10 Takeaways From the Triathlon Events at the Paris Olympics

TriDot Podcast Episode 254

10 Takeaways From the Triathlon Events at the Paris Olympics

Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. At the time we are recording and releasing this podcast episode, the 2024 Paris Olympics are in full swing and we want to talk about them. We'll share 10 takeaways from the triathlon events and they aren't my takeaways. No sirree, Bob, our 10 takeaways are straight from world champions Mark Allen and Michellie Jones, who watched the races on site live in Paris. So they saw all the action unfold firsthand. And here is how we are going to do this. I didn't want to steal an hour of Mark and Michellie's time and make them sit down in a hotel room and record a podcast episode while they were in Paris. I want them to enjoy everything they can in their Olympic spectating experience. So I asked them to record their thoughts on the races and send them over so that we can hear from them without intruding too much on their time. So we'll go one by one through the recordings and Vanessa and I will listen in and then reflect on what Mark and Michellie had to say about the races. Vanessa, thanks so much for joining this episode and talking about the Olympics with me.

Vanessa Ronksley: This is so awesome because I am an Olympics fanatic. So I am super excited to be digging into this one with you and Mark and Michellie in Paris.

Andrew: And look at this, Vanessa. I'm so excited as well to talk about the Olympics that I skipped over doing a proper introduction for you. So for our listeners, Vanessa Ronksley is your average triathlete with elite level enthusiasm. She serves as TriDot's event marketing manager where she provides our coaches and athletes with awesome experiences when they turn up to the races. She hosts the cool down segment on the podcast and shares hosting duties with me right here on the TriDot podcast. Vanessa, did I say that right specifically? Was I enthusiastic enough on, kind of, giving your elite level enthusiasm title there?

Vanessa: You're pretty close. I usually pair it with throwing my arms in the air, which gives, just takes it to the next level.

Andrew: That extra octave that you can hit that I can hit.

Vanessa: Yeah. Exactly.

Andrew: I am Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we'll roll through our warmup questions, settle in for our main set conversation, and then wind things down with our cool down. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

Andrew: In the 2024 Olympics, there will be 329 medals given out across 32 different sports. Some sports, like triathlon, are on our radar from the beginning. We know we are going to tune in, watch, and enjoy it. But others end up on our tvs and catch us by surprise. Vanessa, for our warm up question today, what is one Olympic sport that unexpectedly caught your attention? Again, we're halfway through the games. And let's do this too, Vanessa, since it's two of us on the show today. We can each share maybe two sports that have caught our attention. It's very hard to pick just one, right? Very hard to pick just one. So, Vanessa, what two sports have caught your attention so far in the games unexpectedly?

Vanessa: Well, I was going to say, if you maybe picked just one, I don't think I could have actually answered the question. Two is still really hard to pick. So, let's go with a story that caught my attention. This just popped up on TV. And one sport, I'll go with another one that's just a sport that's ridiculously cool. So, the sport that hasn't, it actually hasn't happened in Paris yet. But it caught my attention in Tokyo in 2020. And it's sport climbing.

Andrew: Yeah.

Vanessa: And it's unreal to watch. Like, seeing it for the first time, it's like you're watching Spider-Man climbing up a wall. But it's actual people. Like, no digital trickery. No camera stuff. Just pure athleticism. And it's so awesome.

Andrew: And it takes them seconds to reach the top. Like, literally seconds. It's wild.

Vanessa: It's so cool. So, that's super awesome. And then the story that caught my attention that I love with my whole being, like, brings tears to my eyes, love. Did you see Auntie Nee? Have you seen anything with her?

Andrew: No, I haven't. Who is this?

Vanessa: Okay. Well, she's, she's a six-time Olympian in table tennis. And, yeah, she's from Luxembourg. She was originally from China and then went to Luxembourg. And she's 61. So, she was there playing a couple of games of table tennis. She had some really sweet moves. Like I could not even replicate them. So, it was really fun to watch her. And she ended up getting a standing ovation in her second game. And the crowd was just all over Auntie Nee. So, it just makes, it just brings to light something that the Olympics does. And humans are just so awesome. And I love everything about it.

Andrew: My answer here, Vanessa, and I know you spent a year living in Australia. So, this is a sport probably much more on your radar coming into the games than mine. But, Rugby Sevens is so fun to watch. I've seen rugby on TV and I know most of the rules. I don't know all the rules, but I understand most of it. Something about the seven on seven. It's so fast paced. You can really see that kind of the strategy, like what they're trying to do in real time as a casual fan a little bit better, I think. And, we had some huge moments with the American women's team ending up getting the bronze medal over Australia. I know Canada's women's team got the silver in an amazing match against New Zealand. They came up just short with silver, but I was actually on a call earlier this week with Craig Alexander, Ironman champion, Sansego Coaching is his company. They're using TriDot now for their athletes. And I was like, Craig, can we talk about the Rugby Sevens event where America beat Australia? I got to rub it in just a little bit, but I've just found whether it's the men or the women, that's been a blast to watch. And then fencing is the other one I'll give a shout out to. I think the fencing is so cool and fast-paced. I don't know something about the tennis player in me, probably just really likes the one-on-one, right? Where you're just in this confined space, just duking it out with these swords. Like Vanessa, how cool would you feel if you were in the athlete village chit-chatting with another athlete you just met and say they play basketball. Oh, what do you do? I'm a fencer. Like how cool would you feel to basically be saying like, I'm an athlete whose sport involves a sword. I just, I think it's been a lot of fun to watch, the team sport, the individual sports, with fencing. That's the other one I'll give a shout out to. So guys, we're going to throw this question out to our audience. I know a lot of our athletes I'm sure are watching the Olympics and paying attention to one sport or another. So find the post in the I am TriDot Facebook group asking you this question, find the post in the TriDot community hub asking you this question and let us know what is one or two or three sports that just caught your attention this Olympic cycle a little bit unexpectedly. Can't wait to see what you have to say.

