A Year in Triathlon: World Bests That Defined 2025

As we wrap up 2025, we’re adding one more “list” to our series that includes: the top earning athletes, the biggest losses, the top comebacks, the biggest wins and the biggest controversies.

Yes, I know I didn’t refer to them as “world records” in the headline. Since courses are rarely certified in our sport, and as I’ll be differentiating between “IRONMAN” races versus other “full-distance” events, while using the word “record” probably would have helped my headline for SEO purposes, it just doesn’t seem to be an accurate descriptor of what we’re really talking about here.

So, with that proviso in mind, let’s look back on the exciting racing triathlon fans enjoyed in 2025, there were more than a few “world bests” to be noticed. (A huge thanks to Thorsten Radde – his extensive record list at trirating.com served as an excellent resource for this story.)

Fast Times at the Woodlands

Kat Matthews wins IRONMAN Texas. Photo: Eric Wynn

Things kicked off on the speedster front at IRONMAN Texas, where there were a number of world-best times racked up. Here’s hoping we’ve got them all – there were a lot.

• Cameron Wurf (AUS) set a new world-best time on the bike with his 3:53:32 split, knocking off more than a minute from Swede Robert Kallin’s 3:54:33 set at IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz in 2024.
• Taylor Knibb (USA) set a women’s world-best time on the bike with her 4:19:46 split, which bested the 4:20:47 that Daniela Bleymehl posted at IRONMAN Hamburg in 2024.
• Kristian Blummenfelt set the fastest “on land” time ever in the Woodlands, too, thanks to his combined bike/ run time of 6:31:17. His overall finish time of 7:24:20 is the fastest men’s time recorded at an IRONMAN event other than his own 7:21:11 from IRONMAN Cozumel in 2021, which featured a down-current swim (Blummenfelt went 39:41 for the first leg of the race). IRONMAN does recognize that time as the fastest ever at an official IRONMAN event, while other record-keepers like the afore-mentioned Radde list the time with an asterisk rather than included it in his record tables.
• Kat Matthews set a new world-best time at an IRONMAN event in Texas this year with her 8:10:34.

Messias Flies in Brazil

On June 1 Brazil’s Manoel Messias dos Santos set a couple of world-best times on his way to his runner-up finish behind Argentina’s Luciano Taccone. Messias’ 2:26:50 marathon split is the fastest ever over the full distance, while his 7:37:11 finish is the fastest ever debut over the distance other than Blummenfelt’s 7:21:11 from Cozumel. We’ll leave it to you as to which you want to consider the “world-best.”

Game-Changing Day in Hamburg

We’ve long known that Hamburg is a fast course, and if anyone has figured out how to go fast there it’s Laura Philipp. The German went 8:18:20 there in 2022, which was then the fastest-ever time at an IRONMAN race and was mere seconds off of Brit Chrissie Wellington’s long-standing 8:18:13 time set at Challenge Roth in 2011.

Since that time three women had gone faster than Philipp over the distance – Daniela Ryf (SUI) went 8:08:21 at Challenge Roth in 2023, then Germany’s Anne Haug blasted to an 8:02:38 to win in Roth in 2024, followed by Matthews’ 8:10:34 from Texas. (Philipp went 8:14:13 on her way to second behind Haug in Roth in 2024.)

Kat Matthews of Great Britain and Laura Philipp of Germany at the IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship on June 1, 2025. Photo: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images for IRONMAN

In Hamburg this year Philipp and Matthews duelled throughout the race, with the German pulling away on the run to take the win in a new IRONMAN-best time of 8:03:13 to Matthews’ 8:05:13. Philipp also set the fastest-ever marathon split for a full-distance race with her 2:38:27, and her combined 7:02:05 bike and run splits make her the fastest-ever “on land.”

The race in Hamburg also served as an introduction to many triathlon fans to eventual world champ Solveig Løvseth, who managed to bike with Philipp and Matthews despite losing one of her aerobar extensions and would hang on to finish the race in 8:12:28, the fastest-ever debut over the distance.

