Grading the 2026 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship
The first big championship weekend of the 2026 triathlon season has come and gone. What we got from them were two spectacular races from the women’s and men’s professional fields, with worthy champions in Taylor Knibb and Hayden Wilde, respectively. Those races have also effectively shaken up the Pro Series standings, with Solveig Løvseth bounding up the leaderboard on the women’s side (and should effectively lock in the win in the Series with a decent showing in Kona) and Kristian Blummenfelt on top of the men’s table but with Casper Stornes, Marten Van Riel, Jonas Schomburg, and Gustav Iden all within striking distance and all four of them only on four finishes to date to Blummenfelt’s five, limiting Blummenfelt’s chances for improvement come Kona.
At any rate, it’s time to issue some grades from the weekend.
Taylor Knibb and Hayden Wilde: A+
Winning a world championship should pretty obviously earn an A in my book, but both Knibb and Wilde put forth performances that were near masterclasses in execution.
Let’s start with Knibb, who now only trails Daniela Ryf for the most 70.3 titles of all time. Texting with Eric, we both wrote the win off the second Knibb hit the front of the bike course and annihilated the Col de Vence climb, ascending nearly three minutes faster than then next fastest rider. Her gap to second place Marjolaine Pierré sat at nearly five full minutes after the bike, and had over eight minutes to other pre-race favorites like Kat Matthews and Løvseth. Perhaps more worrying for the field heading into next month’s IRONMAN World Championships, Knibb had the fifth fastest run on the day and looked in control for just about every stride (including yelling at someone riding a bike nearby to go away so she wouldn’t get a pacing penalty).
It’s starting to feel like she might be able to crack the Kona nut this year.
And then there’s Wilde. In my pre-race prediction article, I’d written Wilde off. Well, somebody went and proved me very, very wrong. The men’s race was much more explosive, with multiple moves amongst the front group by the likes of Wilde, Rico Bogen, Iden, Stornes, and Lasse Nygaard Priester. Eleven men entered T2 within 70 seconds of one another. It made transition a bit frantic, with Wilde accidentally dropping his watch and booting it away from him. He opted to run without it, which I actually think played to his favor. Wilde hit the front of the run early, but after initially building a gap, whether intentionally or not he allowed Priester to catch up, then asking the German how fast they were running.
Data can sometimes force an athlete into doing things that wind up strategically backfiring. Speaking for myself, if I’m wearing a watch and I see that I’m not running the pace that I think I “should” be, it creates either a bit of a doom spiral and I perform worse, or I try to speed up and perhaps pay for that increased effort in the moment. I think Wilde choosing to run with Priester for that first lap proved beneficial, allowing Wilde to hold off the enormous surge that Blummenfelt put in on the run.
It was a brilliant performance by Wilde, and cements his status as the top male middle distance athlete worldwide.
IRONMAN Coverage: B+
Being able to watch these races on a non-proprietary streaming platform is such an improvement over our past collective experience. The move to YouTube has meant easy live watching, instant replays, and being able to easily pick out moments in coverage. (For someone who typically transcribes athlete quotes directly from the broadcast, you have no idea how much of an improvement this is).
But just having the race on a reliable platform is one thing. Then enhancing the broadcast product in its entirety is another. And, to their credit, IRONMAN stepped up to the plate. Perhaps most critically, IRONMAN’s investment in overhauling the commentary team to bring Craig Alexander, Mirinda Carfrae, Ryf, and Will McCloy to the table has vastly improved the listening experience. Both Alexander and Carfrae in particular have been revelations in their commentary work, being insightful and entertaining. McCloy is also perfectly suited in that play-by-play role, giving clear definitions as to who should be doing what in the broadcast.
There are two things that keep this from being an A. First, there remains the gap of losing sight of certain athletes and only knowing what happened to the them at the next timing split; if it doesn’t happen on camera, you may not know about it for a while. And we probably didn’t get enough shots on the bike course that really made Nice feel as special as it could be. But I’m getting nitpicky. This is a broadcast that could entertain people who are just casually into triathlon, not just the superfans of the sport. That’s a mighty big turnaround from failing grades at certain past Pro Series events.
