Take a look across the men’s start list for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Triathlon and it is impossible not to get excited by what lies ahead once the athletes have dived into Odaiba Bay after the horn sounds at 6.30am local time on 26 July. The talent is deep, the podium potential vast, the absence of a past Olympic Champion notable. Yes, there will be a first-time Olympic Champion this year but only at the end of a race with just one certainty: whoever comes out on top couldn’t be more deserving of the biggest prize in sport.
The course and conditions that they
will face are far from typical. The 1.5km swim comprises two laps but, at 950m,
the first is considerably longer and the water could be nudging 30C. The 40km
bike is fast, flat and technical, between skyscrapers and along the water’s
edge, the eight laps including a long, fast, purpose-built ramp into
transition. Then, there’s the 10km run in the heat and humidity of Tokyo
summer, an added challenge even with the extra measures in place to keep the
athletes as cool as possible, for as long as possible.
Throw in a dozen World Series gold
medallists, many more World Cup winners, young guns and big names, measured
experience and youthful exuberance and you have all the ingredients for
fireworks in the Tokyo 2020 men’s Olympic Triathlon. See how to watch the Games
where you are here.
France’s Vincent Luis was crowned
World Champion in 2019 at the end of a see-saw season, but it was in a
curtailed 2020 that he showed absolute power, smashing all four races at the
end of the year. Invariably leading out of the water and never relinquishing his
grip, he dominated from the relocated sprint-distance of Hamburg to the tough
cobbles and climbs of Karlovy Vary. Luis had started to look unstoppable, every
bit the Olympic Champion in waiting.
At the first race back of 2021, he
didn’t have it all his own way, though. This time it was one of the men who had
chased the Frenchman so hard in the heat and hills of Arzachena – Norway’s
Kristian Blummenfelt – who threw it down and began to set out his own bid for
Olympic gold. If victory in WTCS Yokohama was a statement, a second gold in
Lisbon a week later saw the 2019 Grand Final winner lay his credentials right
out for all to see. Arzachena and Leeds may not have been medal-winning
displays, but he was never out of the hunt.
The silver in Yokohama went to Belgium’s
Jelle Geens, and he will have taken a lot away from the final stages of that
race. As one of the strongest runners in the field, he won’t fear a deficit off
the bike, depending on how much daylight someone like teammate and WTCS Leeds
bronze medalist Marten van Riel tries to open up as one of the toughest
cyclists in the mix.
The big story in Leeds was Great
Britain’s Alex Yee finally putting to bed any doubt that he was ready for a
shot at an Olympic Games. The swim wasn’t the fastest, the bike pack was large
and out of T2, the 23-year-old was well-placed to deliver one of his potent run
segments. It was the swagger with which he did it, on a tough course but in
front of a roaring home crowd, that really stood out, and with teammate
Alistair Brownlee injured and unable to defend his crown, Yee has become his
natural successor, hitting form at just the right time.
Of course there is GB’s second male,
Jonathan Brownlee, ready and waiting to prove he can become the first man to
medal in three successive Olympic Triathlons. Finishing with bronze in London
and silver in Rio, Jonny may miss his brother’s driving presence on course, but
after victory in Arzachena ahead of the likes of Mario Mola and Blummenfelt, it
would be unwise to write the younger Brownlee off.
Mola himself has been approaching
these Games differently, cherry picking specific events in new locations to
test his race readiness rather than grinding from one to the next. Three world
titles in a row are all the proof required of his abilities on the big stage,
how he has been able to translate the extended training blocks into Olympic
performances will be the next big test.
Fellow Spaniard Javier Gomez would
also love nothing more than adding Olympic gold to his considerable medal
tally. After finishing 4th in Beijing and 2nd in London, the five-time World
Champion has unfinished business at the Games, and though preparation hasn’t
been ideal and a crash ended his WTCS Leeds challenge early, there is little
that could be added to the 38-year-old’s armoury of that potentially crucial
experience at the top level.
Looking across the Atlantic, USA’s
Morgan Pearson has burst onto the triathlon top table with back-to-back Series
medals in 2021, guaranteeing his place on the team in Yokohama after carving
his way through the field with a 29m30s 10km. Like Yee, position and legs out
of T2 will be crucial, like Yee, an Olympic medal at the first time of asking
is a big possibility.
Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk took the
tape in the Test Event back in 2019 and will relish the heat, just as he did en
route to Huatulco gold in June. Like Mislawchuk, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde is
a smaller athletes for whom the temperature seems to barely make a dent in his
all-out approach and he too has already delivered a medal on this very course
back in 2019. A career-best 5th in Leeds after nearly two years away from the
blue carpet was also an impressive statement.
Hosts Japan will count on two men
that have shown in recent months that they can mix it with the best; Kenji Nener
and Makato Odakura. Nener was crowned Asia Triathlon Champion in April, while
Odakura secured his place on the squad with 12th at WTCS Leeds.
Elsewhere on the start line, European
potential is strong. From Germany’s Jonas Schomburg and Justus Nieschlag to Leo
Bergere and Dorian Coninx of France, Gustav Iden and Casper Stornes of Norway
and Hungary’s Bence Bicsak, the podium is right in their sights.
Southern hemisphere strength in the
form of Australia’s Jacob Birtwhistle and South Africa’s Rio 2016 bronze
medalist Henri Schoeman offer plenty of one-day brilliance, both having shown
to be hugely capable of putting themselves in winning positions on some of the
biggest stages in the sport.
Two pairs of brothers take to the
start line, Shachar Sagiv and Ran Sagiv representing Israel, both skilful on
the bike and Ran the winner of a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships in
2019. Dmitry Polyanskiy and Igor Polyanskiy representing the the ROC are hugely
experienced, with a host of World Triathlon podiums and four Olympic
appearances between them.
The ASICS World Triathlon development
squad will be represented by Chile’s Diego Moya, Syria’s Mohamad Maso and Mehdi
Essadiq, the first Moroccan triathlete to compete at an Olympic Games. At the
age of 21, Hong Kong’s Oscar Coggins will be the youngest man on the Tokyo 2020
start line.
Full start list available here. https://triathlon.org/events/start_list/2020_tokyo_olympic_games/501764?mc_cid=4fdf699fde&mc_eid=6139649918
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and
transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the
sport to be extraordinary.
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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