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

Andrew: Alright, we are very excited to talk about the men's and women's triathlon races at the Paris Olympic games. I will throw out this quick disclaimer, this episode publishes at 4 a.m. central time on the same day, the triathlon mixed relay takes place. So that race literally should have ended right before this episode publishes. And we'll know by the time this comes out, which countries earned gold, silver, and bronze and how it all played out. But while recording this, Vanessa and I have no idea what's going to happen in that race. So we're specifically chatting about the men's and women's standalone races, and there is plenty to talk about from the action there. And again, Mark Allen and Michellie Jones were on sites. We are going to hear their thoughts watching the race live in person. Vanessa, we'll go ahead and spoil the ending here. Hopefully if you're listening to this episode, you've already watched the action. We are not telling you anything you don’t already know. But in the women's race, Cassandra Beaugrand of France won the gold. Julie Duran from Switzerland took the silver, and Beth Potter from Great Britain hung in tough for the bronze. There’s another French athlete close on her heels in fourth. On the men's side, Alex Yee from Great Britain won the gold in dramatic fashion. Hayden Wilde from New Zealand took silver and Leo Bergerer from France took bronze. Vanessa, before we get to Mark and Michellie's thoughts, what was your watching experience like and what stood out to you from these races?

Vanessa: My watching experience was awesome because I was spending some time on the old indoor trainer. So, I had a chunk of time to watch the women's race while I was spinning away, which is motivating. It's hard to stay in zone two when you're watching these people go so fast. It was a major treat for me because I usually don't listen to anything or watch anything. I just spin away. So it was such a treat. And then for the men's race, I had some time in the car as we drove home from picking up our new puppy. So I caught most of it there and then finished at home while I was snuggling our new little puppy. So, in general, I love watching athletes push their limits to the max. This absolutely happened in both the men's and the women's races. There's never a shortage of seeing people testing their limits in the Olympic distance tri at this level. The swim looked so intense, the athletes having to swim up that current, that was nuts. That was nuts. And then the bike was really technical, the women especially had the extra added factor of the slick pavement and oil coming up through there. And it's draft legal, so not only is that terrifying from a triathlete's perspective, when you don't have to worry about anyone around you, but when you're riding so close to one another with such crazy road conditions. Then there was the run. I just keep on saying, “and then, and then”. There were so many packs of them together at the beginning. Ultimately it comes down to the last couple of kilometers, and it's very exciting to watch because you have no idea what's going to happen. Like in the men's race, you would never have predicted what actually happened. It's just so exciting. I loved it from start to finish.

Andrew: Yeah, some of these triathlon events play out how we expect them to, or you can kind of tell who's going to win well before you actually get to them crossing the finish line. And this one kept you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. So I personally, Vanessa, I didn't wake up and watch it live. There are a few people on the TriDot staff that did, I'm not going to name any names, but I think most of us were catching the recording. And so it was kind of a trick. I was intentionally staying off social media all morning until I could watch both races. And I was doing some work for TriDot on my computer and on my second monitor, I had the races up. All of my wife's coworkers know Andrew is a triathlete. And so several of them asked her, did Andrew watch the race? And Vanessa, you talked about the effort these athletes put in. They were all going full sin. They were all working as hard as they could possibly work. And some of my wife's coworkers, they watched it and saw athletes crossing the finish line, find a trash can, and throw up. And so they were telling Morgan to joke to me, oh, should they have not done the swim because of the water conditions? Is that what caused them to throw up? And I was like, no, that's not what caused them to throw up. What caused them to throw up is the pure effort they put in on an Olympic distance race. So anyway, it just educated them on that was interesting because just when you go that hard on short course, that can be the response sometimes, right? That can be the response. So anyway, a couple of musings there from me and Vanessa from our time watching the race. I'm excited to hear what Mark and Michellie have to say. I legitimately have not heard these sound bites from Mark. I know our assistant producer, Sarah has listened to these and knows what he's going to say, but Vanessa and I don't. So this is going to be real and raw. We're going to listen to, we're going to start with Mark's five comments and then we'll go through Michellie's five comments and then we'll call it a day. Here is Mark Allen's first takeaway from the Paris Olympic triathlon events.

Mark Allen: Okay. Five things that I learned from the men's race on Wednesday. We were lucky enough to have both the men's and women's race this year with the water quality. It was a question up until that morning. Anyway, first thing I learned is that it's consistency in the basically year or two leading up to the Olympics. It's a very good predictor of who's going to be top three in the Olympics. Last summer, Alex Yee won the test event and he won the gold medal. He was very consistent this year. One of the big races that was a predictor for how fit people were was Cagliari. He raced Hayden Wilde there. They were neck and neck off the bike. Hayden tried to pull away a number of times. Alex finally pulled away from Hayden in the final closing meters of the race to win that one. Same thing happened yesterday and here in Paris. Alex and Hayden were basically pushing the pace on the run. Alex took the lead right away, but then Hayden caught him, passed him, put a good 15 seconds on him. And it looked like he was going to win the race. In the closing meters, his leg started to give away a little bit. His pace dropped and Alex Yee was able to pull back that time in literally like a matter of meters. It was the biggest comeback I've ever seen. And so anyway, there were no surprises in the top three, Leo Berger, very consistent, top finisher there in the test event last year. So it's very hard to go from, let's say, 10th or 15th and some of the world triathlon championship series races to them being automatically on the podium when you come to the Olympics. Those leading up races show who probably has a good chance of topping that podium, gold, silver, or bronze.

