Stacked Fields Line Up for the IRONMAN North America Championship

Will we see another duel between Kat Matthews (left) and Taylor Knibb at the IRONMAN North American Championship Texas this weekend? Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Sure, it would be easy to line up two women’s and two men’s favourites for this weekend’s IRONMAN North American Championship in The Woodlands, Texas. American Taylor Knibb takes on Great Britain’s Kat Matthews highlight the women’s race, while the Norwegian stars – Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden – prepare to make a full-scale return to the top of full-distance racing. Fortunately for us triathlon fans, though, there are a lot more contenders for us to keep an eye on this Saturday, April 26, 2025.

Later this week fellow Senior Editor Ryan Heisler will make his bold podium predictions, but since I got called out during a Kona NBC interview by an athlete I hadn’t predicted would finish in the top five, I’ve done my best to make those kind of picks. Which means I’m going to take a more global look at what we might be able to expect at this weekend’s race.

How to Watch

Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

As part of the IRONMAN Pro Series, the race will be streamed live – depending on where you are you can find the coverage at “proseries.ironman.com, Outside TV for US and Canada viewers, DAZN and L’Equipe in France, iQIYI and YouTube,” according to IRONMAN. The live coverage will begin at 6 am CT (7 am ET), with the pro men heading off at 6:25 and the women starting five minutes later.

The pros will be looking for a piece of the US$175,000 prize purse and 5,000 IRONMAN Pro Series points that will go to the winner.

Those wanting to keep track of the pros and any of the 2,600 registered age group athletes will be able to utilize the IRONMAN Tracker on race day.

The Course

The IRONMAN Texas course can be screaming-fast in the right conditions. The swim takes place in a freshwater lake and the water temperature averages 74 degrees, which means the pros occasionally have a non-wetsuit swim.

The two-loop bike course can be extremely fast depending on the wind conditions. The course takes in the Hardy Toll Road, offering smooth, fast riding. In the controversial 2018 race (officials were pulled from the course leading to huge packs) Andrew Starykowicz recorded the first sub-four hour IRONMAN bike split (3:54) and nine of the women’s bike splits were amongst the fastest ever recorded, too.

Matt Hanson (left) and Ivan Tutukin on the run at IRONMAN Texas in 2018. Photo: Timothy Carlson

The run course around Lake Woodlands is lined with spectators and is typically fast, too. Patrick Lange ran 2:35:15 there last year, and three-time champ Matt Hanson ran a blazing 2:34:39 during that 2018 event. Kat Matthews ran 2:49:31 on her way to the women’s title in 2023, yet another sign of just how fast the run course in Texas can be given the right conditions.

Number 2 for Taylor Knibb

There was no touching the American when it came to 70.3 and T100 races last year. She was six-for-six in all her non-draft-legal races, and won all those events with relatively comfortable margins. She won by almost 11 minutes in Oceanside, beat Kat Matthews by just under four minutes at T100 San Francisco, had her closest calls of the long-distance year in Ibiza, Las Vegas and Dubai when she beat Julie Derron by roughly two minutes each time after dominating the bike, then rounded out the year with a 75-second win (once again after coming off the bike with a comfortable lead) over Matthews in Taupo to take her third straight 70.3 title.

This will be Knibb’s second full-distance race, though, while Matthews is a master of the distance. In addition to being the defending champion, she’s a five-time IRONMAN champion and has taken two silvers at the IRONMAN World Championship (St. George in 2022 and Nice last year). Her remarkable consistency includes runner-up finishes to Knibb at the 70.3 worlds in 2023 and 2024, too – it was hardly a surprise that Matthews won last year’s IRONMAN Pro Series.

All of which is to say that Saturday’s race between these two promises to be very interesting. As impressive as Matthews is on the bike, Knibb is even better, and the race will likely hinge on how much of a gap the American has heading into the run. It’s not as though Knibb isn’t a strong runner, but as she takes on her second marathon run it’s not going to be fun knowing you’ve got one of the sport’s most consistent and fastest marathon runners chasing you. (And that’s assuming Matthews isn’t able to stay close to Knibb on the bike.)

And, while it’s easy to assume that we’re in for a two-woman race, 2022 world champ Chelsea Sodaro (pictured above with daughter Skylar) will no-doubt have something to add to the competitive mix on Saturday. After an up-and-down year that saw Sodaro win in New Zealand before switching her coach and bike sponsor, the American super-mom bounced back with an impressive third-place finish behind Laura Philipp and Matthews in Nice. As Eric Wynn reported on the weekend, Sodaro is now riding Ventum’s new speedster and looking forward to Saturday’s race. Anyone who saw her impressive marathon run when she took the win in Kona will be happy to remind you that, if she can stay close enough off the bike, she will certainly be a contender for the win.

Which brings us to a woman who has the running chops to top both Matthews and Sodaro, Canadian Tamara Jewett. Renowned as one of the sport’s fastest runners, Jewett is making her long-distance debut in Texas this weekend. She’ll certainly have her work cut out to stay close enough to biking masters like Knibb and Matthews to be able to put that prodigious running talent into effect in order to win, but Jewett’s half-marathon run times compare to Anne Haug’s, so look for her to put a quick 26.2-mile split on the table on Saturday and pass more than a few women who get off the bike ahead of her.

You can see the full women’s start list below. In addition to the four women mentioned above, others to keep an eye on include Americans Danielle Lewis and Alice Alberts. It will also be interesting to see how long speedy swimmers including Haley Chura (USA), Teresa Adam (NZL) and Stephanie Clutterbuck (GBR) can stay in the mix.

The Norwegians Go All-In on the IRONMAN Pro Series

Gustav Iden (left) and Rudy von Berg on the run at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside. Photo: Eric Wynn

Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden both have 70.3 and IRONMAN World Championships on their resumes, with Blummenfelt focussing much of last year on trying to defend his Olympic title before getting back into the long-distance fold. Iden spent the majority of 2024 injured, but appears to be getting back into race form after his third-place finish at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside earlier this month. (Blummenfelt suffered a flat in Oceanside, but ran a speedy 67:19 half-marathon to assure everyone that he’s very fit.) The two decided not to pursue the T100 Series this year, so they’ll arrive in Texas with the goal of doing much more than just ratifying their spots for the worlds in Nice later this year.

Defending champ Patrick Lange pulled out last week due to injury, which puts Rudy von Berg atop the list of potential challengers for the two Norwegians on Saturday. Von Berg has become a threat wherever he races on the IRONMAN front and arrives in Texas after a brilliant third-place finish in Kona last year and a runner-up finish in Oceanside.

Van Berg is hardly the only one with a shot at pushing for the win – you can add to the list the likes of: France’s Leon Chevalier (fourth in Kona last year), American Matthew Marquardt (third in Texas last year with the day’s fastest bike split), Denmark’s Kristian Hogenhaug (fourth in Frankfurt and ninth in Kona in 2024), along with Americans Trevor Foley (2024 IRONMAN Lake Placid champ), Chris Leiferman, Ben Kanute and the aforementioned Matt Hanson. Some others who could certainly compete for the podium include Poland’s Robert Wilkowiecki, Great Britain’s Kieran Lindars and Denmark’s Daniel Baekkegard, providing he’s returning to the form that saw him dominate IRONMAN Western Australia in 2023.

Below you’ll find the men’s pro list:

Tags: