2024 World Triathlon Championship Series final: Six athletes who could be crowned world champion in Torremolinos

The reputations of World Triathlon Championship Series frontrunners Alex Yee and Cassandre Beaugrand have been enhanced immeasurably in a year when they both won Olympic titles at Paris 2024. However, reputations mean little in the topsy-turvy world of Series Finals, where previous years have shown us that anything can - and often does - happen in the race for the world title.

With just one race to go - and everything on the line - Olympics.com looks at three male and three female triathletes who could become this season’s champions when the World Triathlon Championship Series men’s and women’s finals takes place on 19 and 20 October in Torremolinos, Spain.

Three triathletes who could win the men’s world title in the 2024 World Triathlon Championship Series finale

Alex Yee

Already installed as Olympic champion this year after a nailbiting comeback performance at Paris 2024, Great Britain’s Alex Yee is also favourite to claim the world title in the men’s race in Torremolinos.

Yee described his Olympic win as a "magic moment" in an interview with Olympics.com but he now has the chance to top a near-perfect year with the overall season crown in Spain.

On paper, it looks like a simple task: finish in the top six on Sunday and he will be guaranteed the title. However, as triathlon fans have become accustomed to, you cannot take anything for granted in the season finale.

In fact, the situation Yee finds himself in this year is similar to 2023 when he entered the final race of the season with a 57-point lead in the standings. In the end, the world title went to Dorian Coninx of France who shocked everyone by clawing his way back after being 511 points behind when the race began.

This time around, Yee looks to be in a more comfortable position with a 425-point lead following a season in which he has registered three victories in the three series races he has entered.

Will Yee reign victorious in Spain? His main challengers will hope not - one of whom has experience of just what it takes to grasp victory out of the hands of defeat in the final race of the season.

Leo Bergere

France’s Leo Bergere was a whopping 357 points behind Hayden Wilde in 2022 when he entered the final race placed third in the standings. He had also never tasted victory in any race in the World Triathlon Championship Series.

So to say he was an underdog, with both Wilde and Yee out ahead of him in the race for the world title, would be something of an understatement.

But as sport - and triathlon in particular - loves to show us, anything can happen in the high-stakes, high-pressure environment of a season finale.

In the heat of Abu Dhabi, Bergere broke from the pack on the bike leg before running to victory and, with it, an unexpected world title.

Since then, the athlete has proved that race was no flash in the pan. At his home Olympi Games this past summer, the 28-year-old claimed bronze behind Yee and the seemingly ever-present challenger Wilde.

Hayden Wilde

New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde set pulses racing at the last Olympic Games when he burst to the front during the run leg with a move that looked to have broken Britain’s Yee who laboured behind him before somehow finding the energy to surge back in the last metres of the race to record a famous victory.

While Wilde’s courageous effort didn’t end with the gold medal he surely craved, it did make the men’s triathlon event one of the most exciting of the last Olympics.

After being first in the standings before the final race of 2022 and second in 2023, Wilde now finds himself third in the all-important finale in Spain.

The 523 points he will need to overhaul may seem like a mountain but Wilde has proven himself to be the ultimate competitor and, as Paris proved, not afraid to take chances on the biggest stage.

Three triathletes who could win the women’s world title in the 2024 World Triathlon Championship Series finale

Cassandre Beaugrand

What a year it has been for Cassandre Beaugrand. The 27-year-old who trains in England’s famous sports institution Loughborough University, claimed an emotional gold at her home Olympics Game in Paris to fulfil the immense potential she has shown throughout her career.

Now, with just a single race left of the season, a victory or second-place finish in Spain will see her crowned world champion.

Unlike the men’s race, Beaugrand’s lead heading into the finale is a slender one, with just 114 points separating her from her nearest challenger, Great Britain’s Beth Potter.

But Beaugrand looks to be a different type of athlete this year, with a perfect record in the World Triathlon Championship Series showing a consistency that her rivals have not been able to demonstrate this year.

Can she double up and win the two most important titles of 2024? She is the deserved favourite, however there are plenty of challengers who will be looking to steal the crown from under her nose.

Beth Potter

One of those challengers is reigning world champion Potter and the Brit has history on her side.

Last year, Potter overtook none other than Beaugrand herself in the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi to claim her first world title. If she can repeat the feat in Torremolinos she may well be named world champion for the second time in as many years.

Potter, who competed in the 10,000m at Rio 2016, has transformed herself from an elite distance runner to one of the most exciting triathletes in the world, adding Olympic bronze to her resume earlier this year in France’s capital.

And even though her form this year has perhaps not been quite at the level of her 2023 season, she is a fierce competitor who will give everything she has to overtake her French rival this weekend.

Lisa Tertsch

Less than 18 points separate Potter and third-place Lisa Tertsch, who has shown exceptional form to put herself into contention for this year’s world title.

The 25-year-old from Offenbach, Germany claimed a vital win in the World Triathlon Championship Series race in Weihai and showed at Paris 2024 - where she finished 10th in the individual competition after crashing in the bike leg - that she has the dogged determination required for a fight for the title.

Should she win in Torremolinos and results go her way, she could cap her season with one of the most remarkable world titles in living memory.

Will she pull it off? All will be revealed when the women’s race takes place on Saturday 19 October.