Lake Placid boasts all-star lineup in IRONMAN Pro Series showdown

The pro start lists for IRONMAN Lake Placid have been released, and the talent in both the men’s and women’s fields is staggering. Danielle Lewis and Trevor Foley, the 2024 champions in Lake Placid, are both returning to defend their titles, but going back to back will be far from easy for either of them. The race is the final full-distance event on the IRONMAN Pro Series calendar before the pair of world championship races in Nice and Kona, and it offers athletes upwards of 5,000 points in the series standings, as well as a $125,000 prize purse and four world championship qualifying slots for both pro races. With all of this on the line, the July 20 event is sure to feature some thrilling competition in what could be one of the most entertaining races of the year.

Can Lewis Run It Back?

At the 2024 edition of IRONMAN Lake Placid, Lewis made up for a slow start in the swim with the fastest bike and run splits of the day among the women. Her sub-five-hour ride and 2:52 marathon lifted her past fellow American Jackie Hering, and she broke the tape in 9:01:54 for the first full-distance IRONMAN win (and podium finish) of her career.

Lewis has had a solid showing so far in 2025, with a third-place finish at 70.3 Oceanside, second at 70.3 St. George and sixth at a very competitive IRONMAN European Championship in Hamburg. This string of strong results has earned her fourth place in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings, around 2,700 points back of first-place Anne Reischmann. There is a long list of women who could spoil her title defence on Sunday, but if Lewis does manage to win in Lake Placid, she could jump to the top of the series rankings.

Second on the start list is Hering, who recently moved into third place in the IRONMAN Pro Series after a win at IRONMAN Cairns. That result, along with second at 70.3 Oceanside and third at 70.3 St. George (she and Lewis never seem to be too far apart from one another in the past 12 months), should serve as fuel for yet another big race on Sunday.

Photo: Jackie Hering wins IRONMAN Cairns.

A woman on everyone’s radar will be Norway’s Solveig Løvseth, who burst onto the scene with an unbelievable debut performance at IRONMAN Hamburg in June. Most of the attention in Hamburg went to Laura Philipp and Kat Matthews, both of whom laid down incredible showings and times, but the 26-year-old Løvseth stunned everyone with a an 8:12:28 third-place finish and 2:46 marathon split in the first IRONMAN of her career. She also won 70.3 Venice-Jesolo earlier in the year. Although a dark horse not even two months ago, Løvseth is now firmly in the discussion with the other pre-race favourites going into Lake Placid.

Another athlete to watch is Great Britain’s Holly Lawrence, who will be making her IRONMAN debut in Lake Placid. Lawrence, the 2016 70.3 world champion, is in the middle of a racing comeback after giving birth to her first child in October. She has raced twice so far this year, finishing in fifth and sixth at T100 races in San Francisco and Vancouver, and she’ll certainly be looking to surprise the field with a strong first full-distance performance.

The list of women to watch on Sunday goes on, with Dutch athlete Lotte Wilms in the mix (she finished third at IRONMAN Cairns this year), Australia’s Regan Hollioake (she won IRONMAN New Zealand in March and finished fifth in Cairns last month) and 2022 Lake Placid champ Sarah True, among others. With so many stellar athletes set to compete, the results will be far from predictable, which should make for a fun day of racing.

Foley Looks For Another

In 2024, Lake Placid was the second result in a three-race stretch that saw Foley take the top spot on the podium, but since then, he has registered three DNFs in his last five races. He did have a strong showing at 70.3 Eagleman in June, finishing second behind compatriot Sam Long, and he will look to recreate the magic he found last year in Lake Placid on Sunday. He had the fastest run split at last year’s race, using his 2:36 marathon to beat fellow American Matthew Marquardt to the line.

Marquardt is returning to Lake Placid as well, and he is fresh off the first IRONMAN win of his career after a 7:50:41 performance in Cairns. That victory shot him up to third in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings, and if he can find his way to the podium on Sunday, he could ascend to the top spot in the ranks. Of course, he’ll have to beat Matt Hanson if he wants to become the series leader, as Hanson currently sits in second place in the standings and is also set to race Lake Placid.

Matt Hanson on the bike at Challenge Roth. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Hanson finished fifth behind Marquardt in Cairns, and he just recorded a ninth-place finish at Challenge Roth. Lake Placid will be Hanson’s third full-distance race in just over a month (and the fourth of his 2025 season, as he raced to 11th at IRONMAN Texas in April). He has shown that he can compete with the best, but a big question is whether his body is ready for another full day of fast racing.

Photo: Kristian Høgenhaug on the run at 70.3 Western Australia.

The women’s race features a Nordic athlete who just had a breakout performance at the IRONMAN European Championship, and so does the men’s event, with Denmark’s Kristian Høgenhaug set to race on Sunday. Høgenhaug finished second at IRONMAN Frankfurt less than a month ago, clocking a remarkable time of 7:28:32 and only losing to Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt in the closing miles of the run. Like Hanson, it’s not so much a question of if Høgenhaug is generally capable of winning the race, but whether his body has had enough time to recover for another intense and speedy affair.

Australia’s Cam Wurf is also set to race in Lake Placid. Wurf has had strong showings in the two IRONMAN events he’s raced so far this year, placing eighth in Texas and ninth in Frankfurt, and he sits at fourth in the Pro Series standings. Another man likely to be in the mix is France’s Leon Chevalier (fourth in Kona last year) and fresh off a runner-up finish in Swansea last weekend. While Denmark’s Daniel Bækkegård is on the start list, it doesn’t look like he’ll be at the race. Like the women’s race, the men’s title could go to anyone, and while there is no easy bet for any single result, there is pretty much a guarantee that fans of the sport will be treated to a tremendous day of racing.

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