Canadians Charles Paquet, Emy Legault among athletes on WTCS Abu Dhabi start lists
The 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series will kick off on February 15, and some of the sport's biggest names will be toeing the start line
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
The start lists for the first World Triathlon Championship Series race of 2025—WTCS Abu Dhabi—have been released, and as one could expect, the fields feature some big names. Among the stars are Canadian Olympians Charles Paquet and Emy Legault, as well as New Zealand phenom Hayden Wilde, American legend Gwen Jorgensen, and many more.
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The women’s race
France’s Cassandre Beaugrand, the reigning WTCS champion and Olympic gold medallist, is not on the start list for Abu Dhabi, but there are plenty of other heavy-hitters in the lineup. Germany’s Laura Lindemann and Lisa Tertsch (both of whom won Olympic gold in the mixed relay in Paris) will race, as well as American Taylor Spivey. Any of these women have the ability and talent to run away with the win in Abu Dhabi and kick their season off in style.
While there are a number of contenders in the women’s field, all eyes will be on Jorgensen. She has discussed Abu Dhabi on her YouTube channel for months now, stating that she has been training specifically for this race. Jorgensen is of course an Olympic and world champion, but she took an extended break from professional triathlon after starting a family and transitioning to full-time running. She is now back in triathlon, and as she showed the world in 2024, she can still compete with the top women.
Last year, she had several great performances, especially at the end of the season. Jorgensen finished sixth at WTCS Weihai in China and 12th at the Grand Final in Torremolinos, Spain, and she closed out the year with a win at the World Triathlon Cup in Miyazaki, Japan.
Legault had a solid 2024 that saw her fly to a pair of top-five results in Americas Triathlon Cup races (she finished second in La Guaira, Venezuela, and fifth in Edmonton) and make her Olympic debut (she was 35th at the Paris Games). She wrapped her year up with two top-15 finishes at World Triathlon Cup events. With great momentum from the end of last season, Legault will be an athlete to watch in Abu Dhabi.
The men’s race
The favourite going into Abu Dhabi among the men has to be Wilde. He was third in the 2024 WTCS standings, he won silver at the Olympics, and his main rival—2024 Olympic and world champion Alex Yee—is not in the lineup for the February race. The other man who beat Wilde in the WTCS rankings last year is France’s Leo Bergere, and he is also absent from the Abu Dhabi start list.
Other contenders in the men’s field are Australian Matthew Hauser (winner of WTCS Hamburg and second-place finisher at WTCS Yokohama in 2024), Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca (fifth at the Paris Olympics and second at WTCS Hamburg), and American Morgan Pearson (WTCS Yokohama champion and silver medallist in the mixed relay in Paris last year).
Like his fellow Canadian, Paquet had a great season of racing in 2024. He finished fifth at WTCS Yokohama, seventh at WTCS Cagliari, and 13th in his Olympic debut. The race will be far from easy in Abu Dhabi, but if he can pick up where he left off in 2024, Paquet could climb higher than he ever has before.