Laura Philipp Heads Back to Roth

The folks at Challenge Roth have been releasing the names on their pro list over the past few weeks and, for the most part, we figured we’d leave it all be until the entire list had come out. Today’s announcement, though, feels a bit more newsworthy – reigning IRONMAN world champion Laura Philipp will be heading back to Roth for the third time.

To understand why this is a big deal, you have to go back to roots of Challenge Roth and the triathlon history of the small town that hosts the event. The first triathlon took place in Roth in 1984 – a 700 m swim, 40 km bike and a 10 km run. In 1988 the town hosted the first IRONMAN Europe race, which quickly became one of the biggest IRONMAN events on the circuit. The event was owned by the Walchshofer family and run by Detlef Kuhnel. In 2001 Kuhnel got wind that IRONMAN was negotiating with Frankfurt to put on an IRONMAN race and announced that the 2001 race in Roth would be the last IRONMAN event. (The Challenge Roth website describes the split this way: “Due to unacceptable organisational and financial demands, the contract with World Triathlon Corporation was terminated at the beginning of the new millennium.”)

So, in 2002 there were two major full-distance races held in Germany at the beginning of July – the IRONMAN European Championship in Frankfurt, and Challenge Roth. Having the two events vying for media attention was huge for professional German athletes as they negotiated appearance fees and contracts.

Which brings us back to Laura Philipp. It’s always been a big deal for the folks in Roth to get the reigning world champion to their race. Chrissie Wellington was a regular in Roth, and Daniela Ryf made a number of appearances there during her Kona run. Ditto for Jan Frodeno, and even Kona champ Patrick Lange has been on the start line after Kona wins. (This year Lange has announced he’ll be in Frankfurt.) The negotiations would have been a bit easier since the women’s IRONMAN European Championship is taking place in Hamburg at the beginning of June, and Frankfurt, which takes place at the end of June, is the men’s race. It’s been implied that Philipp will be gunning after the IRONMAN Pro Series title this year, which means she’d need to get three full-distance IRONMAN races in along with a couple of 70.3s if she truly aims to be competitive for that title. She’ll also be very motivated to defend her IRONMAN world title in Kona, too.

Today’s announcement, though, makes me wonder if the goal is more focussed on winning in Kona than that IRONMAN Pro Series. Last year Philipp competed in three 70.3 races (she was second in Mallorca and won Kraichgau), four T100 races, Challenge Roth and, of course, the worlds in Nice. The only year she’s done more than two full-distance races in a year was 2023 – she won IRONMAN South Africa, took third in Roth and then was third again in Kona. Last year she “only” did two full-distance races – Roth and Nice. With that in mind, I can’t imagine that Philipp will take on four full-distance races in 2025, which means today’s announcement will make a run at the Pro Series title a tough one.

All of which is to say, my guess is the folks at Roth were very keen to sign the reigning IRONMAN world champ to the race this year and wrote a check that made the decision a bit easier for Philipp and her team. (Of course, I could be completely off the mark and the feeling is Philipp can take on the challenge of four full-distance races and two 70.3s – I’m open to being wrong on this front!) And, after finishing third in 2023 (where Daniela Ryf set a new world best time of 8:08:21), then second in 2024 (when Anne Haug ripped through an incredible 8:02:38 world best), Philipp is no-doubt thinking its her turn to take the top of the podium. Last year she went 8:14:13 – will it be her turn to go close to eight hours?

“I would like to try my luck again at the Challenge in Roth in 2025,” she said. “It’s the event in Germany and the most atmospheric triathlon in the world. I’m looking forward to the race.”

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