What The Pros Said– Triathlete

More than 2,500 athletes from 86 countries will toe the start line at this weekend’s Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, but most of the eyeballs will be on the 100 professional athletes at the front. This year’s Kona pro field includes eight previous world champions – seven of whom were on the stage at the pre-race press conference on the lu’au grounds of the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Resort.

The missing champion was American Chelsea Sodaro, who is the first former world champion in recent history to not be invited to the pre-race press conference.

“We would love to have had her,” Ironman told Triathlete after the event in confirming their decision not to invite Sodaro. “There were six incredible women on that stage, we have all of these amazing women’s stories to tell, and we wish we could tell all of them.”

This is a break from precedent, as all former world champions racing were invited to the dais in recent history; even Great Britain’s Chrissie Wellington was invited to participate in the pre-race press conference at the 2012 race, despite not racing that year.

In fact, the 2022 champion was not even mentioned in this year’s press conference, despite a direct question from Triathlete contributor and Trail Runner managing editor Abby Levene: “Of all the contenders not on the stage, who do you think could win?”

Kat Matthews (GBR) named Canadian Paula Findlay as a top contender, with defending champion Solveig Løvseth of Norway calling out Katrine Christensen (DNK). The rest of the women on the stage glanced away awkwardly, declining to comment.

It was one of many dramatic moments in the press conference, which featured 12 athletes – six men, six women – sharing their pre-race thoughts and banter. From American Taylor Knibb waxing poetic on shared suffering as a form of human connection, to Gustav Iden (NOR) and Sam Laidlow (FRA) predicting an aggressive race on Saturday, read on for the top quotes from the 2026 Ironman World Championship pro pre-race press conference.

The race will kick off at 6:25 a.m. HST on Saturday, October 10; see pro start lists and how to watch here.

2026 Ironman World Championship press conference highlights

Julie Derron (CHE)

On the Paris Olympics versus Kona:

“You should ask me after the race which one means more. But yeah, of course, Paris was super special for me. But I’m equally excited to line up here … I feel like I know this place already, or I knew it already before having been here because I followed the race for so many years.”

On being a Kona rookie and expectations for the race:

“What to expect? I don’t know, because I have never raced here, but I expect it to be hard, hot, sweaty, and I’m just really humbled to be sitting here with these champion athletes. I just hope to have the best day I can out there on Saturday. I’ve raced all of these girls over the half distance, and I don’t think any of the ones sitting here over the full distance, and only a few others that are lining up as well. So I think with a really strong field here, and for me, my plan is to focus on myself and race the best race I can, and see where I end up.”

Taylor Knibb (USA)

On her second-place finish at Ironman Texas and preparing for the full distance after last year’s meltdown on the Kona run:

“Oh, I’m not sure that’s the race where I felt like, Oh, I’m back again. I still have a lot to learn over the Ironman distance. Of all the women on the stage, I still haven’t won an Ironman yet. I still have a lot to learn, and I feel like every single race is testing things, figuring things out. It’s a long day. So there’s a lot that can go wrong, but also a lot that can go right. And I was just really aiming to finish that race because it kind of would be a catastrophe if I had a repeat of Kona there. So I had to race very cautiously and conservatively, tick the boxes, finish, and actually for the first time ever, I called my coach after the race. I don’t know, Lucy [Charles-Barclay], if you just like called Dan up. But it was the first time, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is inappropriate, but I wanted to let you know I finished. So what does that say?’ He said. ‘Thank you for letting me know.’”

On the shared energy and connection of the island:

“Well, I think it’s a shared experience. I feel like as humans, we connect through shared experiences, because it’s hard to connect with someone if you have no idea what they like. … Almost a bridge between people is ‘Oh, I see something the same way I’ve experienced something the same way.’ So for a race like Kona, people who were racing it 40 years ago had very probably similar thoughts and experiences. … I might be wrong, but I feel like it just kind of links everyone together because, regardless of how fast you’ve raced the race, how many times you’ve done the race, there’s still moments that connect everyone.”

Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR)

On her connection with the island:

“I’ve always loved volcanic islands since I first went to Lanzarote. It was a mix of how tough it is and then how good of an athlete that made me. So I think from very early on in my career, finding out about Kona and wanting to try and qualify as an age grouper, eventually coming here for the first time and staying on the island with some professional athletes from the UK and learning about their journey to racing at the highest level. … I think coming here, it’s just on a whole other level that the people here and the way they really respect their island. I think it’s so important for us to come here and have that same respect.”

On learning from last year’s dramatic DNF in Kona:

“I definitely learned the hard way last year to respect this island more than ever with the conditions. So I guess after my four second-place finishes and then winning the race, I thought I knew nearly everything about this island. Last year taught me that there’s a lot I don’t know and still need to learn. So I think we’re always learning as athletes, which is why this race is so special.”

On shifting her focus entirely to Kona this year:

“For me, it’s been a slightly different year. My focus has been just over the full distance, and I felt like I didn’t want to change the way I’d been training all year. It’d been working really well, and this race has always meant everything to me. And after what happened last year, I felt like I wanted to really give everything to this race, stand on the start line, confident, knowing I couldn’t have done anything else to be in the best shape possible. And whatever happens on race day will happen, but I’m super proud of the training that I’ve done to be here, and yeah, hopefully I’ll be proud of the performance I put on at the weekend.”

Laura Philipp (DEU)

On adapting to changes and setbacks this season:

“I think as a pro athlete, you need to adapt fast, be flexible. Having to deal with some difficulties in the beginning of the year really helped me to then kind of go back to work, go find my strength again, and also find fun at racing. Last year I probably didn’t race as many times because I also really wanted to focus on this race. And this year I felt like, okay, you need to change some things if you want to have a different outcome. So, yeah, one of the changes that I made was to race a bit more, and that was fun. It felt good; I’m curious to find out how to approach this, what kind of result that will bring me on Saturday.”

On Ironman Pro Series standings and competing against Solveig Løvseth:

At some point during the marathon, you maybe feel like this is the position that I will end up in. And in Hamburg, I knew that it would be super, super tough to catch a super fast-running Solveig. So even though I had a super little belief that I could make it and catch her, I still had this second thought: like even though I might not change my overall position, I will get more points. So I think this just shows how great the Pro Series is for us. Not only does the racing get more exciting, because I could have slowed down and still got second at some point, but I decided not to, and I think it made the race hopefully more fun to watch as well.

On pushing through the marathon and lessons learned from last year’s Kona race:

“I think we all know this lesson, it’s nothing new: that we need to push until the end, and especially on this island with the conditions, so much is still possible until the end. I think last year’s race was the best example to prove that, and I think we can all, yeah, remind ourselves when it gets tough that even though it’s tough, it’s still worth pushing.”

Kat Matthews (GBR)

On expectations for the race dynamics compared to last year:

“…This year is different to last year, and that’s what makes this race so exciting. I absolutely don’t believe that we’ll see any of the same dynamics. Maybe some similarities, but I think it’s going to be different.”

Reflecting on her struggles at 70.3 Worlds in Nice last month:

“I mean Nice doesn’t look great on paper, but for me it was actually a massive win. I was super confident. I’m really happy with my swim, really happy with how my bike went, and the run was sort of a best-case scenario in a realistic world. So, yeah, everything’s progressed since then as well.”

On working with her husband/coach:

“For me, this year has been a privilege. I think the communication between us has only gotten better. … He’s learning how to tolerate my outbursts of fragility, should we say, as in me saying ‘I’m not good enough to do this,’ and he’s saying ‘Why don’t we give it a go?’ It’s really rewarding to work together.”