Vanessa: Yeah, I did not know the results of the test event that happened last year. But it's amazing to see that is exactly how it played out. However, as Mark had said, the biggest comeback happened in the men's race and you would have not expected that to happen. It was insane. I was watching the men's race and I was like, oh no, Alex is not, he's not going to get that gold medal. And he was falling further and further back from Hayden. And then, just a few minutes later, you see him surging ahead and it's like, he looked like he was hurting. And then all of a sudden he just found this next level and he just took straight off. So that was pretty phenomenal to watch, but I would like to put Mark's theory to the test. So for the next round of the Olympics, I'm actually going to be watching that test event or finding a way to watch it and then see if that's the prediction that comes true for the next Olympics in Los Angeles.

Andrew: Well, and Mark, he mentioned Cagliari, he mentioned over the course of the last year and what is referring to, a lot of fans of the sport who really enjoy following different corners of this probably already know this, but some folks might not. If most of what you follow is Ironman and 70.3 and full distance, you might not realize this, but the athletes competing at the Olympic games against each other largely compete against each other year round at this distance. There's the world tour for the men's and women's series. They travel all over the world and they race this Olympic distance year round against each other. So I had a similar thought to Mark here, actually, when I was watching the women's race and I was seeing which women were in the front pack and I was like, man, it's all names you would expect. And that's not by accident, right? It's not by accident that the women that ended up in the front pack on the bike and ended up in medal contention navigated that swim turn we talked about so well. They're the best, they're the smartest, they're the fittest, the most experienced. And that shows up in these crucial moments. Great takeaway there from Mark and glad we can talk about a little bit more. Let's see what Mark's second takeaway from the men's event was.

Mark: Second thing I learned from the men's race is that it truly does come down to the run. It's all about the run. Obviously you have to be in the mix at the end of the swim. You have to be in the mix and in that lead pack coming off of the bike. And if you can accomplish those two things, you have a good chance, if you are a great runner, of being at the top of the podium on the podium at the Olympics. The opposite of that was Morgan Pearson, who, turns out, was kind of being pushed around and shoved under the water a number of times during the swim, some gaps opened up and his normal lead pack out of the water swim did not materialize. When he came out of the water, he was around 10 seconds behind Hayden Wild and Christian Blumenfeld. He could see them up the road on the bike. He was by himself. He could not close that gap. They pulled away and he was never in the mix. The guys who were in the mix and who were up there at the start of the run, the two key guys, Alex Yee, Hayden Wilde, they duked it out. And it came down to once again, pulling away in those final closing meters of the run to get the gold. Alex pulled away in Cagliari against Hayden Wilde to get the win there this year he pulled away from the pack last summer at the test event. So, clearly, in the men's race, it really does come down to who's got that top end speed when you're already running at top end and you can up it from there. It's a true skill. You can only do it for a certain number of meters before you're going to blow up too. Alex obviously has that formula down. So the men's race, for me, showed that it all comes down to those final meters of the run.

Andrew: This is a really good learning opportunity. Again, for athletes who are fans of Ironman and 70.3 racing and are used to watching the pros on long course, you can have Lionel Sanders, for example, or Sam Long, Daniela Reef, some of these really strong cyclists, you can have them come out of the water four or five, six, seven minutes behind the leaders. And they have loads of time on the bike to catch up, get in position on the run. In Olympic distance racing, we saw it in both races. If you were an athlete, Taylor Nib is an example on the female side. He mentioned Morgan Pearson, the American, on the men's side, Taylor Nib on the female side. They just came out of the swim way too far down. For whatever the reason was they came out too far down. You can't, you don't have the time in the Olympic distance and draft legal in particular to catch back up. In the swim and the bike, it's all about positioning yourself in those front groups. And then once you get to the run course, in that front group, it's who's got the best run legs. And we saw that was Alex Yee. And we saw that was, I'm blanking on her name right now, but the French athlete who won gold on the women's side. They had the most kick at the end and they ended up walking away with the gold. So what Mark's saying about having a strong run really coming into play, it came into play on the men's race and the women's race. Vanessa, your thoughts on Mark's talking about the run here.

Vanessa: Yeah, I think that's something that is absolutely terrifying about short course racing is that it does come down to the run. And if you're not a superstar runner, then, at any level, then a podium slot might not be happening for you. Just because it comes down to the run. I'm one of those athletes that kind of fits into that category because running is not my specialty.

Andrew: Self-identifying, yeah.

