A Year in Triathlon: The Biggest Losses of 2025

Cassandre Beaugrand lost the WTCS world title in the last race of the 2025 season.

Most of the time in triathlon, the first athlete across the line actively won the race, but sometimes it’s an athlete behind the winner who lost. This is not to say that the winner only won because someone else faltered ahead of them, but there are undoubtedly moments in our sport when victories are just as much due to the effort of the champions as they are they shortcomings, or failures, of other individuals. With that in mind, here are the top losses of 2025.

Knibb’s Kona Collapse

Not all come-from-behind wins are solely due to the chaser being unstoppable. A lot of the time, it’s a two-part equation that requires a fast and hungry athlete in second or lower, along with a fading leader. That was the case in Kona at the 2025 women’s IRONMAN World Championship.

Getting off the bike, American Taylor Knibb’s lead over Norway’s Solveig Løvseth was close to six minutes. After significant drama on the run course that saw Great Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay pull out of the race, Knibb found herself all alone in first place. At that point, Løvseth had only gained a minute on the American. Knibb was running so well that one of the on-air commentators said she would have to collapse for Løvseth to catch her.

The IRONMAN world crown was within reach for Knibb… Until it wasn’t. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

With just over seven miles to go, Knibb had given up more time to Løvseth, but she still had a lead of four minutes. At the 21-mile mark, the lead was down to 3:24. Just 0.7 miles later, Knibb was only 2:46 ahead of the Norwegian, and after that, the gap shrunk quickly.

Knibb was slowing ahead of the charging Løvseth, but with a little over two miles to go, it looked like she would be able to hold on for the win. All of a sudden, though, she collapsed on the side of the road. She was unable to move another step, and she was left to watch Løvseth — and the IRONMAN world title — pass her and disappear up the highway.

Knibb’s collapsing in no way a diminishes Løvseth’s win. If anything, Knibb and Charles-Barclay failing to finish the race shows just how strong Løvseth was on the day. Even so, the race was undeniably a loss for Knibb, and it will go down as one of the wildest finishes in Kona history.

Wilde’s Extra Lap

Going into T100 Dubai, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde has perfect on the season in middle-distance races. In Dubai, he was leading the race on the bike alongside Belgian Marten Van Riel and Frenchman Mathis Margirier when they bypassed transition and set off on an extra lap of the course.

After the race, Wilde said that while he should have counted the laps himself, he was thrown off by the entrance to T2 not looking “like it was ready” and someone who looked like a race official telling him he had another lap to go. At the time of the gaffe, Wilde, Van Riel and Margirier were well ahead of the first group of chasers, but the extra lap gave those athletes the lead.

Wilde likely would have been perfect in T100 races this season if he hadn’t added another lap in Dubai. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Wilde ended up running a race-best split of 49:18, so it is safe to assume that he would have continued his streak of T100 wins if he had left the bike course at the right point. Ultimately, the loss didn’t affect Wilde’s standing in the T100 ranks (he won the series title a month later in Qatar), but this mistake certainly led to one of the biggest and most unexpected losses of the season.

Beaugrand and Potter Fumble

Going into the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) finale in Wollongong, Australia, France’s Cassandre Beaugrand and Beth Potter of the UK were sitting in first and second in the standings, poised to finish 2025 in the same positions they held in 2024. Neither could sit back and relax in Wollongong if they wanted to win the world title, but considering their form all season long, it seemed unlikely that they would leave Australia ranked worse than when they arrived.

In the end, that is exactly what happened — not just for one of them, but for both women. Beaugrand pulled out of the race on the run, dropping from first in the series rankings to seventh. Potter finished the race, but well back of the lead in 16th. This result was enough to keep her on the podium, but she dropped from second to third.

Normally so clutch when it matters most, Potter lost badly at the worst possible time in Wollongong. Photo: World Triathlon

The surprise winner on the year was Germany’s Lisa Tertsch, who won the race in Wollongong, capitalizing on her rivals’ missteps and jumping from fourth in the WTCS standings to first. Like with Løvseth in Kona, Tertsch’s opponents faltering doesn’t take away from her win, but at the same time, there is no way to look at Beaugrand’s and Potter’s results as anything other than a pair of losses — and big ones, at that.

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