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Rio 2016 Olympic Games: Swim, Bike Run – Women’s Race
- Updated: August 16, 2016
A beach swim start at Copacabana, followed by the hilly and technical bike course, and a fast, flat run course lends itself to triathletes skilled in all three legs. Here is how some of the scenarios could play out in the women’s triathlon event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Swim: It’s a saying that many a triathlete has heard: you can’t win the race in the swim, but you can lose it. What makes the Olympic race interesting is that so far that statement hasn’t really held true, particularly in the women’s events. In Athens Kate Allen was 121 seconds behind after the swim leg, and in London Nicola Spirig was 67 seconds behind. Both ended up with a Gold medal. However, the difference in Rio is that a decent swim-bike breakaway is the best chance for others to get ahead of Gwen Jorgensen (USA). A new element in the swim for this edition is the beach start, the first time in Olympic history that athletes will hit the water from the beach rather than a pontoon.
A peek at last year’s test event for form shows that seven of the first 10 women in that leg are back, so expect Pamela Oliveira (BRA), Sarah True (USA), Non Stanford (GBR), Flora Duffy (BER), Katie Zaferes (USA), Emma Moffatt (AUS) and Carolina Routier (ESP) to lead again. While Helen Jenkins (GBR) didn’t finish that event, the two-time World Champion is usually perfectly at home in the water.
While Jorgensen was almost mid-pack in last year’s test event, she was only 14 seconds behind in time, ultimately not anywhere near enough time to stop her running through the field. The rest of the world will be watching to see where the reigning World Champion will finish the first leg.
Thought it’s difficult to make comparison between courses, particularly in the swim with different conditions and start types, the fastest swim at a Games so far has been Lucy Hall (GBR)’s 18:16 in London. The fastest non-wetsuit time was 18:37, set by Loretta Harrop (AUS) and Sheila Taormina (USA) in Athens. Rio is expected to be a non-wetsuit swim.
Bike: World Triathlon Series results from the past two seasons suggest that the best way to beat Gwen Jorgensen has been to get …
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