The Island Has Spoken – It Was Taylor’s Turn in Kona.

If you’d said before the race that the 2026 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona would end up being even crazier than the 2025 edition, most of us would have laughed. Back-to-back thrill-fests with the favourites keeling over during the tail-end of the race – that wasn’t likely to happen a second year in a row, right?

Well, it did. The defending champion, Solveig Løvseth, collapsed less than 1 km from the line, leaving the woman who did just that a bit further out (roughly two miles) last year – Taylor Knibb – to run through the finish line for her first IRONMAN World Championship. Here’s what Knibb and the rest of the women from the top-five had to say at Saturday’s post-race press conference.

Taylor Knibb

For the most part, Knibb was still trying to process her impressive fall race schedule that included the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship title in Nice, a 13th at the UCI worlds time trial, and then the win in Kona. She was asked what she was thinking when she saw Løvseth collapsed on the ground so close to the finish.

“It’s painful to see,” she said. “Having experienced it, I don’t remember anything, so I don’t remember that, and I don’t know how much memory of it I will have. I don’t even remember that event. I’d say it’s probably tougher on the team. Patrick Lemieux (her manager) … was right there when it happened, and same with Dan Lorang (her coach). So it’s mostly health and safety that you worry about, and also, does it happen again? I’m more relieved that I could finish this year and not have that incident again, because sometimes with heat stroke it can be a recurring injury.”

The experience last year, though, helped Knibb ensure she got to the line this year.

“At 23 km, heading into the Energy Lab, I thought, ‘Whoa, you have a decision to make,'” he said. “I was starting to struggle, and I thought, ‘You need to take care of yourself to get to the finish line.’ That’s what Paula Newby-Fraser (eight-time Kona champion) taught me last year: if you want to make the finish line and you have those two choices, you have to do that. So, when Solveig was coming, I couldn’t respond. I just had to let her pass me. Then I would walk the aid stations and take things in, because I thought, ‘You need to get to the finish line.’ I think that is more acceptance, or letting go of control, which I think is tough … You kind of have to acquiesce to the island, and the island will always win.

“Last year I learned one thing: that I was really good at listening to my body,” she continued. “My race turned out the way it did last year when I stopped listening to my body and tried to battle it out with a woman. That didn’t work. So, learning from this year, my whole focus… it’s tough, because people were telling me, “She’s just right ahead,” and things like that. But I was very committed, when I had that choice, to getting there safely.”

Laura Philipp

Like Knibb, Philipp was surprised to see herself suddenly move up a spot on the podium. She was thrilled to complete her collection of IRONMAN World Championship medals.

“It makes me really proud,” she said. “I had two third places already here on the island, so it’s actually special to get a second place. Honestly, I’m not really proud of my swim, so the start to my day was really challenging. When I swam to the start line I got a cramp in my feet, you know, when the toes are really cramping up, and I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to be interesting.’ Then I got really seasick. As soon as we swam further out it got so heavy. Somehow I finished the swim, and I didn’t know how I would feel going on with the day. So I definitely feel like I got challenged again.”

“But I really had the big hope and dream that I would find moments of making peace with the island,” she continued. “I felt like I’d had so many humbling race experiences, and even though I ended up on the podium, I was never really proud of my performance. Today I had a challenge in the swim, a big deficit to overcome and a 180 km solo ride, and then, surprisingly, I felt really good on the run. That was a big relief in a way.”

Philipp acknowledged that the day was full of surprises.

“My first shock was seeing Lucy (Charles-Barclay) dropping out in the Energy Lab,” she said. “She was just ahead of me. I was trying to run her down, and then all of a sudden I saw that she had to stop. It was exactly the same spot, or pretty similar, to last year. That’s nothing you want to see and I couldn’t quite believe it, but then I tried to focus on myself again and just finish the run. I also got quite warm. It was challenging conditions throughout today.”

“Then people started to tell me that Taylor was puking,” she continued. “And then it turned into Solveig having struggles, and I thought, ‘Yeah, they just want to keep me motivated, because I can’t see anyone in front.’ But I somehow tried to keep making forward progress, at least as fast as I could still go.”

Julie Derron

Like the others on the podium, the day was full of challenges for Kona rookie Julie Derron.

“I had such a roller coaster of a day, and I only moved into third about 800 metres from the finish line,” she said.

Derron was forced to walk at one point, but managed to rally to get herself moving again. Getting to the line, and on the podium, was a big achievement, even for an Olympic silver medalist.

“I’m incredibly proud,” she said. “After the Olympics in 2024 a lot changed, and I had quite a tough time last year, also qualifying for this race but having to drop out. I worked really hard to get back into this situation and into this shape.”

Derron also embraced the spirituality of the island.

“I think it (the island) looked after me even before getting here,” she said. “I almost missed my first flight … and I told myself, ‘I think the island really wants me here this year.’ Of course the winds weren’t so lovely today, but other than that, it’s a special place … Maybe I won’t cherish the memory of walking the Queen K, but the overall day I will definitely cherish.”

Kat Matthews

We wrote about Kat Matthews and her string of runner-up finishes at IRONMAN world championship events, and while she didn’t quite make the podium, she did have a brilliant run to move from 13th to fourth. Despite a recurring back issue that affected her on the bike, she never considered dropping out of the race.

“I know that pulling the plug in any race, especially this one, is not the answer, and it is not easier,” she said. “It was totally just about getting myself to the finish line. That’s what I could do. I do like running, so it’s kind of fun just to run. But I guess there’s no other choice. It wasn’t really a decision or a mindset. It’s just one foot in front of the other, and looking forward to the next aid station.”

Matthews was also asked about encouraging Paula Findlay out on the run course.

“I think anyone who starts this race is crazy and brave, so there’s just that shared respect,” she said. “To see people suffering like that is brutal. It hurts my heart a little bit, so I want to give as much of my energy to them as I can, in a moment that’s appropriate, obviously.”

Imogen Simmonds

The Swiss speedster appeared to be quite surprised with her fifth-place finish. When asked when she finally figured she might be able to get that spot, she pointed out that it wasn’t until she was finally able to break clear of Lisa Perterer – the pair ran together for roughly 25 km.

“It wasn’t until the final climb up Palani that someone yelled, ‘One of you is going to be fifth,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, the math does not add up here,'” she said. “Lisa and I had been running within 20 metres of each other for 25 km, and I thought, ‘Okay, if I’m going to go, I’ve got to go now.’ So I kicked up the last climb, didn’t look back, and here we are.”

Simmonds also described her moment of feeling like the island had accepted her. The day before the race she chose to swim back to her apartment, despite the challenging, choppy water.

“It was a questionable decision, as I realised when I arrived at the beach … and had almost been thrown onto the rocks,” she said. “I’ve never felt so endangered by the sea before. I got pulled under, held under. Three waves hit me in a row, and I suddenly understood how people drown at sea. It was terrifying … someone said to me afterwards, when I told them that story, ‘The island’s okay with you being here.’ It felt that way today.”

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