Vanessa: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I can pound it out in a sprint okay because the distance is short, but anything over that 5k mark, man, like running a 10k at max effort. Like Alex Yee, I think his personal record for 10k is 27 minutes or something like that. That's borderline what my 5k run is. He's running double the speed. It's pretty incredible that it does come down to the run, just like Mark said. And like you said in those longer course races, which I'm more accustomed to watching, you can see those massive comebacks. Not so much for the women these days, because it seems like whoever's at the front of the swim pack, they are going to be carrying through that lead to the bike and the run. Because I feel like also triathletes that are coming up through the ranks now, they’re proficient at swim, bike, and run. Whereas the older-school triathletes could get by with being a poor swimmer and then just blast out on the bike and the run. Now you are seeing these people who have trained at younger ages, through the sport of triathlon, they are going to be destroying records when they become a little bit older and that endurance kicks in later on in life, especially for women, they don’t peak at endurance until much later in life. It's going to be exciting to watch, records are going to be broken.

Andrew: Yeah, and Cassandra Bogrand, my apologies to her. The name of the gold medalist from France, Cassandra Bogrand. Okay, let’s see what Mark Allen's third takeaway is from the men's race.

Mark: The third thing that I learned from the men’s race was that when there is a current in the river, it completely changes the dynamic of how the swim turns out. So, think of it this way. The first half of the swim on both loops was with the current, and the second half was against the current. And think of it if you compare it to, let’s say, cycling. When you’re on a downhill, when you’re on a downgrade, when you’re sending, it's very hard to make up time on somebody. You’re going really fast and its hard to go even faster than really fast. And then when you are on the uphill, when you’re climbing on the bike, that’s where huge gaps can be made, right? It was the same yesterday on the swim, we saw that when they were going downstream in the send, basically everybody went the same speed, there was very little change in the dynamic of where people were, where they placed. When they came back the other direction, small gaps turned into huge gaps, and the field was much more spread out than you would normally see on a swim without any kind of a current. So the key to that, is that you just didn't want a gap to open up between you and whoever was in front of you. Or if you're in a pack, you did not want that pack to lose contact with whoever was in front of that pack, because it was basically impossible to close the gap. You couldn't close the gap on the fast downstream section. And on the upstream section, if the swimmers ahead of you were faster, they were going to keep pulling away. There's no drafting that could go on. It's hard to close that gap upstream, just like it's hard to catch somebody riding uphill if they're stronger than you.

Andrew: It was really interesting, Vanessa, watching the coverage. Cause, if I'm remembering these loose numbers correctly, it took the women, something like, three to four minutes to get down river, and then eight or nine minutes to get up river. And so it really showed you the tangible difference between the pace they were able to do downstream versus upstream. It quantified how much that river was flowing. And Vanessa, personally, I would have loved to have seen what it would have looked like for some age groupers to be out there, like some mid pack athletes to be in that river, make that left-hand turn and then try to go upstream. Would we have been able to do it? Would we be swimming in place? Would some folks get kicked backwards and not even make it back up? These are obviously professional triathletes. They were able to make it up the scene without too much of a fuss. But that river was certainly moving. What did you think when you were watching and you saw that women's field on that first turn just get splintered so much?

Vanessa: The thing that was actually going through my mind is that we always talk about burning those matches, and we don't often have to burn any matches in the swim because it's a consistent, like, you're going pretty smooth. If you're lucky enough to be swimming down river, then it's like a piece of cake and you're just kind of floating and kicking and having fun down the river. But if you have to swim up river, which is not something that's typical in the races that most triatheletes do–

Andrew: Most age-groupers do.

Vanessa: Yeah, you're going to be burning some serious matches. And I'm wondering how much that came into play later on in the race with those athletes that got taken by the current and they had extra meters to swim because they were just, they didn't line up that sighting properly and then they kind of whipped around and they had more meters to take and the current was so strong. I wonder if that had something to do with their ability to catch up in the bike, and more importantly in the run, and able to hang on to those lead packs of athletes.

Andrew: Let's see what Mark's takeaway number four is.

Mark: Fourth thing that I learned from the men's race was that there really is an advantage to having some teamwork going on. I saw that with Alex Yee and Sam Dickinson. Sam Dickinson, great swimmer, great cyclist. He was able to get to the front of the lead pack that Alex Yee was in. And when he did that, he slowed the pace down, he slowed that pack down, which gave Alex time to sit in, take advantage of a lot of drafting and be just that much fresher when he came off the bike. And as we saw, he had the legs to pull away from Hayden Wilde and take the gold. Is this a strategy that other countries might want to employ? I think so. Absolutely. I thought that would be what was going to take place with Team USA. It didn't. Seth Ryder was in that lead group. Morgan Pearson, the stronger of those two over the swim, bike, and run, he was quite a ways back and there ended up not being any of the sort of teamwork that maybe could have taken place. It could have gotten Morgan back up into that front group. Anyway, regardless, it is a strategy, having somebody who's a strong swimmer and cyclist help the person who might be good on the swim and the bike, but has that potent run as we saw Alex Yee had. And again, Sam Dickinson helping Alex Yee set up for that great gold medal winning performance.

Andrew: Another example of this from the exact same race was Leo Bergerer who placed third and got the bronze medal in the men's race. There was another friend, he was in the chasing pack on the bike, and another French athlete really took a lot of the brunt of leading him, riding in front of him and helping catch the lead pack, or at least get as close as they could to the lead pack, so that Leo could save his legs for the run and he ended up able to run himself in the bronze. Mark's right. There was definitely some team strategy going on out there, which I know super league triathlon is a form of triathlon that has teams. So if you watch one of their races, maybe there's some team dynamics happening there, but we don't normally see this in triathlon. Vanessa, what'd you think of countries kind of playing that game out there, jockeying their athlete for medal contingent?

