The triathlon competitions at the Paris Olympic Games were marked by a multitude of moments and memories. But they were also marked by a number of numbers. Some of those numbers took center stage, with some athletes posting the fastest split times ever recorded at the Games. Others were a little more subtle. Read on to discover some of the key numbers that shaped the sport of triathlon in Paris.
Analysis of an Olympic record run
Cassandre Beaugrand not only took gold, but also ran the fastest 10k in Olympic triathlon history, clocking a time of 32:49. Fellow medalists Julie Derron and Beth Potter also beat Flora Duffy’s previous best of 33:00 from Tokyo, showing that the women’s race was fast in more ways than one.
Another notable point to take away from Beaugrand’s performance is that she ran 33:07 at the Olympic test event a year earlier en route to the silver medal. Meanwhile, Potter ran 32:57 at the test event and was only 2 seconds slower at the Games. One conclusion could therefore be that Potter was able to maintain her 2023 level of performance that made her world champion. She simply faced a rival who had moved up to a whole new level.
A slower men’s race than expected?
Interestingly, Alex Yee’s leading performance in the men’s race was not enough to take the title of fastest triathlete in Games history. He stopped the clock at 29:47, about 40 seconds slower than fellow countryman Alistair Bronwlee’s performance at London 2012. More interestingly, Yee’s split time in Paris was 47 seconds slower than his time on the same course at the Olympic test event. He was not the only one among the Paris medalists to run slower at the Games than at the test event. Hayden Wilde did not finish in 2023 and therefore cannot be compared, but Leo Bergere ran 33 seconds slower at the Games.
One factor that may be behind the slower top times in the men’s Olympic race was a greater effort on the bike, which may have weakened the athletes’ legs. On the other hand, the men’s cycling times were broadly comparable in both events, albeit slightly faster in the Games.
To look at the fastest men’s cycling times from each race, Csongor Lehmann and Charles Paquet clocked 51:16 at the Games – the fastest cycling times in Olympic history – while Max Studer clocked 51:25 in the test race to take the lead. Another point of comparison is Yee: he clocked 51:57 at the Olympics and 52:17 in the test race. So overall, you could say that the men’s Olympic race was a little faster on the bike, which may have affected the running times. Overall, though, the difference between the cycling sections was not too drastic. Incidentally, in the women’s race, Maria Tomé also secured first place in the history of female cycling times at the Games with a performance of 57:34.
A difficult river swimming tour
The best Olympic swimmers were not fazed by their performances in Paris. This was not least due to the strong current in the Seine. This difficulty was also reflected in the athletes’ lag behind the fastest swimmers.
Only two of the 49 men with previous WTCS results over the standard distance from 2023 or 2024 were able to maintain or improve their average swim gap to the top swimmer. Henri Schoeman averaged 13.5 seconds behind the best swimmer, but in Paris he was only 2 seconds behind when exiting the water. Alessio Crociani was the only swimmer to maintain his average. He previously averaged a 0 second gap – he led the swim in his only race of the 2023 or 2024 standard distance series in Cagliari this year – and in Paris he had the same 0 second gap by being the first man out of the water. With 47 men performing worse than their previous average, it is clear that the swim was much more demanding than usual.
The same situation played out in the women’s race. Only three women – Flora Duffy, Beth Potter and Zsanett Kuttor-Bragmayer – of the 50 athletes with previous WTCS results over the standard distance from 2023 or 2024 were able to beat their average swim gap. Duffy turned an average gap of 4 seconds in Paris into a 0 second gap by leading the swim. Potter had a great swim at the Games by finishing 20 seconds behind, compared to her WTCS average of 24 seconds. Finally, Kuttor-Bragmayer improved her average gap from 38 seconds to a Paris gap of 29 seconds. However, with 47 women failing to reach their average gap, all indications are that the Paris swim was a real challenge for most.
Comebacks on the run
As a result, many athletes lost ground in the water and others had to struggle after crashing on the bike, especially in the slippery conditions of the women’s race. As a result, there were a handful of names who had to make up time on the run, and they did so.
Vasco Vilaca, Ricardo Batista and Matthew Hauser each gained 18 places, making the biggest gains in the men’s race. Together they made a significant leap forward, finishing 5th, 6th and 7th respectively. In the women’s race, Laura Lindemann and Julia Hauser each gained 13 places. Lindemann’s performance took her to 8th place, although this is little consolation as she was already in a similar position on the bike before her late crash. Compared to previous Olympic races, however, the comebacks were rather small, reinforcing the impression that the races were drawn out.
The lucky numbers
While the numbers in this article were much more tangible and could actually be measured and quantified, we now turn to numbers that can really only be measured in relation to sentiment. Do lucky numbers matter? Do they really exist? All skeptics can point to the fact that the trend of number 15 winning gold did not continue in Paris, as it did in the men’s and women’s races in Tokyo. The lucky streak of number 34 did not continue either. Before Paris, athletes wearing 34 had won more Olympic triathlon medals than any other number, and Emma Lombardi almost added another when she finished fourth.
One lucky combination of numbers remained, however. Six of the twelve individual gold medals prior to Paris were won by athletes numbered 29 to 39. In Paris, Cassandre Beaugrand, number 33, took seven of fourteen gold medals to storm to gold. So the 50% gold ratio for numbers 29 to 39 remains, and at the Los Angeles Olympics, every gold medal contender could be crossing their fingers to get a number in that golden, lucky range.
