Meet the British triathletes making all the right moves in the lead-up to Paris
Ahead of the third stop of eight on the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series tour, Olympics.com takes a look at the British triathletes – including Georgia Taylor-Brown, Beth Potter and Alex Yee – vying to continue the nation’s pedigree in the discipline come Paris 2024.
Triathlon
The World Triathlon Championship Series rolls into Cagliari, Italy on Saturday (27 May) for the third of eight stops on the 2023 tour, which includes the Paris Test Event on 17-20 August.
The series will ultimately decide the 2023 world champions come the grand finale in Pontevedra, Spain at the end of September, which takes into account each athlete’s top four results.
The British contingent have an ongoing pedigree in the discipline, originating with the uber successful brothers – Alistair Brownlee and Jonny Brownlee – who have won five Olympic medals between them, including three gold.
Beth Potter, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sophie Coldwell and Alex Yee – already world and Olympic medallists themselves – are just some of the names hoping to continue the Olympic legacy come the first race day on 30 July at Paris 2024.
Triathlon debuted as an Olympic sport at Sydney 2000.
In the first three editions, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia were, respectively, the most successful nations in the discipline.
Since Team GB’s home Games, however, the Brits have dominated, coming top at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, totalling three gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
Alistair and Jonny Brownlee got the ball rolling with gold and bronze, respectively, in front of their home crowd. Alistair then defended his title in Rio with younger brother securing silver.
Yee took up the mantle in Tokyo with silver in the individual, and gold in the inaugural mixed relay alongside Jess Learmouth, Jonny, and Taylor-Brown.
Taylor-Brown also achieved silver in the individual event, improving on Vicky Holland’s history-making bronze in Brazil.
A mixed relay quota spot, comprising two men and two women, has already been secured by the Brits for Paris 2024 courtesy of a second-placed finish at the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships in Montreal in June 2022.
Yee, Coldwell, Sam Dickinson and Taylor-Brown made up the triumphant foursome with the latter’s scintillating last leg raising the team from sixth to second.
France won the event but already have a place as hosts.
With a maximum of six quota places per National Olympic Committee available, and a mixed relay title to defend, the jostling for those precious Olympic places has begun for the Brits.
But who are some of the contenders?
Beth Potter, GB triathlete
The former physics teacher came 34th in the 10,000m at Rio 2016. The following January, the Scot had switched disciplines to triathlon joining the renowned training group in Leeds alongside the Brownlees, Holland and 2013 world champion, Non Stanford.
The move paid off.
In June of that year, Potter finished third in two national elite races – the Blenheim Palace Triathlon and the Cardiff Triathlon. By 2022, Potter became the inaugural Esports Triathlon World Champion with Yee claiming the men’s title to make it a British double.
The 2023 season has seen two events of eight in the World Triathlon Championship Series so far – a sprint distance in Abu Dhabi in March and an Olympic-distance race in Yokohama, Japan in mid-May.
The sprint distance comprises a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run as opposed to the Olympic distances of 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.
Potter claimed the win in the first edition in the UAE, before skipping the second event in Japan citing “getting some extra fitness banked" before her first Olympic distance of the year in Italy.
The event to which Potter refers is the third stop of World Triathlon Championship Series, which takes place in Cagliari, Italy on 27 May.
Potter has “unfinished business” at the Olympics after missing out on selection for Tokyo 2020 after Taylor-Brown, Learmonth and Holland were selected to compete for Team GB.
Georgia Taylor-Brown, GB triathlete
In 2020, Georgia Taylor-Brown became the fifth British woman to become world triathlon champion. She’s also a silver and two-time bronze medallist.
Taylor-Brown’s second place in Tokyo was the best Olympic result achieved to date by a British female triathlete and, alongside Yee, is the most successful triathlete at a single Games courtesy of the gold the pair won in the mixed relay event.
