#109 - U23 World Champion RICHELLE HILL

Richelle Hill lit the fuse on the 2025 World Triathlon Championship Finals Wollongong for the hosts Australia, igniting one of the great Grand Finals with the kind of finish that dreams are made of, hoovering up a seemingly unassailable gap to take the U23 world title in the most dramatic fashion. She then went on a self-imposed social media lockdown ahead of the Mixed Relay, before finally reliving the moment back home in Brisbane, just one hint of the remarkable balance and level-headedness of an athlete coached by her mum, driven to succeed, and with a huge home Olympic Games lurking off on the horizon. Notes:4:20 - A winner's mentality & self-belief7:25 - Finals preparation: not bang on13:06 - The U23 Champs look-back19:45 - Watching back the final moments with the champ32:30 - Olympian Rina Hill: mum as coach and mentor40:45 - Passing the torch - Richelle as coach?

Join us for a special on-the-ground preview of the Championship Finals from Wollongong, Australia with Chelsea Burns and Tommy Zaferes, analysing the chances of favourites Matt Hauser, Cassandre Beaugrand and Beth Potter and what it will take for their closest rivals to stop them

Fresh from his mammoth debut World Triathlon Championship Series win in Karlovy Vary, Germany's latest triathlon talent Henry Graf joins Doug Gray and Tommy Zaferes for a full run-down of the latest and greatest Battle of Bohemia!📈 Being nearly two metres tall in an era of smaller, faster triathletes🍿 Winning your debut the same day as Ironman short-distancers light up Nice – shouts to Casper Stornes, Gustav Iden, Kristian Blummenfelt and friend Jonas Schomburg💪 Taylor Spivey’s mega bike effort to catch onto Maya Kingma’s mega bike effort🐠 Oliver Conway’s impressive debut with 4th place new talent coming off the GB production line💥 Beth Potter back on top of the podium and Jeanne Lehair bouncing back from bashing the barrier🦿 Hitting the KV roads hard with breakaway boys Tjebbe Kaindl and Mark Devay✍️ Hayden Wilde’s pre-race car incident, Swim behaviour penalties, John Reed clocking the rapid runs, prospects for a Series podium and his chances of taking Csongor Lehmann’s crown in Tiszy

Third in the world heading to WTCS Karlovy Vary on 14 September, it was in the south of France last weekend that Jeanne Lehair ripped up her coach's notes and took the race to Cassandre Beaugrand at WTCS French Riviera.Photographer Tommy Zaferes is back on the podcast this week as we pick through the ashes of that race and look ahead to the penultimate action of the Series ahead of the Championship Finals Wollongong, where the moves were made that decided things in Frejus and the 'what if' of whether Jeanne could she have found one more push to hold off the Olympic Champion in her back yard.

The newly crowned European Sprint Triathlon Champion, Belgium's Jolien Vermeylen is one of the sport's great characters, and heads to Istanbul at the end of August chasing a huge continental double with the Olympic Distance title.On episode 105, the 31-year-old opens up about having her post-Paris 2024 words twisted and the pain of a resulting social media pile-on, putting her 70.3 ambitions on hold to chase a career-best Series ranking in 2025 and soaking in the arc of taking up the sport after reading the Brownlee book on holiday in Corfu and then winning supertri gold for Brownlee Racing in Toronto a decade later."You can read subtitles on my face. If I like something I show it and if I don’t you’ll know it. But maybe for racing I need it!"

In recovery after suffering a bad bike crash at WTCS Hamburg in mid-July, Roksana Slupek is our guest this week, and the Poland number one shares her reflections on the highs and lows of her journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic start line.From attacks of self doubt and depression to ultimately qualifying for her life’s dream, and the harsh realities of racing on – and crashing out of – the world’s biggest triathlon series, the 26-year-old shares an eye-opening hour of life as an elite athlete, and how recent events have made her re-evaluate her attitude towards her fellow competitors on the World Triathlon Championships Series.

