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After much speculation and concern regarding the water quality in the River Seine and a men’s race postponement on Tuesday, the much anticipated triathlon racing at the 2024 Olympics got underway this morning in the French Capital with the women’s race at 08:00am local time followed by the rescheduled men’s race at 10:45am and what a thrilling morning of racing we were treated to!

In the Women’s race, 2020 Olympic Champion Flora Duffy was quick to take the lead in the swim against a strong current as the athletes battled back towards the pontoon on both laps. Duffy quickly extended her ten second advantage on the field, completing a full lap of the bike course solo before being joined by the first chase pack.

A group of ten athletes came together at the front on the bike, with over a minute’s advantage on their chasers. The lead group soon contained Duffy, Spivey, Taylor Brown, Lindemann, Potter, Beaugrand, Lombardi, Derron, Kingma, and Hungary’s Kuttor Bragmayer. Lindemann came down on a corner towards the final lap, a fate suffered by several athletes during the bike section due to the damp conditions on the route.

As the front group made their way out of T2 on the run, a group of four established themselves in the opening kilometers. Beaugrand and Lombardi were roared around the course by the home crowd, with Potter and Derron alongside them going stride for stride. With approximately a kilometre to go, Beaugrand made her move. Whilst Derron and Potter tried to match the surge in pace, the gap seemed to widen in front of them, with Derron soon creating a distance between herself and Potter.

Cassandre Beaugrand of France, the World Triathlon ranked number 1 looked like she was carried on the wave of support as she glided to the finish line breaking the tape in front of an exuberant home crowd. Julie Derron from Switzerland followed her home six seconds later for silver, with GB’s Beth Potter rounding out the podium only nine seconds after Derron. French youngster Emma Lombardi put herself within four seconds of the podium in fourth, a minute ahead of Flora Duffy who ultimately finished 5th in her 5th Olympic Games.

The Men’s race was a similarly close affair coming down to the wire in the run. Henri Schoeman ensured a high pace in the opening lap of the swim with Hauser, Corciani, Coninx and la Corre all within shouting distance as they raced towards T1. Tokyo medalists Yee, Wilde and Blummenfelt, were 27 seconds and over a minute down respectively as they left the water.

The bike packs came together towards the later stages of the race, becoming a pack of 32 athletes in total, with all the major medal contenders now preparing to battle it out on the run they entered T2 together.

Alex Yee set the pace immediately as they exited T2. New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde seemed to be the only athlete capable of matching the pace as French duo Bergere and le Corre chased hard, 13 seconds down on Yee and Wilde and at the end of the first run lap.

Wilde was able to break away from Yee on the second lap, putting almost 15 seconds into him at one point, while Bergere looked to close the gap on Yee also. It looked to be damage limitation for Yee on the third lap of the run, but as the final lap continued, the gap to Wilde began to close.

Within the final 500m, Yee dug deep and found an extra gear to pass Wilde at pace rounding the final bend ahead of him racing to the line in a thrilling finish. With Wilde unable to respond to the pace of Yee, he crossed the line behind the newly crowned Olympic Champion six seconds later. Leo Bergere of France rounded out the podium taking the bronze medal four seconds later to massive celebrations. Pierre la Corre fought hard for fourth place eight seconds later, whilst Vasco Vilaca of Portugal sprinted in behind him for fifth place only five seconds later.

Between podiums and top five positions, both Team GB and France look in strong positions to battle it out for the Gold Medal in the Mixed Team Relay event which will take place on the 5th of August.

Click on the link for full results Women &  Men