Taylor-Brown Blasts in Bahrain

Georgia Taylor-Brown on the bike at T100 London. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

For a woman who was using 2025 as a bit of a “year off,” Georgia Taylor-Brown both raced a lot and well. The British Olympian competed in short course events, gravel bike races and numerous long-distance races, including a stellar performance in defending her IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain title. Taylor-Brown flew to an impressive 3:51:19 finish in Bahrain, which breaks Taylor Knibb’s previous world-best time of 3:53:02 set in Lahti, Finland in 2023 on her way to the world championship.

Other Notable “Bests”

Casper Stornes on the run in Nice. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

It wasn’t the fastest-ever marathon run at a full-distance race, but it certainly was the fastest ever run at an IRONMAN World Championship. Norway’s Casper Stornes broke the 2:30 barrier in style as he ran away from countrymen Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt with his impressive 2:29:25 marathon split to take the win in Nice.

Kat Matthews with husband Mark at the finish line in Kona. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

In addition to defending her IRONMAN Pro Series crown this year, Kat Matthews solidified herself as one of the sport’s all-time greats with a bunch of impressive results. While her “world-best” IRONMAN time from Texas only lasted a little over a month, she now holds the third- and fifth-fastest times over the distance (8:05:13 in Hamburg, 8:10:34 in Texas.) Add to that the second- and fifth-fastest bike times (4:20:08 in Texas, 4:22:45 in Hamburg), the fourth-fastest run split (2:40:58 in Hamburg), along with the second- and fourth-fastest “on land” times ever (7:03:43 in Hamburg and 7:09:27 in Texas). If all that isn’t enough, Matthews also set a new run course record for the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona with her 2:47:23 time, which bested Anne Haug’s 2:48:23 set in 2023.

Four men added their names to the fastest ever swim times at IRONMAN Chattanooga in September. The notoriously fast down-river swim saw Florian Angert (37:42), Quentin Barreau (37:50), Pieter Heemeryck (37:50) and Jesper Svensson (37:52) to eclipse what most of us consider to still be the fastest swim times ever at full-distance races – age-grouper Christoph Wandratsch’s 41:26 at IRONMAN Austria in 2006 and Jan Sibbersen’s 42:17 at the IRONMAN European Championship in Frankfurt in 2004.

Matt Hanson on the run in Nice. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

American Matt Hanson managed to post the second- and fourth-fastest marathon times in full-distance history this year – he went 2:28:03 at Challenge Roth and 2:30:21 at IRONMAN Cairns.

Tamara Jewett’s IRONMAN Lake Placid run split of 2:40:05 puts her third on the all-time run list behind Philipp and Haug (2:38:52 at Roth in 2024).

In addition to the speedy debuts mentioned earlier, there were a few more folks who had impressive times while competing in their first full-distance races:

• Olympic silver medalist Julie Derron won IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz in 8:21:48 to sit second on the debut list behind Løvseth
• Daisy Davies won Challenge Almere in 8:30:15 and now sits third on the debut list.
• Swede Gabriel Sandoer made his debut at IRONMAN Copenhagen, finishing fifth in 7:38:18 and putting himself either second or third on the debut list (depending on where you put Blummenfelt’s Cozumel performance).
• France’s Vincent Luis took fourth at Challenge Roth in 7:38:54, putting him one spot behind Sandoer.
• Frederic Funk was one spot behind the Frenchman in Roth and on the debut list, finishing in 7:40:07.

American Natalie Grabow became the oldest woman to finish the IRONMAN World Championship, crossing the line in Kona in 16:45:26. The 80-year-old was met at the finish line by IRONMAN Hall of Fame inductee Cherie Gruenfeld, who had previously been the oldest women’s Kona finisher – she was 78 when she finished in 2022.

British reality TV star turned endurance athlete Spencer Matthews claimed two Guinness World Records this year, including completing seven full-distance races on seven continents in 21 days, and also for completing the fastest-ever full-distance “race” in Antarctica (28:51:11). He eclipsed Canadian Connor Emeny’s time from Antarctica by almost four hours.

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