The Norwegians: B
It’s perhaps unfair to collectively give Blummenfelt, Iden, Løvseth, and Stornes a B here, given that the worst finish position out of the four of them was Stornes in sixth. But that’s the mighty standard that these four have created for themselves, with a combined seven IRONMAN branded world titles between them.
No, it’s not the results that winds up with a collective B here, but rather a factor of who was realistically ever in contention for the win. Løvseth was never really at the front of the race and had to use a second-fastest run of the day to lift herself to fourth. Iden and Stornes both started the run nearest to the lead, but Stornes wasn’t much of a factor. Iden, meanwhile, tried to hang with Blummenfelt who had set a blistering pace to try to close his 2:35 deficit to Wilde. But he, too, found that pace too spicy.
That left Blummenfelt to try to do all of the heroics. And, boy, did he try. He was almost a full minute down with 5 kilometers left to run, and got the gap down to 18 seconds by the end. He ran a 65 minute half marathon. That’s an obscene pace. And it’ll leave Blummenfelt hungry for a lot more come October, given it’s now his fifth IM branded world championship start without taking a victory. But that ran pace surely should give the likes of Sam Laidlow pause.
Kat Matthews: C+
Matthews is, again, a victim of her own success. Her 11th place finish is her worst result at a world championship event that she’s finished since 2019, when she finished 16th. Matthews has five second place finishes at world championship races in the last five seasons. So, naturally, anything outside of the top 5, regardless of cause, has to be taken as a disappointment.
But this was a bit different. Matthews said post-race that her Achilles, which has previously proven troublesome, had flared up and she’d decided to pull the ripcord on pushing the pace with an eye on targeting Kona. That tells me two things. First, things are probably not that dire, as she’d be able to give a full race effort before needing proper recovery. And second, that shows a degree of maturity and understanding of the situation, with a degree of focus on one of these two races that we haven’t seen before. My guess is that she’ll be dangerous in Kona.
Americans Not Named Taylor Knibb: D+
There were exactly two Americans who earned paychecks in Nice, and they both earned silver medals in the mixed relay at the Paris Olympics in 2024 — Knibb and Seth Rider. Rider took the fastest men’s swim of the day, and stayed in contact with the front of the field during the explosive moves on the bike. He was let down a bit by his run, with just the 27th fastest showing of the day, but it meant he matched his paycheck from last year’s 70.3 Worlds.
Everybody else went home empty handed — a far cry from the 2019 race in Nice, where Rudy Von Berg landed on the podium and five Americans brought home paydays. Now, yes, some of the big American names, like Von Berg and Sam Long, weren’t here, focused on a big dance in October instead. Still, when your next best positioned athletes missing the 15 deep paychecks are 23rd in the men’s race (Morgan Pearson) and 19th in the women’s race (Kirsten Kasper), that’s not a good day at the office.
I’d honestly give the coverage an A. Probably one of the better ran IM events I’ve watched in a long while. I think someone said it in the race thread, the 70.3 distance is the best race to watch. Not too long with big stretches of time when nothing happens like the full distance, and not super chaotic with too much going on like shorter distances. It hits that balance well.
Also top marks for the split quad screen that we saw on the run course
Lovseth can lose 60 seconds in kona to Phillipp, 62 seconds and Laura wins the series , hardly locked in yet.
Norway was still the only country that had a male and female in the top 5 .
To add in the slowest top 15 pros, usa had 6 females ahead of brazil with 3 (and for bottom 17en its 8 USA females)
In the males its a 3 3 draw between usa and braziel for best nation in the bottom 15 .
Conclusion, maybe something is not quite right with the qualifying system.
edit 2025 usa females had 7 in the bottom 15
and 2024 5 males in bottom 15 so there is a trend there.