Solveig Løvseth (NOR)

On returning to Kona as the reigning Ironman World Champion:

“It feels really good. I guess I have to really enjoy it, because who knows if you can say the same thing in two days’ time. So I need to really enjoy being the reigning Ironman World Champion now.”

On how her life has changed since her 2025 world title:

“[It] has made me think a lot about how much has actually changed since I was racing here last year, and it’s just crazy how much one really special day can just change your life in general … it’s definitely made me have a lot more opportunities. I got to do a lot of fun things, a lot more attention, which can be both really fun but also really overwhelming at times. It also, of course, made my triathlon career more financially stable and made it more possible to, for instance, bring my boyfriend on all the trips and stuff like that.”

On her approach to this year’s race compared to last year:

“I don’t think I have to rethink much. I guess the race last year, I didn’t really have a plan at all, and I definitely didn’t have a plan of breaking away. It sort of just happened, but I’m really happy it did happen because I think last year I didn’t really have the confidence that I could actually ride that strongly by myself. … It is really fun to think back that if I hadn’t gotten that gap in that downhill, I think the whole outcome would have been really different for me; I don’t think I would have felt competent enough to actually do that if not. And this year I don’t really have a plan yet either. I think I just need to see what happens, and you can’t really plan too much, anyway. You just need to sort of adapt to how the race falls out.”

Jonas Schomburg (DEU)

Experiences on the island and feelings ahead of the race:

“It’s the first time here for me. I’m really, really enjoying it. I just arrived a couple of days ago, and really feeling all the emotions here, with the age-groupers and everyone here, it’s a special place. And I think I’m ready for a special race on Saturday.”

On racing in the heat and humidity:

“I love the heat and humidity. Spending a lot of time in the South African summer, I’m used to that. [Hawai’i] reminds me a bit of South Africa here sometimes, the Eastern Cape. So I’m used to that actually, and can’t wait for Saturday. I’m pretty good in the heat and humidity. I heard it’s going to be a bit rainy actually on the bike course and going to steam up on the run, so I can’t wait.”

Patrick Lange (DEU)

On special memories and connection with Kailua-Kona:

“It’s so hard to pick a favorite moment. Ever since I came here for the first time in 2016, it just clicked with me and the island. And I think if you want to win the race, you have to need the connection. … So many great memories, and I think proposing to Julia was definitely really high up there. But yeah, I have to say [during] 2024 on the run course, seeing my mother out there and her helping me catch this dude was definitely the most emotional, and that will forever be with me. And yeah, I’m just incredibly grateful to be here one more time.”

On racing his final Ironman World Championship:

“It’s kind of like having two hearts beating in my chest right now. Definitely, the fighter who still has the fire and desire to win here one more time; I think it’s a historical opportunity … being the third man ever to win it four times. But at the same time, the other beat, the other heart, is really going here to embrace it one more time, enjoy it, and have a big mahalo to the community and to the island in general.”

“Honestly, I don’t have the emotion that this is my last time. I went to register with a friend, and he asked me, ‘Hey, do you know this is the last time you signed up for the greatest event on this earth?’ and I said, ‘Oh no, actually no, I did not think about it.’ So at the moment, I’m pretty locked in, fully focused on the race, and I can’t wait for the gun to go off and leave it all out there. So I think once the race is finished and I get time to sit at the beach and watch a sunset and come back and cheer on the midnight finishes, hopefully with a haku lei on my head. I think this is the moment where you can come and give me your shoes.”

On pushing limits in Ironman:

“I think we were one of the first ones to really dive down into this red hole of running techniques, especially coming off the bike and coming to be the most efficient. And that definitely helped me in the beginning, because I remember also when I did my first Ironman, the sub-2:40 was still a thing. Now these guys, last year he ran a :28 high or :29 something, which is a gravel ram. I’m grateful to be kind of the one who pushed the limits up a little bit, starting with taking Mark [Allen]’s record.”