Vanessa: Yeah, I definitely noticed that, even watching the Canadian commentary, there were two Canadians that finished in the top 13 for the first time ever, Tyler Mislechuk and Charles Paquet, and they did the exact same thing. They were working together and I'm not surprised in any way because cycling is a team sport. If you look at the Tour de France, you’re seeing those teammates are working together and they’re working to advance one person in particular who has the best chance of winning this stage or this medal. So the other team members are working to do things like control the front pack as opposed to the second pack, because they want their team member to excel when they need to excel. I am not going to be surprised at all when we start to see that this strategy is going to be more common in years to come.

Andrew: Yeah, great point. And, Vanessa, as you're saying Tour de France, and your French is clearly superior to mine, I should have, from the beginning, let you say how each athlete did so you could say Cassandra Beaugrand and Leo Bergerer, because I am sure I am not doing their names justice like you would do. How would you introduce those two athletes from France who were on the podium?

Vanessa: As a French speaking Canadian, I would say Cassandra Beaugrand and I would say Leo Bergerer.

Andrew: I feel like such an uncultured American, and I never should have opened my mouth and tried saying those names when I had you on the episode right next to me, that’s for sure. Mark, please save me, tell us your next takeaway from the race.

Mark: The final thing I learned from the men's race in the Olympics here, Paris 2024, was that the winner is not the one who leads the race the longest. It's the one who crosses the finish line first. Such a harsh reality in sport, right? Hayden Wilde pulled away, had a good 15-second gap on Alex Yee for a bulk of the run. It looked like he was going to win it. Even the on-site announcers were calling him, expecting him to come across the line in first place. However, in those closing few hundred meters, his legs started to give out, and Alex Yee put in his classic, patented, last-minute surge, and the difference was enough to bring him the gold by six seconds over the guy who had been leading for a big part of the 10k run. Why did that happen? That’s actually a good question. Looking at Hayden Wilde, and this isn’t necessarily a big lesson, but it’s one that I think is quite important, even in an Olympic distance race, you have to take care of your body. Maybe he slowed down in those closing meters because he ran out of gas. I don’t know, I haven't spoken with him, but maybe he did not take in enough calories. And at the level of fitness that he had, there's no reason he should have slowed down the way he did. It's like his body all of a sudden just shut off. Could have been low on calories. He could have been starting to go into a bonk. It could have been that it was just really hot out there for the men's race and the heat buildup finally got to the point where his performance started to drop off. Maybe he was getting to that critical point of dehydration, but regardless, it just showed that even in an Olympic distance race, a relatively short race, you have to take care of your body. There we go, Mark Allen from Paris 2024. Hope you enjoyed those.

Andrew: Oh, we definitely enjoyed those. Thanks so much, Mark, for taking the time from Paris to send those recordings. And I actually read, maybe it was even this morning, an article that had interviewed the athletes after the race and Hayden Wilde, kind of something you said earlier, Vanessa, he said, I forget the exact moment of the race where he was behind wherever the lead pack was. And he said, I had to burn some matches catching back up. And I think by the time I hit the run course and was able to catch up, Alex clearly had more left in the tank and was able to preserve some energy along the way through some teamwork and stuff we've talked about. Vanessa, what do you think of this last thought from Mark, just the notion of he who wins is, he or she who wins, isn't the person who led the longest, it's who's in the lead at the end. What do you think about that?

Vanessa: I think that that's just how it goes. It's not over until it's over. And even if you think that you're going to win, there may be someone who has something left in the tank behind you. And I find it really interesting how many times people were looking over their shoulders in both the men's and the women's races. And they were just like, you could tell they were putting out so much of an effort and they didn't know how much they had left. But to know if someone's coming up behind you, you always have that extra gear. Well, maybe not, maybe not. I don't know. I just find myself, one time I was in this sprint race and this girl was chasing me down. I was in first place, like overall, and this girl was chasing me down and I knew she was a better runner than me and I just, I was looking over my shoulder. When she passed me, I was just kicking myself because there was nothing I could do to keep up to her. But how it turned out in the end is that she actually started the race before me. So even though she broke the tape, I still ended up beating her. And it was a surprise to her. I felt really bad for her actually. Cause I was like, I asked the announcer, are you sure? Are you sure the time is right? But yeah, so it's not over till it's over and yeah, I think in Hayden's case, he's a high-performance athlete and he will definitely be dissecting his performance with a fine-tooth comb just to see where that happened. And maybe there was nothing that he could control. But maybe there is something that he could have done to bring home that gold. But regardless, I think all of the medalists need to be extremely proud of themselves because they put everything out that they had. It was very clear as you could see the men and the women collapsing at the finish line. Like, could you put out any more? I'm not sure. I'm not sure if any of them could have.