I agree with the notion that 70.3 is the best format or distance for TV viewing as a lot is happening
however we haven’t had a full distance WC with both genders on the same day. I do think that will help. Will see in a few weeks!
I loved both days but I think,for me, there was one thing that made the difference. Will McCloy.
Maybe it is because Im Australian but I just love the guys style and he is the great humorous buffer to the more sedate and serious Rinny and Crowie.(special mention to James Cunnama)
As for Kona,I really hope my prediction that the women will get lost in the mens race doesn’t come true.
for me it was the good racing , ( a lot facilitated by the course, which in my mind is just the best course there is *) , and the spectators , there was just a great vibe on the run course.
*not every year but every 2 years or 3 years , its a bit sad they wont go back.
ps that does not mean I did not think the commentary was not the best they ever had but it is not important to me , what I missed was more wide angle drone or helicopter shots , to show more often the full field , and have a static camera at col de vance and just show the top 25 athletes passing to appreciate the gaps.
ps but I did appreciate we did not have the typical ST oh the commentary was so bad discussions lol
They’ve finally fixed the chyrons, which was my beef with their broadcast (this was fixed at the the start of the year but if we’re talking WCs then this was it).
Previously the chyrons would be based on a specific timing matt, where now it’s just last timing update. We forget that in years past, we’d have timing updates just showing Knibb off the front, and the whole thing would reset once she got to the next matt.
They’ve also put out more matts and showing top 5 at all times while cycling through the others is a good format.
their swim placings looked a lot more realistic , the gaps where maybe out by a few seconds but the swim splits do seem to get better and that was great .
oh and they managed to get the first and 2nd through the last 500 m on the run this year lol
I was dubious at the start of the year when PTN said IM was going to make significant improvements in the broadcast, but I was wrong. It’s been much better all year and I’d have to give this year’s WC coverage an A. Mostly because of Will McCloy. Without him Rinnie and Crowie would be too sedate; with him they are ideal. And James Cunnama is an excellent addition. Actually having everyone on site made a big difference too.
Old school guys like me are just thankful thst we have coverage this good.
I posted this photo on another thread recently and it made me realise how lucky we are now. Welchie won that race in October and that magazine is the December issue. No live coverage,no delayed coverage,no internet. Just hanging out waiting until the magazines came out and then the TV special in January.
I still found it annoying that they fixed the top 5 places (which is ok) but then cycled through the next 50 (5 at a time). Trying to figure out who was in a certain position meant waiting for the next few minutes while it cycled it’s way back around.
I’m not sure how you’d solve this with 50 people in a race (or worse at Kona when they’re trying to do it with both men and women) but I guess having the tracker app running on the side might be the best option for me.
100%. His time at GTN in front of the camera has meant he is well passed the stage of the awkward ex-pro in front of the camera we quite often get. Hopefully they keep him on.
Yep,tracker in one tab,YouTube on another and of course ST on another.
Its a bit of a tough spot because often (usually?) the notable people that you want to highlight aren’t really in the Top 5. So we’re left waiting until the BoP athletes scroll through again before we find out that Blu is in 12th and 2:12 back. On the male side, of the eventual Top 5, only Wilde was in the Top 5 for a majority of the actual race, and it took him until an hour and a half to get there. But at the same time you want to highlight the guys making the moves (Bortolomedi, Riddle, etc.).
They used to have a second Chyron on the side - maybe they use that to highlight race favourites (same way as the swim cap colours) some of the time. And then just alternate both Chyrons together (Men and Women), so that you spend 5 mins each gender (or maybe 2-3 cycles), with some of the time highlighting the top favourites and their current position. It gets awkward if you have one gender on the bottom and another on the side.
Edit: Priester also spent most of the race inside the Top 5
After about 30th place I really don’t care who is where, so I think they’d be better off leaving the top 5 displayed and then cycling through the top 25-30. I did find myself having to watch extra closely to see what was happening 6-10 or risk missing it and having to wait for it to come back around. Not a huge issue just mildly annoying.