Sam Laidlow (FRA)

On his race strategy on the bike course and pacing:

“I always get asked, ‘Oh, are you going to break the bike course record?’ I just want to clarify that I don’t come into this race wanting that at all. I have to race to my strength, and yeah, I would love to have the confidence to stay in the pack with Patrick and Kristian and outrun them, but I got to be realistic. I think my best opportunity is like being good across the board and going fast from A to B, so yeah, that’s what I’ve done this year. So far, it’s been good for me, and it’s just a bit more risky to do in Kona than everywhere else.”

On aggressive Kona rookies:

“It’s interesting, even looking back like 2022 when I came second, I was the first person to really race aggressively, like right from the start, and pretty much there was just me. And now I feel like I’m not even an aggressive racer. There’s lots of these Kona rookies like Jan [Stratmann], Jamie [Riddle], or Jonas [Schomburg] or Marten [Van Riel], who love to push the pace in the swim already and get out hard, like we saw last year in Nice. And yeah, it’s just finding that balance, and hopefully I do now have a good balance between having the ability to follow and knowing, having experience, to know when to push on.”

On social media banter and rivalries with competitors:

“I’m just glad I have someone that can take the banter because when I tried to do it like four years ago with Sam Long, he couldn’t take it. So yeah, I appreciate that.”

Marten Van Riel (BEL)

On taking inspiration from Belgian triathlon champions and debuting in Kona:

“We’re a pretty small country, so in the triathlon community, everyone knows each other. So these guys that you just named, like Luke Van Lierde, Frederik Van Lierde, Bart Aernouts … they are all people that I’m very close with, and they really gave me the drive and the will to come here to Kona. For me, this has always been the pinnacle of our sport. I got stuck in the Olympic pipeline for a very long time, but now I’m finally here, and yeah, that makes me really, really excited to race on Saturday.”

On building excitement leading up to race day:

“The excitement level is now … a nine out of 10. It’s been slowly building up, and I think the first day I started with a zero out of 10 when I came over the plane and I did my first training here. Every day is going one up, so it’s going to be an 11 out of 10 on Saturday. So I think it’s coming right on time.”

Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR)

On the significance of winning the Ironman World Championship in Kona:

“This is the biggest race we have in the sport this year, like you have the Olympics and then you have the Ironman World Championship, like the big, big stakes. And I would rather get second in these and potentially grab the win here than the opposite, because then I would feel like I won the small race, but I failed in the big one. So that’s how much this race means.”

“I’ve seen the drone pictures they’re taking from the finish line when the winner comes across the finish line, and that just looks so amazing … feeling the energy coming down Palani, knowing that you still have to do a left turn and like go like out from the finishing line, but like having a K left. Totally, to be able to enjoy that moment is something I want to experience.”

On leaving some gas in the tank for the marathon:

“I think it can be smart to save a bit left for the run. I think Patrick mentioned, it’s five run splits that have been under 2:40. He has three of them. Gustav has one. I have one. And normally you win the race if you do sub-2:40. So I still think that it’s going to be important to have a little bit left in the run legs.”

Gustav Iden (NOR)

On building form into race day:

“I think Nice was a good indication of my shape, and I felt amazing coming down from altitude. I didn’t feel amazing coming here to the Big Island. I had one good session, or like one good weekend and one OK weekend. I think this camp here has been kind of like my season, starting off pretty average, and then building up to something amazing. So I’m ready to show what amazing is on Saturday.”

On the shift in men’s racing dynamics:

“I think what’s changed the most is people are adapting their racing style to their suits, so they’re following more like Sam Laidlow. I would say he pioneered racing aggressively, at least to some degree, because that’s what he needs to win. And I think more people are trying to find out how can I win and race that way, and that makes it even harder for other people to win because it’s just so many dynamics going on. If you want to win, you have to pay attention to everything. You can’t just race your own race. So I think it’s just more chaotic, but much more fun to witness as spectators.”