One to Watch: Lisa Perterer’s Journey from Injury to the Olympics, Then IRONMAN Champion
While North American triathlon fans might not be as familiar with her, we certainly should be. Austria’s Lisa Perterer is a three-time Olympian who quickly made her long-distance talent apparent just weeks after the Paris Games with a win at IRONMAN 70.3 Cozumel. She rounded out the 2024 season with a second-place finish in her IRONMAN debut in Cozumel. All of which set the stage for a stellar 2025 season that included a runner-up finish at T100 Singapore, a third at IRONMAN Texas, another runner-up finish behind Solveig Løvseth at IRONMAN Lake Placid, a fifth-place finish in Kona and then a win at IRONMAN Cozumel.
In this week’s Slowtwitch Podcast, We begin the conversation with the 34-year-old with a look back to her origins in the sport – formerly a competitive swimmer, a fall off a horse at the age of 11 shattered her left arm, which ended her swimming career. Looking for a new challenge and inspired by watching athletes compete at IRONMAN Austria, Perterer entered her first triathlon at 15, renting a “way too big bike,” but still enjoying the experience. She quickly got her own ride and within a year was part of the Austrian junior team, racing at European Cup events. In 2009 Perterer would win the Junior European Cup circuit and, a couple of years later, moved to the Elite category and would qualify for the London Olympics with just one year to qualify, all while she was still in school.
Four years later, feeling like she was in incredible shape, a stress fracture would sideline her from the Rio Games just a few weeks out. Determined to have a good race at an Olympics, she worked hard for the Tokyo Games, but would finish 27th. Disappointed with that, she pushed through to Paris, only to have another disappointing day, finishing 50th.
“It’s time to make a change,” she told herself. “And this is why I decided to try long-distance racing, but I didn’t want it to be stressful. I just wanted to have fun and find joy again in triathlon.”
She found that joy in 2025.
Texas Surprise
After receiving a wild card slot at T100 Singapore, Perterer made the decision to head to Texas almost on a whim. Determined to just “see how it goes,” Perterer surprised herself with her podium finish at The Woodlands, and that got her on track to pursue the IRONMAN Pro Series. That meant the trip to Lake Placid, then Kona.
After the fifth-place finish in Kona, she headed to Cozumel and was surprised at how well she seemed to be recovering, so she decided to compete in the IRONMAN race there, but assured both herself and her family that she wouldn’t finish the race. After one lap of the bike, though, she heard she was eight-minutes up on the field, so she decided to keep going, finishing her fourth IRONMAN race of the year with a win.
After that big year, Perterer is determined to have a slower start to 2026, which is why next week’s IRONMAN Texas will be the first time we’ll see her racing.
“I want to follow the pro series, but my real focus is Kona and I don’t know how my shape will be at the beginning of the season, and I don’t want to start too fast,” she says.
One thing Perterer will still have to do this year is nail her spot for Kona – during the podcast she explains what happens and how she missed claiming her spot at the slot allocation in Cozumel.
Training and Coaching
Surprisingly, Perterer isn’t putting in more hours of training as a long-distance athlete than she was during her draft-legal years – during the podcast she explains what her training regimen looks like now, and the changes she’s looking to make as she searches for a higher finish on the Big Island this October.
We also learn about Perterer’s coaching – she works with her boyfriend, Elliot Bach (NextGen Racing) and is currently helping 10 athletes with their training.
“It’s a big passion for both of us,” she says.
Listen to this week’s podcast to get more insight into how Perterer has made such an impressive move into the world of long-distance racing and how she manages to balance her training and coaching. As an athlete who has excelled at all the elite levels of triathlon racing, she offers some interesting perspective on the sport.
Lisa Perterer
Olympic triathlete Lisa Perterer shares her journey from junior champion to Olympic athlete and her transition into long-distance racing. She discusses training strategies, race experiences, and her goals for Kona 2026.
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