Olympic Triathlons Deliver With French Women’s Winner, Thrilling Finale In Men’s Race

2024 PARIS OLYMPIC TRIATHLON

• Wednesday, July 31, 2024
• Paris, France
• Olympic Distance
  • Swim: 1500 meters
  • Bike: 40 km
  • Run: 10 km
• Women’s Results
• Men’s Results

After non-stop discussion about whether or not the events would even go forward, the triathletes at the 2024 Olympic Games finally got the chance to race on Wednesday in Paris.

The women’s race went off as scheduled on Wednesday morning, while the men’s race was postponed by one day due to unsafe levels of E. coli in the Seine River, but successfully ran after the women’s event.

The races delivered in a big way, with France’s Cassandre Beaugrand securing gold on home soil in the women’s race and Great Britain’s Alex Yee pulling off a stunning comeback in the closing meters to run down New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde in the men’s event.

WOMEN’S RECAP

Defending Olympic champion Flora Duffy took the women’s race by storm from the gun, opening up an early lead in the swim before ultimately leading out of the water in a time of 22:05, remarkably slow compared to usual times in the 1500 due to currents in the Seine River.

Duffy, 37, held a nine-second advantage over the next-fastest swimmer, while she was up by 25-30 seconds over her main contenders.

After holding an early lead on the bike, Duffy, a native of Bermuda, was caught by the leading chase pack which included pre-race favorites Beaugrand and Emma Lombardi of France, Great Britain’s Beth Potter and Georgia Taylor-Brown, and American Taylor Spivey.

Coming off the bike, the lead group consisted of 10 athletes, with the next group one minute back.

On the run, Beaugrand, Lombardi, Potter and Switzerland’s Julie Derron quickly separated themselves from the rest, and it looked like it would be a four-way showdown for three medals coming down the chute.

However, Beaugrand made a relatively early move and no one had an answer. Beaugrand’s attacked caused the four-women pack to disintegrate, with Derron moving into 2nd, Potter in 3rd and Lombardi off the back in 4th.

A THRILLING finish to the Women’s Triathlon with France’s own Cassandre Beaugrand bringing home a Gold Medal!

Imagine having every person on the street rooting you on & pushing you to finish FIRST… this was a really fun event to watch and the ending was amazing!!… pic.twitter.com/KnHG0MsldD

— Dave the Blind Guy (@DaveWarnedYou) July 31, 2024

The 27-year-old Beaugrand was uncontested over the closing meters, winning gold on home soil in a time of 1:54.55 while recording the fastest run split of 32:42.

Beaugrand is just the second athlete in Olympic history to win gold on home soil, joining Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee who won the men’s race at London 2012 (and defended in Rio).

Derron was the surprise of the race, pulling off the silver medal, while Potter took 3rd and Lombardi settled for 4th.

Duffy, who has been dealing with injuries in the past 18 months, had a strong performance to take 5th in what was her sixth appearance at the Olympics

Women’s Results

See full results here.

MEN’S RECAP

The men’s race turned out to be the showdown everyone wanted to see: Alex Yee versus Hayden Wilde.

The two best runners in the sport would go head-to-head over the final 10km after the field didn’t break up over the first two legs.

The swim was led by Italian Alessio Crociani in a time of 20:10, though several of the main contenders, including Yee, weren’t too far back and quickly formed a strong lead group on the bike.

The second chase pack consisted of the likes of Wilde and defending champion Kristian Blummenfelt. They were around a minute back coming out of the water, but midway through the bike eventually caught the lead group, resulting in a pack of 32 coming into the second transition together.

Yee, the Tokyo silver medalist and widely regarded as the best runner in the sport, quickly established himself early on the run, opening up a substantial early lead.

Wilde, who won bronze in Tokyo, was the only runner who could answer Yee, erasing the early gap before opening up an advantage of his own.

It looked like Wilde had the race in the bag over the back half of the run, but all of a sudden, Yee managed to close the gap over the final kilometer, eventually overtaking Wilde with 400 meters to go and soaring to gold in a time of 1:43:33.

Wilde had no answer when Yee came around him, taking silver in 1:43:39, while Frenchman Leo Bergere secured bronze in 1:43:43.

🤝👏 The true spirit of the Olympics in one photo.

🇳🇿🇬🇧 New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde sits down to congratulate Great Britain’s Alex Yee after their epic battle in the men’s triathlon. pic.twitter.com/1G2UjmYiOd

— Sport on Sporting Life (@SLSport_) July 31, 2024

Yee (29:47), Wilde (29:49) and Bergere (29:55) were the only three men to break 30 minutes on the run.

France went 3-4 with Pierre le Corre in 4th, while Portugal went 5-6 with Vasco Vilaca and Ricardo Batista. Tokyo gold medalist Blummenfelt took 12th.

Men’s Results

See full results here.