2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Triathlete of the Year

Because it’s been an epic 2024 triathlon season, we’re handing out some end of the season superlatives for the first time. Over the next couple of days we will roll out a few articles, with categories including Triathlete of the Year, Long Course Athlete of the Year, Short Course Athlete of the Year and more.

First up is the big prize: Triathlete of the Year.

Kevin: Well this one is easy. She won the T100 Triathlon World Tour. She took her third straight 70.3 world championship. She also put together an incredible sprint to get the Americans the silver medal in the mixed relay at the Olympics. (There were a bunch of other T100 wins, Oceanside 70.3 and the national TT championship, too.) On the “long-distance” triathlon front – I am anticipating we’ll have a good ol’ debate about that, too – she was unbeaten this year. I really can’t imagine how this can go to anyone other than Taylor Knibb.  

Ryan: I can go different than Taylor Knibb!

When I think of Triathlete of the Year, I think of remarkable consistency across the entirety of the year, regardless of what they were racing. Don’t get me wrong: Knibb’s run of success is remarkable. She’s unbeatable at 70.3/T100. But her individual results at Olympic distance events was lacking, outside of a single second place early in the year: 19th in Paris, 11th in Caligari, her last two races at that distance. I also don’t put too much stock in Mixed Team Relay results, especially when you had the early race collision between New Zealand and France.

So in my mind there’s another woman that comes to mind: Kat Matthews. Ten long course races in her year. Of her nine finishes, eight of them were fifth or better. Two wins and four seconds mark highlights, including her incredible dual silvers at IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. She managed to satisfy both T100 and IRONMAN Pro Series requirements, earning $275,000 in year end bonuses (on top of the prize money from her other finishes). 

So I think it really just comes down to how you define your parameters, Kevin.

Kevin: I 100 percent hear you that Kat’s year was incredible. I certainly acknowledged that in the story I did on her IRONMAN Pro Series win last week. I even acknowledged how impressive the year was considering the adversity she faced – torn calf in Miami, DQ in Hamburg. 

In terms of my parameters, normally a season like hers would get my vote. For me, though, the head-to-head competition has to be a factor when you’re handing out the “triathlete of the year.” Yes, Kat got to within 1:15 of Taylor in Taupo, but at no point was Taylor ever threatened in that race – you certainly got the feeling there was another gear there if it was needed. I won’t count the difference in any of the T100 fall races because Kat was still recovering from Nice, but you look back at T100 San Francisco and the gap was pretty close to four minutes. 

The other factor, for me, comes from Kat herself. At the post-race press conference in Taupo, she (and the rest of the women in attendance) acknowledged that Taylor was in a different league this year. Yes, I know they’re likely being professional and respectful (Kat Matthews, Ashleigh Gentle, Imogen Simmonds and Julie Derron are all class acts), but they all made it pretty clear that Taylor was a step above them over the half distance this year.

And I might be a bit biased since I was there watching the Paris Games, but it is really hard to discount Taylor’s performance there. Bouncing back from a brutal time in the Time Trial, and a tough day in the individual, she found another level to get the US up a spot on the podium. I get that France should have dominated that day, but that’s racing. You can only compete with the people who are there.

Back when I used to do this for Triathlon Magazine, one of our criteria for Triathlete of the Year was that the athlete had to have won a world championship or major event (Olympics) to be considered. Part of the logic for that idea was we wanted to celebrate an athlete who “rose to the occasion” – was able to come through on the big day. I feel like Kat even got that – in Taupo there was no thought of “playing it safe” to ensure she took the IRONMAN Pro Series – she was going for the win, plain and simple.

Ryan: I hate the logic that you must have won a world title for consideration for this. You don’t vote for the year-end most valuable player in other sports based on their performance in the playoffs or a series (there’s usually one specifically for those events). It’s off of what they did in the entirety of the year.

Knibb would be my immediate pick for another award that we have coming. Her dominance is undeniable at 70.3 right now. But by that logic of having won a world title, I think we’d then throw Cassandre Beaugrand into the mix for Triathlete of the Year. To take Olympic and WTCS gold in the same year, IMO, is a bigger deal than Knibb’s display at 70.3/T100. She swept WTCS events. She finished second at eSports worlds. And that dominating display on home soil for gold is something else.

Ultimately, though, that’s why I think Matthews winds up the pick; she didn’t just do it at one distance. She does it at 70.3/T100 and at full iron-distance events. From the hilliest of course in Nice to pancake flat ones in Texas, she’s at the front of the field.

This might need to come down to some run-off voting.

Kevin: I totally see where you are coming from, and we argued long and hard over that criteria. In the end, though, we were looking to acknowledge the people who came up big at the major events. It’s funny that you mentioned Cassandre Beaugrand – I was going to suggest that if there was anyone who could arguably win the award not named Taylor Knibb, it would be her. To have won the Olympics in front of a home crowd was an incredible performance – I can’t imagine the pressure she was dealing with. She followed that up with her first world title, showing the consistency required of a world champion by winning the Grand Final to go along with WTCS wins in Cagliari and Hamburg. 

I do feel that there needs to be a level of consistency throughout the year to win the award. Taylor won middle-distance races from April to December – remember, she was unbeaten on that front all year. Cassandre’s only two “losses” in the World Triathlon realm this year came in March, a second at the Europe Triathlon Cup Quarteira, and April, a second at the E World Triathlon Championships in London. That’s why I would happily argue that either Taylor or Cassandre take the award over, say, Patrick Lange. While I would happily give Patrick the “performance of the year” for his incredible race in Kona, he wasn’t nearly as strong through the rest of 2024. I don’t think Patrick will be too worried about that, though – my guess is that even though he wasn’t as consistent, he’ll happily take his Kona win over Gregory Barnaby’s IRONMAN Pro Series title.

While I am not crazy about the coin flip idea, I am more than happy to let this be decided by votes – maybe through the forum?

Since I am the newbie editor here, I will leave that up to you, Ryan!

Ryan: I think that’s a very fair way of doing this.

Alright, Slowtwitchers: it’s now your choice. You can vote now in the forum thread for this article between our final three nominees.

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