Solveig Løvseth Knows Just How Hard it is to Defend in Kona … She’s Happy to Go For It

Peter Reid might have been a three-time Kona champ, but he’s the first to tell you he never defended his title. He always said it is the hardest thing to do in our sport. Reid claimed that was mostly due to the demands placed on a reigning IRONMAN world champion – sponsor and media commitments – that made it so hard for him to arrive back on the Big Island ready to win.

Over the years it’s become tougher and tougher to do, too. For a long time in the women’s races here in Kona we saw a series of streaks. Paula Newby-Fraser won in 1988 and 1989, then from 1991 to 1994, Natascha Badmann won three years in a row (2000 to 2002), as did Chrissie Wellington (2007 to 2009). Daniela Ryf took four straight titles in Kona from 2015 to 2018.

The men had a similar “streak” deal going on – Dave Scott won in 1983 and 1984, then again in 1986 and 1987. Mark Allen won five in a row from 1989 to 1993. Tim DeBoom took a pair of titles in 2001 and 2002, Craig Alexander took two in a row in 2008 and 2009, then Jan Frodeno (2015 and 2016) and Patrick Lange (2017 and 2018) added to their names to the elusive crew of successful defences.

Since Ryf’s win in 2018 we’ve seen five new champions and one repeat winner (Ryf won in St. George in 2022). For the men we’ve had four new champs and one repeat – Lange took his third title in 2024.

All of which is to say that when you look at the numbers, the chances that Solveig Løvseth grabs another title this Saturday aren’t in her favour. And, with that said, I would certainly suggest that you don’t want to bet against her. Løvseth kicked off the season with a runner-up finish at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside. She followed that up with an impressive performance at IRONMAN Texas, where she easily bested Taylor Knibb thanks to a dominant marathon run. Another strong day saw her beat another competitive field at IRONMAN Hamburg. She rounded out her pre-Kona campaign with a fourth-place finish at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice. She predicted, pre-race, that she was in better IRONMAN shape than 70.3 shape, so that just-missed-the-podium-finish was telling – she was on a good build for Kona.

Løvseth will also enjoy a somewhat unique position as the defending champion – the dramatic collapse of Knibb and Lucy Charles-Barclay during last year’s race left many with the impression that two of the biggest names in the sport lost the race as opposed to Løvseth winning it. (And, let’s be clear – to win the race you need to cross the line first. That’s exactly what Løvseth did, and Charles-Barclay and Knibb did not do.)

Her impressive IRONMAN performances this year also signalled to the world that her win in Kona last year was no fluke.

Here’s how my conversation with last year’s winner went earlier this week when I caught up with her at an On press conference:

Slowtwitch: Solveig, you were very accurate with your Nice prediction, so I’m going to ask how you’ll do this Saturday, because I’m sure you can give me a very accurate prediction.

Solveig Løvseth: I hope to get on the podium.

Not win?

I hope to win too, but I’m happy with a podium. I’d be very, very happy with a win.

How has it been coming in as the defending Kona champion? People talk about defending your title here as the hardest thing to do in our sport.

I think it will definitely be hard to defend the title. I know there are a lot of other people here who also want to win, and we have a really strong field, which I think is really cool. It’s cool that the women’s field is so competitive now. I think I saw that there’s been a different winner every year since 2018, so that’s also really cool. I guess I need to try to find my inner Daniela to try to repeat. For me to win again, it’s going to take my best day and also a little bit of luck.

But you’ve been racing so well this year it’s been frightening. You’ve had a great season.

Yeah, I’ve had a good season, with really consistent performances. Training has been a bit more up and down, and I’ve been dealing with way more sickness this year than last year, so it’s been a bit of a challenging year. But I feel like I’ve generally gotten the best out of myself in all the races I’ve done, so I’m really happy with that. I hope I can also have a good final race.

Are you surprised at where you are in the sport right now?

Yes, definitely. I didn’t expect things to happen for me so quickly. I’m coming from short course, where I worked 10-plus years to try to qualify for the Olympics, and that was my only goal for many, many years. It takes a lot of time to reach your goals. Even though I qualified, I finished something like 46th or 48th at those Olympics. So it’s surreal that I decided that winter to try an Ironman and won the world championship the same year. It’s crazy to me how fast I had success at this new distance. It really does change my life.

I’m guessing those ten years are what helped you become an IRONMAN world champion?

Yes, for sure. I’ve only done IRONMAN for almost two years now, but I’ve been training a lot longer, and those years of training add up in the end. It’s cool to see it giving results.

Finally, leading into a big race like this, do you get excited, nervous or scared? Is it any different heading into this one?

It’s a little bit of everything, but mainly excited. I’m definitely not scared of failing, which is a good thing. At least these last years I haven’t been. I think I was more scared of that earlier in my career, but I’ve put that away, and now I’m mainly very excited for the races and feel really lucky that I can do this. I’m also a little bit scared of just how hard it is.

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