not going to Ibiza,” he said in an interview today after it was announced he is the PTO Athlete of the Month for September. “It was tough because I had a really, really good winter. I felt like after Kona, I’d found this new gear, this new confidence that really brought me a new level in training and I was confident about the work I put in. So I went to Gran Canaria kind of not expecting too much because half Ironman is not where I excel at and I won the race. Although it wasn’t on paper a big race, the field was actually quite good when you see the results that some of the guys had later on.“

A day of firsts for Sam Laidlow – meet your new Ironman world champion

“I came back and was training well and then just had a rough time personally,” he continued. “So I made a decision to not go [to the PTO European Open in Ibiza]. Not even thinking at all about this whole Collin Chartier case. And then that also impacted me on top of that because people started saying that I wasn’t going to Ibiza for doping allegations or whatnot. And yeah, so I definitely regret that.”

After struggling with an injury at Challenge Roth, where he took eighth, Laidlow skipped the PTO US Open to compete at Challenge London, which he won, and was then slated to compete at the PTO Asian Open in Singapore. A bout of COVID sidelined him for that race, but in the end that might have been a blessing. Many of the athletes who competed in Singapore ended up getting sick. (Kristian Blummenfelt, for example, was sick after the race and had a tough day trying to defend his 70.3 world title in Lahti a week later.)

“So on paper, again, it looked like I was just avoiding these PTO races, but I wasn’t at all,” Laidlow said. “I mean, I genuinely like to race the best and last year [2022] I showed that racing as much as possible on the PTO circuit. So then I was like, I’m going to catch this up. Initially, at the start of the season, I didn’t want to go to the PTO Asian Open in Singapore to focus on Nice and then I went to Singapore, got COVID, stayed in my room for a few days and came back. So, a tough old season.”

In the weeks since his big win, Laidlow has solidified his future plans, but isn’t quite ready to let the rest of us in on those quite yet.

“I’ve got some pretty big goals, but I want to let my close team and my partners know first, before l announce what’s next,” he said. “But let’s just say we’ve got some pretty hefty goals and I’ll be sticking around for some time.”

Sam Laidlow nails Nice with huge Ironman World Championship win

Laidlow remains very motivated and feels like the win in Nice hasn’t added any pressure.

“It never gets easier,” he conceded. “We either go faster or there’s new challenges. It won’t get easier and I’m ready for that, but, equally, I think a lot of media have asked me this question about how I’m going to deal with the pressure now of being a favorite and I said to be honest I feel like the complete opposite. I feel like the amount of pressure has been taken off me now, because my goal was to win the World Championships and 99 per cent of the pressure was coming from myself. It was a deal that I made with myself years back to win this race and now I’ve done it and I feel like I can literally enjoy the next part of my career, because I will always have this. For a little while I’ll definitely be the youngest [world champion], and I’m the first French person and these things will never go away, So I definitely feel like I can just move forward and whatever comes next is a bonus, almost. And that’s not to say I’m just gonna just be a very average pro and just make my money and leave. I really want to dominate again, but dominate in a better way. I just see it all as a bonus now and I’m going to enjoy the next ride.”

The six-athlete PTO Athlete of the Month shortlist for September 2023 included (in alphabetical order) Paul Findlay, Frederic Funk, Tamara Jewett, Sam Laidlow, Tomas Rodriquez and Michael Weiss and was voted on by a panel of triathlon media as well as fans.  The media panel includes: Global Triathlon Network (GTN), Triathlete, Triathlon Magazine & Tri-Mag.de  Each give their 1, 2, 3 based on the shortlist and fans voted during Thursday 28 September and Friday 29 September, 2023, across the PTO’s social channels. Three points are awarded for being voted #1, 2 pts for #2 and 1 pt for #3. The points are then added up to determine the winner. Sam Laidlow collected 15 points, placing top in all the votes.