Andrew: Great stuff from Mark. Again, super thankful he took the time. Now Michellie Jones, she is an Olympic silver medalist. She competed in this event in the Olympics when it was an Olympic sport, back in Sydney, she got the silver medal in those games. So she knows this event very, very well. Michellie, if you follow her on social media has been all over Paris, enjoying it, watching different sports, meeting different athletes, taking in the sights and sounds. So she was unable to take a second to send us some recordings, but she definitely sent me some notes that we can share five takeaways that she had from the women's race. And I'm thankful she took the time. She gave us some notes from the men's and women's race. So let's, Vanessa, we'll go through and see what Michellie had to say. Michellie's first takeaway. So this is takeaway number six on our show today. Flora Duffy did not medal, but she is the female athlete who shaped this race. And her direct words, she said “In the women's race, Flora Duffy made a significant impact right from the start. She stretched out the field during the swim and led solo on the bike for the first two laps. This meant, strategically, that if you weren't within contact with the second pack out of the water, your chances of catching the lead group were slim.” And Vanessa, what a great point that Michellie is making here. And we've talked about the river, broke up the females a little bit, but because Flora was out on her own for the bike and you had that first women's chase pack, having to work really hard to catch Flora. If you were in the second pack or beyond, you weren't catching the first pack that was working on catching Flora. And it did catch Flora. Largely the women in contention by the time we hit the run came out of the water with that first pack. Michellie's certainly right on this. Flora Duffy ended up, I believe, finishing in fifth place. Even though she was in fifth, she was just off the podium as the defending Olympic champion, by stretching out the field in the swim and by leading out on the bike, kind of being that carrot at the end of the stick for everybody else to chase. She wasn't on the podium, but she had a huge impact on how this race played out. Vanessa, what are your thoughts on Flora and the race that she had there in the games.

Vanessa: You know, she is such a superstar and it's fun to watch her race. I love that she's from Bermuda and that the community of triathlon is really small because the population is really small. But it's just so great to see how passionate she is about the sport. To be honest, I wonder if her being out there alone for so much of that bike might have impacted her ability to keep up on the run. I know she did a post-race interview and she said that the training that she did was at greater speeds and intensity than the race and the race effort wasn't where she expected it to be. So I'm just wondering if those matches on the bike that she had to burn came back to bite her a little bit. Phenomenal performance by her as she's such a great competitor and the composure that she had throughout the entire race, it was just, you could just tell she's a very well-seasoned athlete.

Andrew: And she said, these are her last Olympic games and she's going to be doing more 70.3 racing and potentially a long course. What a great athlete to root for and cheer for. It'll be a lot of fun seeing what she does at some longer distances. If that is indeed what she does next. Michellie's next takeaway, takeaway number seven on our show today, she said the wet roads made the bike leg even more crucial and complex than they already are. Vanessa, can you go ahead and read for us Michellie's quotes following this takeaway?

Vanessa: Absolutely. “The wet and slippery conditions added another layer of challenge, making technical skills crucial and increasing the risk of misfortune ending a competitor's day. Despite these challenges, the race was a true display of athleticism and strategy.” I love this point that she had made because it is 100% terrifying to ride on slick roads like that. And especially as some of the commentators, the Canadian commentators, were saying that because of the humidity and the heat, the oil from the pavement was actually rising to the surface of the road, making it not only slippery from the wet, but also from this oil. And so you could see sometimes the athletes were taking spills because of the paint, like they were going over the paint and their tires would just come right out, but sometimes they were not. And they were just in the middle of a turn and they would just take a spill. But the other thing that is insanely technical about this location is that they're riding on cobblestones, as well, for a large portion of that race. So not only are they dealing with cobblestones and a different surface that they have to deal with, but they're dealing with wet cobblestones and this oil slick. And what blew my mind is how most of the women got right back on their bikes and they carried right on. And that goes back to what Mark was saying, you never know what's going to happen in that race. So if you can get back on your bike, you get back on that bike, and you keep going because you never know what's going to happen to those people in front of you. And so it was absolutely a display of incredible athleticism for both the men and the women, but especially that wet bike course for the women.

Andrew: Yeah, it definitely added a layer to the women's race that the men's race didn't have because the men raced after the women. So by the time they were racing, the commentators were even saying on the NBC America broadcast that by lap five of the women's race, it was already drier, it was still, I think, wet and slick, but it was drier than it was early on. So there were female athletes slipping and sliding in all the different packs. I think we were coming down to the end of the bike leg and there was a German athlete in the front pack and slipped on a turn and fell. And man, as a fan, you're watching these athletes, you know, how hard they work to be here. You know this is their one Olympic day until four years from now, if they make it back there again and to have your race be impacted by that. On one hand, you hate it for them, but on the other hand, every athlete is entering the same course, right? Every athlete is taking on the same conditions and it's the same way for us on our race days. I mean, there's race days that you're going to have, they're going to be stormy and foggy. And sometimes it's going to be extra hot and extra windy. And every athlete is on the same course in the same day. And, you know, some women made it through unscathed. Some ended up on the ground. They all ended up crossing the finish line and we cheer for that. But, yeah, definitely, it played a factor on the women's race, more so than the men there.

Vanessa: You know what's interesting, I was reading some quotes from Taylor Nibb and she said that a lot of athletes go to high altitude for training and a lot of athletes do heat training. And she said, it's obvious that, she said, I need to do some rain training and she's right. If that is a possibility on race day, it is vital that athletes of any competency level practice in conditions that might be present on race day. So if your day as an age group athlete, if it's raining outside and you have an outdoor bike ride planned, go and do it because you're going to gain some bike handling skills that could potentially be coming, could be a really great thing for you on your race day if it happens to be raining or snowing, if you live in Canada.

Andrew: We get snow in Dallas, too. We get snow in Dallas, too. We don't cycle in it, that's for sure. Vanessa, we're going to move on to Michellie's next takeaway. It's her third takeaway, our eighth takeaway of the show. Michellie's takeaway here was that for the men coming out of the water with Christian Blumenfeld or in front of Christian Blumenfeld proved to be crucial. And her direct quote, she said “For the men, this scenario was quite different. If you weren't in front of Christian out of the water, you found yourself in no man's land. The bike segment was relentless with the pace never letting up. Even after the lead pack was caught, this nonstop intensity on the bike led to slower than expected run times as the athletes had already expended significant energy.”