A second individual gold in the 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series strengthened Matt Hauser's grip on the Series Rankings after WTCS Hamburg marked the halfway point of the season. The 27-year-old followed it up with one of the greatest Mixed Relay legs you will see as he reeled in a 20-second deficit to 2023 World Champion Dorian Coninx and helped secure Australia their first World title since 2017.Now it's all eyes on France and the WTCS French Riviera at the end of August to see if he can take the maximum 3000 points into a home Championship Finals in Wollongong, Australia, in October, where he will look to become the country's first men's world champion for 20 years.MIXED RELAY HIGHLIGHTS MEN'S HIGHLIGHTSWOMEN'S HIGHLIGHTS

The first Brazilian to win a World Triathon Championship Series gold in the modern era, Miguel Hidalgo now has his sights set on a first World Championship title, but knows all too well just how far there is still to go if he is to be challenging in October's finals in Wollongong, Australia, against the likes of home favourite Matt Hauser.

If you achieved your dream double of becoming Olympic and World Champion in the same year, what would you do? For Alex Yee, the answer was simple. Test himself over running's marquee distance on one of the biggest stages of them all: The London Marathon.We headed to Brockley, south London, just a few miles from that start line, to speak to one of the most understated, unflappable and, quite simply, impressive triathletes of all time and hear about the emotion and exhaustion of the day as he strived for something remarkable.From the training loads to the heat of battle and what lies ahead, Yee is the epitome of relaxation and ambition as he recounts the journey from the backyard of the house he grew up in.FOLLOW HIS RACE ON STRAVA: https://strava.app.link/iZJX5Kxn2Sb[00:00:00] Post-Marathon ReflectionsYee reflects on the surreal experience of finishing 14th in the marathon and the emotional significance of the start line.[00:03:00] Marathon vs. Triathlon PainThe unique physical challenges of marathon running—mental endurance vs. muscular fatigue.[00:05:00] Purpose Beyond Olympic SuccessSeeking purpose and new challenges post-Olympic and World Championship victories.[00:09:00] Training Volume and AdaptationThe training details - up to 600km/month- with triathlon elements still retained.[00:16:00] Philosophical Perspective and GratitudeMaintaining internal motivation, gratitude, and broader perspective after his serious crash in 2017.[00:20:00] Emotional Finish Line at London MarathonThe powerful emotions and pride of his hometown Marathon[00:26:00] Performance Analysis and Heat ImpactThe performance dip in the final 8km and hitting the data, including heat and heart rate drift.[00:29:00] Collaborative Coaching ApproachJust how he and coach Adam Elliot worked with experts across disciplines to prepare for the marathon.[00:39:00] Physiological Learnings from MarathonThe unexpected physical adaptations and how they may influence future triathlon training.[00:45:00] Triathlon culture and his Blue Carpet FutureWhere next for the Marathon Man as he builds towards defending his triathlon title at LA 2028

A very special guest joins the podcast to mark the 100th episode, the Paris 2024 Olympic Triathlon Champion Cassandre Beaugrand!It is a deeply honest hour in the company of our Olympic and World Champion, each story revealing a little more about just where all the grit, determination and competitive spirit that has taken the 27-year-old to the very top of the sport came from.Cass explains why she so cherished the support of teammate Leonie Periault, even when she was being ‘a nightmare’ to train with, why she was so envious of the cool, calm spirit of Andrea Hewitt, and why she threw up all over her feet next to Georgia Taylor Brown in Paris.SHOW NOTES02:20 – 'All change' - Why she is joining coach Glenn Poleunis in Girona and saying goodbye to Loughborough13:17 – ‘How success feels’ - Releasing the pressure, the 5km French record and Lievin19:40 – ‘Early years’ - Growing up in Paris, losing her mum, moving to Antibes23:50 – ‘All change’ - Leaving her father as coach and moving to Montpelier27:45 – ‘Bad mindset’ - Being hard to coach and pushing too much in training31:37 – ‘Good people’ – Support of Stephanie Gros and Leonie Periault33:25 – 'Christmas present’ – Being the youngest woman at Rio 201637:20 – 'Shattered dreams' – The trouble with Tokyo41:40 – 'I need a plan' – The move to Loughborough45:26 – 'Pain threshold' – Pain and gains in WTCS Cagliari52:08 – 'Paris panic' – The rain returns on Olympics day57:00 – 'Lost at sea' – Turning it around in Torremolinos