Marta Sanchez is Ready to Make Her Mark in Kona
Running sixth out of the water at the Kona test swim, 1:02 back from Lucy Charles-Barclay, Marta Sanchez is an athlete you’ll be seeing lots of during Saturday’s race coverage. Ranked 18th in the world, ninth in swimming, sixth in the Pro Series, T100 contracted and Spain’s fastest female, Sanchez is ready to make her Kona debut. After a breakout season in 2024 when she won two 70.3s, two IRONMAN races and placed sixth in Nice at her world championship debut, the 30-year-old has been gradually making a name for herself. Racing both the Pro Series and as a contracted T100 athlete this season, she has swung for the fence for her first fully-committed professional year, and constantly competing with the best in the world might pay dividends on world championship race day.
Breakout and Back to Building
In 2024, Sanchez raced 13 times, including three full IRONMAN races, and it turned out to be a recipe for success. This season her schedule has been less busy, but, arguably, more demanding with T100 obligations and her Pro Series ambitions.
“[Last season] was amazing,” Sanchez says. “I learned so much and, after some strong results — like my victory at Ironman South Africa — I decided to give it a real shot and fully commit to being a professional triathlete. Everything happened really fast, and now, looking back, I appreciate even more everything I achieved along the way.”
“At the start of the year, I received the T100 contract, which was an incredible opportunity — and also a great source of financial stability — so I didn’t hesitate to accept it,” she continues. “At the same time, I wanted to take on the challenge of combining it with the Ironman Pro Series. Together with my coach, we looked carefully at the logistics, travel and training blocks, and decided to give it a go. It’s been a big challenge, but also an incredible learning experience.”
A results list doesn’t tell anyone the full story, but a quick glance will show that having two big goals has been a big challenge. Sanchez hasn’t had any victories this season.
“At times, I’ve questioned whether racing both circuits was the right choice — there was no plan B,” she shares. “With five T100 races and five IRONMAN events (including three full-distance) needed for the minimum points, it’s been demanding.”
There is more to performance than results, however, and a deeper look shows Sanchez has edged herself forward. She has shared podiums with Solveig Lovseth and Anne Reischmann at IRONMAN Lake Placid and IRONMAN South Africa, respectively, and improved her T100 results, with eighth being her best finish in San Francisco.
“I see it as an experience and a valuable learning process,” she says. “Both circuits push you to your limits physically and mentally, and that helps me understand myself better as an athlete.”
No Regrets
Figuring herself out as an athlete is how Sanchez has ended up in long distance triathlon. Originally an artistic swimmer, she was introduced to triathlon as a junior by her now-husband. Sanchez raced all over the world on the World Triathlon circuit from 2014 to 2021.
“The goal in short distance was always the Olympic dream, but the results weren’t quite enough and financially it became unsustainable,” she shares. “An injury, combined with the pandemic, accelerated the end of that chapter and opened the door to a new one.”
After two years, Sanchez found her long distance legs with a string of wins in 2023. She only got faster and better in 2024, where she raced everything from 70.3 and Nice world championships to Alpe D’Huez and a few T100s, collecting five wins and another two podiums. Now, on the precipice of her Kona debut, it seems like she was always destined to go long.
“I don’t really believe in motivational quotes like ‘if you want it, you can achieve it,’ because I once dreamed of going to the Olympics and gave everything I had, but it didn’t happen,” Sanchez says. “During the pandemic, I even stepped away from sport for a while and started preparing to become a firefighter. So I’ve learned that you don’t always get what you want — but with patience and hard work, at least you’ll never regret trying and knowing you did everything you could.”
“There are no good or bad decisions — only different ones that take you down different paths,” she continues. “And on each path, there’s always something new to learn.”
Heat and Altitude
It’s Sanchez’s first time on the big island but her second IRONMAN World Championship. She was sixth in Nice last year and led out the swim in 49:13. Sanchez is as confident as you would expect any professional athlete to be, but she’s under fully award that Kona is a different beast compared to her other world championship experience.
“It definitely feels different,” says Sanchez. “It’s still the world championship, but Kona has its own unique energy — it’s as if the island itself tests you with its brutal conditions. I’m really looking forward to seeing how my body performs here.”
Tough water conditions are her forte but, like most of the pro athletes, Sanchez has been preparing for the hot and humid bike and run conditions especially.
“We’ve done a specific heat protocol on the turbo trainer, around 3-4 times per week for 35 to 60 minutes, keeping the watts and heart rate very controlled,” she explains.
To further help with the heat, she will be wearing a custom white race suit with inner pockets for ice storage with “additional cooling systems” for her head and neck, all designed by Compressport.
“At the same time, we’ve maintained one of the key elements that always works for me: altitude training,” she says. “So, for the fourth time this year, I went to Sierra Nevada at 2,400 meters to prepare. On the bike side, we’ve slightly closed the front angle — we tested it already at the T100 race in Fréjus and it felt great.”
Race Day
Patience, discipline, and consistency can all describe her preparation (and her character), but when it comes to race day dynamics, after the swim start, Sanchez is all about being in the moment.
“My strategy for the swim is always the same: start hard and position myself at the front as early as possible,” she affirms. “For the bike and run, honestly, I have some numbers in mind, but you never know until you’re in the race. It will depend on how things unfold–where I am, how I feel–and then I’ll decide whether to race more aggressively or conservatively.”
Sanchez has already achieved her seasonal goal to race at the highest level but, as her palmares shows, her learning-focused mindset has continued to put her with the best in the world, and that just doesn’t happen by accident.
“We set goals season by season and kept progressing,” she says. “Sometimes we look back and can’t help but smile at how far we’ve come. We never imagined reaching this level, but we’re enjoying and appreciating every moment.”
Gear List
Non Bike Equipment
Helmet: MET Drone
Trisuit: Compresport Custom
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IRONMANIRONMAN World ChampionshipKonaKona 2025Marta SanchezNotable Replies
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Participants
Sanchez has a great shot at #3 in the Ironman Pro Series behind Loevseth and ahead of Perterer. Every minute counts, here and in Marbella.
Reasonable to expect her, like Perterer to be ahead of Matthews and Loevseth leaving T1 and a coming together in the first hour. Maybe Lee will be around as well.
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artistic swim as her first sport, awesome. thanks for the write up. one to keep an eye for
I read this as Mark Sanchez at first and wondered how he was going to compete while in jail.
Is that Elite bottle BTA legal? I’m sure she would have confirmed that it is, but I’m considering a similar setup and have been apprehensive since it puts the cage behind the armrest which, by my understanding, would make it illegal.
Really maxing out the forward position of the saddle clamp…..
You can’t fit a standard one litre bottle in that cage so the shorter elite aero bottle nozzle may be <250mm behind the reference point (so legal). To my eye her elbow will be behind the rearmost edge of the pad and so her elbow point defines the reference point, to quote: “the lowest edge of the athlete’s elbow in the rider’s intended aero position” - at least that’s how I think a reasonable TO would interpret it.
She’s probably only using one of the two bolts that secure the saddle clamp to the seat post. Sketchy af.
She actually have 2 bolts.
They claim the have a 2nd bolt underneath the seat bolt