Last-leg heroics in both Tokyo and Montreal saw Taylor-Brown suffer a flat tyre on the last cycle lap but still close the resulting gap on the lead group to claim silver in Japan, and at the 2022 worlds in Canada, climb from sixth to second place with the fastest run of the whole team.
Based at the renowned facility in Leeds, toughing it out within an Olympic-level training group has served Taylor-Brown well when it comes to competition.
Alex Yee, GB triathlete
Yee continues the Olympic triathlon pedigree started by the Brownlees with two medals at his first Games.
Also a four-time world medallist, Yee clinched his first individual world gold at the 2022 World Triathlon Sprint Championships in Montreal, Canada.
Eyeing one of those quota places, Yee has designs on improving his Olympic silver medal in France.
His campaign started well, claiming top spot in Abu Dhabi. Not getting ahead of himself, he posted on Instagram: “Appreciate it’s early but super happy to start on such a positive note.”
The next event in Cagliari doesn’t hold the best of memories for the 25-year-old.
In 2017, at the ITU Triathlon World Cup, Yee tangled with another competitor resulting in a crash into a concrete bollard, leaving him with broken ribs and vertebrae and a collapsed lung.
Early the following year, Yee set the second-quickest-ever Parkrun time, clocking 13:57 in the 5k event in London. Yee is made of tough stuff, a characteristic he will need if he is to wrest the title from reigning Olympic champion, Norway's Kristian Blummenfelt.
Sophie Coldwell, GB triathlete
The 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival mixed-team-relay bronze medallist preceded a fourth-place finish at the 2014 world junior world championships.
Ten years on from the Sydney event and an emotional Coldwell claimed her first World Triathlon Championship Series win in Yokohama, saying afterwards: “It took me a long time to recognise that I was good enough to win a world series, let alone try for a podium at them, let alone winning one.”
Alongside her own training, there’s no doubt her support group have played a part in the 28-year-old’s recent success.
Her husband of six months, Tom Evans is an ultra-runner who came third in the extreme desert race, the Marathon des Sables in 2017, and won the mythical Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in 2018, which takes in France, Italy and Switzerland on its lengthy 101km route.
Coldwell’s friend and bridesmaid at her wedding was one Jodie Stimpson, a world gold medallist herself in the triathlon mixed team relay in 2011.
Being surrounded by a good team is one factor in making an Olympic squad, and Coldwell will use every advantage available to her to claim one of those precious spots in France.
Her compatriots, including Jess Learmouth who is pregnant but still eyeing Paris posted a social media post stating: "Just a little bit longer until I’m back in the Tri-suit …after 20 years together Jon and I will be welcoming baby Wilkinson in September! The triathlon journey still continues 🇫🇷" – will all be doing the same.
Team GB's all-time Olympic triathlon results
British men’s Olympic triathlon results
London 2012 – Gold – Alistair Brownlee; bronze – Jonny Brownlee
Rio 2016 – Gold – Alistair Brownlee; silver – Jonny Brownlee
Tokyo 2020 – Silver – Alex Yee
British women’s Olympic triathlon results
Rio 2016 – Bronze – Vicky Holland
Tokyo 2020 – Silver – Georgia Taylor-Brown
Mixed relay Olympic results for Great Britain
Tokyo 2020 – Gold – Jessica Learmouth, Jonny Brownlee, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Alex Yee
World Triathlon Championship Series 2023 – schedule
3-4 March World Triathlon Championship Series 1/8 – Abu Dhabi, UAE
13-14 May World Triathlon Championship Series 2/8 – Yokohama, Japan
27 May World Triathlon Championship Series 3/8 – Cagliari , Italy
24-25 June World Triathlon Championship Series 4/8 – Montreal, Canada
15-16 July 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series & World Championships 5/8 – Hamburg, Germany
29-30 July World Triathlon Championship Series 6/8 – Sunderland, UK
17-20 August Paris 2024 Test Event 7/8
22-24 Sept World Triathlon Championship Series Finals 8/8 – Pontevedra, Spain