TRIATHLON'S 20 GREATEST OLYMPIC MOMENTS
20 RISING HIGHEST
Rio Olympic Games 2016
As Brit Simon Lessing in 2000 and Javier Gomez in 2008 will testify, the Olympic Games triathlons haven’t always been kind to the pre-race favourites. Yet Gwen Jorgensen rose above the doubts in 2016 to claim gold and enter multisport’s list of immortals. With the Copacabana in Rio, Brazil, as the unrivalled backdrop, the American stayed near the front on the swim and bike legs, proving to her critics once and for all that she could handle herself on two wheels. The 10km run became a straight shootout between the American and Switzerland’s reigning Olympic champion, Nicola Spirig. The two hadn’t faced one another since London 2012, and the mid-race sparring could be heard from the grandstand. Yet Jorgensen refused to be broken by the wily, tough-as-teak Swiss, and broke away with a lap to go to finally scoop America’s first Olympic Games tri gold.
19 TRI JOINS THE FOLD
Led by the formidable, irascible and divisive Geordie-turned-Canadian Les McDonald, tri’s route to Olympic Games inclusion was a rocky one. It led to the formation of the International Triathlon Union (ITU), and enough federation jostling, power struggles and political manoeuvrings to fill a Netflix series. Most significantly and controversially, it saw the elite sport abandon its non-drafting cycling roots, a decision that caused the biggest rift in tri history and witnessed an exodus of athletes (including Brit superstar Spencer Smith) to Ironman. But in September 1994, the news arrived that triathlon would become an official Olympic Games sport at Sydney 2000. Multisport would never be the same again.
18 HISTORY MAKERS