Vanessa: That bike segment was crazy. It was crazy, not only because of the strategy that was involved with these different packs of riders, but the groups themselves were massive and they were traveling at like 50 kilometers an hour on those crazy roads, turning the corners. I'm not surprised at all that their run times were slower based on the effort that they expended in that portion of the race. In addition to the rising temperatures, as they moved forward throughout the race, the temperature just kept on rising and rising, and that humidity from the earlier rain, it must've impacted their ability to run off the bike for sure.

Andrew: Yeah, it absolutely did. And there were times that, they're in downtown Paris, right? So they're taking some tight city turns. A lot of those times coming out of the turns, the front riders were, you could see them just accelerating, just hammering. For all the men behind them, it was just trying to hang on, and they got strung out in long lines, just trying to keep up with the butt in front of them. Really fascinating men's race there on the bike and a great takeaway from Michellie, just noticing, strategically, that all the men that came out behind Christian never had a chance to catch back up again for the rest of the race. It's the positioning that Mark talked about earlier. Two more takeaways from the men's and women's Olympic events. We've never done an episode like this before, frankly, where we've just added commentary and unpacked a professional event like this. There's plenty of triathlon podcasts that's all they do. We just love the Olympics so much. We had some good events there. With Mark and Michellie on site to give us some commentary, we thought we'd give it a shot today. Hopefully you're enjoying this kind of different episode of the TriDot podcast. Two more takeaways to share with you. Michellie's next one, her takeaway number nine in our show today, she noticed that there was a dark horse that added to the excitement. We heard Mark Allen earlier say that largely the medalists were athletes you expected to medal, but Michellie is making note. There was one dark horse athlete that wasn't necessarily in the top coming into the games that ended up playing a role. Vanessa, can you share Michellie's quote about this takeaway?

Vanessa: Yes. So this is what Michellie says. “Overall, the men's and women's favorites lived up to expectations and secured the Olympic medals. However, the lone dark horse on the women's podium was Derron. While perhaps unexpected to some, a closer look at her results reveals she consistently finishes in the top 10, making her podium finish a testament to her steady performance.” And I agree with this 100%. Derron was amazing to watch. She was like a firecracker on that course. I was doing a little bit of reading after the race.

Andrew: As one does, as one does.

Vanessa: Right, of course. You have to dissect it from all angles, right? And she apparently has a good breakfast meal that I'm going to be adopting because it works for her so why not try it? She eats rice and honey before every race. And it's like at this exact same time, every race morning, she eats her rice and honey. And so I'm thinking if it works for her, I'm going to give it a go as well. But something else that is pretty amazing is that she has a very notable coach. And he used to call her a little pistol because she wasn't a gun, because she wasn’t good enough yet. Brett Sutton is her coach. And he's coached a lot of really phenomenal athletes over the years. And apparently before the race, he gave her little pistol stud earrings as a lucky charm. Derron said, I'm no longer little, just pistol. I can’t agree with her more. She's definitely going to be someone to watch in future races.

Andrew: That is an amazing story that I had not read. So thank you so much for sharing that. Vanessa, that really just goes to show how much having a certain mindset can play on race day. Just her lining up against the best in the world of this distance with I'm not a little pistol, I'm not a backseat to anybody. I am the pistol. I'm going to come out with guns blazing and see what I can do. She was with the front group all day long. And as the run legs was going on, and there were four girls in that front pack and that four turned to three, which turned to two. She was right there in silver contention and crossed the line for silver. To add to Michellie's comments, I never heard of her before. This is Julie Derron, athlete from Switzerland. Julie. Just let us know who she is, and we'll keep an eye on her for years to come. Takeaway number 10, this is the fifth one from Michellie. This is a takeaway she has about the men's and women's race. She said this “From first place to last place, these athletes are amazing and we should celebrate them all.” Vanessa, what's the rest of her quote here?

Vanessa: She says “The triathlon at Paris 2024 was a great display of endurance, skill, and determination. Every athlete gave their all knowing that every four years they have just one day to get it right. We should all be proud of their performances as they will undoubtedly be their own harshest critics. The races were a reminder of the dedication and resilience required to compete at this level and the excitement they bring to the world stage.”

Andrew: I love that Michellie pointed this out and just the way she said this. And if you know Michellie's backstory, she shared this on our podcast before, about her own Olympic experience getting silver. When Michellie won the silver medal, she was the favorite to win gold. At that time, she was the best athlete in the world at this distance. On the day, just came up a little short, got a silver medal, a huge accomplishment. And there was one particular coach in the Australian delegation at the time that really kind of gave her a hard time about it and made her feel a little bad about it. So just to know that context behind Michellie pointing this out, that the athletes are undoubtedly their own harshest critics. And we, as the fans, need to be pumping them up, amping them up, reminding them of who they are, reminding them whether they finished first or last, how special they are. Vanessa, I was struck. One of my favorite pictures from both of these races, the men's and the women's race. I still remember, again, because I was watching it while I was working. I'd seen the first five, ten athletes come through. I go back to typing and doing some work. And I look back at my second monitor, Alex Yee never left the finish line area. He stayed there and gave so many high fives, patted backs, gave guys hugs. He hung out in that area. So many guys go off and get rehydrated, get some nutrition, celebrate with their own team. And he did a little bit of that, but he hung out by the finish line until the last guy came through and he was able to congratulate him, welcome him home. The camaraderie these athletes have together and the way they recognize it just to be competing on this level, on this scale, to be a part of this race and to cross that finish line. What an accomplishment. I love that Michellie is pointing this out. I love that Alex took the time to hang out and welcome all of his fellow competitors home. Man, what a sport, right?

