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Jeanne Lehair comes back from Paris Olympic disappointment with big win at supertri Boston

Recapping the exciting day of women's supertri racing from Boston in words and pictures

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon
August 18, 2024
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Jeanne Lehair races for Luxembourg now, but she was born in France and had lots of family and friends on hand in Paris for the Olympic Games. That made it all the more disappointing when a crash and a mechanical issue forced her out of the race on the bike. While another supertri win won’t make up for that, Lehair’s impressive win in Boston today certainly doesn’t hurt.

The race followed the supertri enduro format – three continuous races of a 300 m swim, 8 km bike and a 1.6 km run.

Lehair, who is part of the Podium Racing team, managed to pull through on the run after much of the racing had been dominated by Crown Racing’s Georgia Taylor-Brown and Kate Waugh. Lehair used the team’s short-chute card to join Taylor-Brown at the front of the race on the final leg before pulling clear over the last few hundred metres to take the win. Taylor-Brown and Waugh would finish second and third.

Olympic gold medalist Cassandre Beaugrand had predicted that she wasn’t in great race form after all the hype after her huge win in Paris – she would finish eighth. American Taylor Spivey, who was part of the American silver-medal mixed relay team, was fighting a bit of a cold coming into the race, but managed a solid fourth-place finish, while France’s Leonie Periault would finish fifth.

Here are photos from today’s exciting women’s race:

They’re off
Vittoria Lopes was first out of the water, but Lehair and Waugh weren’t far behind
Taylor-Brown was aggressive on the bike through much of the race.
Waugh (left) would also stay near the front for much of the race, with Lehair doing her best to stay close on the run and not lose too much time on the bike.
Taylor-Brown and Waugh would finish the second swim in front
While the Stars and Stripes duo of Kirsten Kasper (right) and Kathia Schar would find themselves chasing.
The aftereffects of the Games proved to be a bit much for Beaugrand, who finished eighth
Katie Zaferes didn’t seem on her game and struggled to stay with the group from the outset. She would eventually be pulled out of the race once she was trailing by more than 90 seconds.
Paris bronze medalist Beth Potter also found herself in chase mode for much of the day.
Hitting the water for the third swim.
Transitions are critical in these short races
Spivey would pace things perfectly as she moved back into the picture during the final mini-tri both on the bike …
… and on the run
Lehair would use the short-chute to get herself back to the front of the race …
… and stayed there until the finish.
Time to celebrate on the podium