For the first time, this year’s IRONMAN World Championship in Kona featured a women’s-only field. A day for the triathlon history books before it even started, the race certainly didn’t fail to deliver the much-anticipated show of guts, glory and record-breaking performances. A blazing gun-to-tape performance from Lucy Charles-Barclay saw the British athlete finally take the elusive win, fifth time lucky, with a new course record to sweeten the victory. And hot on her heels, Anne Haug took second place – breaking the run course record in the process. While the notorious Kona cross winds didn’t howl as they might usually do, that meant the heat and humidity doubled down. For every epic performance, there was an epic battle to just keep making forward progress happening for plenty of athletes further back in the field.

Outcomes aside, the race really shone a torch on women’s triathlon. The strength of the field. The stories behind the start line. And the support and camaraderie between all the women out on the race course in Kona. The debate about whether we need to keep the men’s and women’s IRONMAN World Championship races entirely separate going forward to provide this spotlight rumbles on. But for now, here’s the key things I took away after a long night on the sofa watching the action in Kona unfold.

This is a powerful moment for women’s triathlon

[photo credit: Tiffany DeMasters/Big Island Now]

In her pre-race interview with Tri 247, newly crowned IRONMAN World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay said: “This is a great time to be a female athlete in this sport”. And the action that unfolded on Saturday backed this up. From the strength and breadth of the women’s professional field – with the possible podium contenders easily running into double figures. To the age-group women, given a spotlight through live interviews as they set up on race morning, inspiring the rest of us watching at home. To Joanne Murphy stepping into Mike Reilly’s shoes and calling the athletes over the finish line. It felt like a celebration of all women in triathlon.

This is an incredibly exciting time for women’s triathlon. And with the women’s field finally being given the spotlight and the opportunities they deserve, I’m hopeful for what’s to come. There’s certainly a lot more to be done to help more women to get into – and stay into – triathlon. Particularly at a grassroots/local level, finding ways to ensure swim-bike-run is accessible to a wider community and helping to reduce barriers to entry. But at the same time, it’s hard not to feel like we’re living through a pivotal moment. Chelsea Sodaro put out a mantra before Kona: “see it to be it”. With more visibility comes more opportunities, and I can’t wait to see how the sport can grow if we keep a hold of this philosophy.

Never give up

“If at first you don’t succeed. Try, try again.” We’re taught this as children. But it kind of gets stamped out of us as adults. We’re almost conditioned not to dream. To choose the safe, sensible options. To let a fear of failure stop us from trying even once – let alone trying multiple times over.

Lucy Charles-Barclay’s 2023 IRONMAN World Championship title was a fairy tale ending. Four silver medals. Two years of injury. Many would have given up and let the dream go. But Lucy did the work, she kept showing up. She didn’t give up on herself, or her dream. And on Saturday she finally took the crown.

There’s something we can all take from this: in sport, and in life. Never give up. Be tenacious. Keep trying and good things will eventually happen – one way or another.

This needs to be just the start

[photo credit: Christian Petersen | Getty Images for IRONMAN]

Triathlon is typically seen as one of the leaders in equality for women’s sport – with the equal prize purses usually cited as the top piece of evidence. But the fact that it was felt that splitting the world championships was the only way to spotlight the women’s racing does really demonstrate that more can and should be done. We need to keep raising the profile of women in the sport. There needs to be equal sponsorship opportunities. There needs to be better race coverage, making use of new technologies. We need to challenge narratives that try to dissuade women from showing confidence while celebrating men who do the same (watch this video with Skye Moench for context). And more widely, we need to be addressing the growing participation gap in women’s sport at a more general population level. We need to understand the barriers, and play our part in bringing them down. The ball is rolling, and now we need to keep shoving it along. Because that’s when amazing things can happen.