Vanessa: That’s just exactly it. I love this sport for that very reason. Like what other sport would you find an athlete doing that? Maybe a handful of sports here or there, but triathlon is just filled with amazing people. And it just warms my heart to hear that he did that. I did not notice that, but back to Michellie's point, it is a huge accomplishment to get to the start line of an Olympics. And we know this as age groupers, just to get to a start line without having injuries or illness. It's hard, but these athletes who arrive at the Olympic start line, they had to go through and earn their spot on their various teams. And so many people were left off their country's rosters, like Gwen Jorgensen, for example, she would have loved to have had a spot on the US team and she was not able to go. And so the fact that these racers made it to the Olympics, they all need to be ridiculously proud of themselves for getting there and for completing that race. If they did, even if they didn't complete that race, getting to the start line is just something that they need to put a feather in their cap for that.

Andrew: And I'll say this about the Americans, we certainly between Morgan Pearson, who Mark Allen mentioned earlier, Taylor Nibb, who we've mentioned a couple of times, Taylor Spivey, who had a good race, finished top 10. I think largely the American contingency didn't finish as high as we expected them to. For one reason or another, right? Whether it was Morgan Pearson having a lot of contact in the swim, slowing them down, or Taylor Nibb just coming out behind on the swim and not able to catch up on the bike with the wet roads. Whatever the reasons are, I saw Team USA social media account, Team USA triathlon social media account specifically, post a congratulatory, congrats so-and-so on 31st, congrats so-and-so on finishing 49th, congrats so-and-so for finishing. And for a split second, it was like, man, really? We wanted them to finish higher than that. But I love that they celebrated what happened on the day. That's what happened on the day. For one reason or another, that’s what happened on the day, and good for them. You represented your country well. And so whatever country you're from, listening to the podcast, whatever athletes represented you in this race. I hope you celebrate them. I hope you root for them in the future. And I hope whatever happened this morning in the mixed relay, I hope it was a great race and everybody had a great time watching it. We'll do this again in four years, right? We'll get to watch the Olympics in triathlon in four years, unless they come up with a winter triathlon, you never know. But Vanessa, as a Canadian, what would a winter triathlon look like?

Vanessa: Let's see.

Andrew: You're more equipped to weigh in on this than I am.

Vanessa: I think it would include a polar ice dip. So you'd have to swim in very, very cold water. It would include probably some cross-country skiing. I would say that would be involved. You'd have to have some cross-country skiing and some snowshoeing. And at the end, or maybe at the aid stations, you would just eat maple syrup.

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

Andrew: Oh, I'm still laughing about the maple syrup. Vanessa, you are almost always on the cool down hosting, asking one of our esteemed coaches for a training tip. So while it's just the two of us, I thought I would flip the script and ask you to end the show with today's training tip. I mean, you are an experienced triathlete and representing TriDot at the races. You see our athletes do a lot of things right on race day. You see athletes occasionally make mistakes on race day. What is one training tip that you'd like to leave our audience with today?

Vanessa: You know what's funny about this, is I'm always thinking, oh, that would be a really good cool down. Which coach is going to share that important tip? And then now that I'm in the hot seat, do you think I can remember any of those instances?

Andrew: Absolutely not.

Vanessa: Yeah, I cannot. I'm just kidding. I think the tip that I'm going to share is the following. Do everything in your power to get to that finish line, and when you get there, enjoy every single second. I think the truth is, the majority of us do this sport as a hobby. We're not the Olympic athletes. We're doing this because we love something about the sport of triathlon. It could be that we want to lead a healthy lifestyle. It could be that we love having a wonderful community of people who support us and inspire us to achieve more than we ever thought that we could. Or maybe you just want to push your limits and get comfortable being uncomfortable. We all have a reason as to why we will get up early every day and make an abundance of sacrifices like family sacrifices, friend sacrifices, and we're just really invested in this sport. We can talk about swim, bike, run all day long. I think that we don't have additional time for other hobbies either. So many of us do take this very seriously and we're on the hunt for Watts. We're on the hunt for Watts here, a few there. We buy all these expensive gadgets. We find tiny little ways to get faster in the swim and the run too, and ultimately trying to cross that finish line in the least amount of time possible. Now, I'm super lucky because I have the greatest job ever, and I get to see a lot of these finish lines and the athletes that always tug at my heartstrings are the people who roll in close to the cutoff time. And oftentimes, it just gives me shivers and almost brings me to tears thinking about the joy that is oozing out of these people's beings. And just these images, I see people running across the finish line. They have their hands on their face and they're just in absolute shock at what they have just accomplished. And it just puts everything into perspective. Each race prep phase is a journey. There's so many obstacles that each athlete has to overcome to even get to that start line, as we mentioned earlier. So crossing that finish line, regardless of the time of day, regardless of what has happened in your race, because we all know that races don't go perfectly, we need to be really proud of that. And so my tip, the short answer to the long tip that I just gave is, put a smile on your face and put your hands up in the air and truly enjoy the fact that you did what you said you were going to do. And so many people are proud of you and in awe of what you have accomplished.

Outro: Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast with your triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to tridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.

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