2023 TRI247 Triathlon Awards: Female Breakthrough of the Year Nominees and Winner

To celebrate an thrilling season of triathlon, we decided to look back at the year and carefully select a handful of winners for our 2023 TRI247 Triathlon Awards. 

For our next award, we’re recognising the efforts of the best female racers across all distances, with our ‘Female Breakthrough of the Year’ Award, picked from a shortlist of phenomenal athletes by our expert panel. 

This year, the shortlist was made up of Great Britain’s Kate Waugh, French stars Emma Lombardi and Marjolaine Pierre, plus Hungarian prodigy Fanni Szalai.

The Nominees

With so many great female triathletes making their case for this award in 2023, we were left with the difficult deliberation required to narrow it down to a shortlist of just four athletes. Eventually, we came up with the quartet of Waugh, Pierre, Lombardi and Szalai, whose incredible achievements we’ll look at in depth.

Beginning with current World Triathlon #3 Lombardi, it is remarkable to analyse the French star and her rise over the past year, with a WTCS overall podium coming just two years after she won the World U23 Championship title in Edmonton.

Having only made her WTCS debut in May 2022, Lombardi has only ever finished outside of a WTCS Top 10 once, with a first podium at WTCS Cagliari last year followed up by another podium in Italy this season plus a second place finish at WTCS Sunderland behind fellow countrywoman Cassandre Beaugrand.

Behind Beaugrand and World Champion Beth Potter, Lombardi is one of the biggest favourites for a medal next summer at a home Olympic Games in Paris, with the WTCS Grand Final sixth place finisher an integral part of France’s Mixed Team Relay too.

Next up, Pierre was another French athlete to have a breakout season in 2023, as the PTO World #12, who is only 24 years old, won a World Long Distance Championship title alongside her partner Clement Mignon in Ibiza in May.

On top of that, Pierre went on to finish a career high seventh place at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, before making a remarkable full distance debut at IRONMAN Portugal, which she won by more than five minutes against an established field of professionals.

Finally, Szalai, who was only born in 2008, took the triathlon world by storm at the Super League Triathlon Arena Games at the beginning of the season, as the Hungarian finished on the podium in Sursee before a creditable eighth place performance at the Grand Final in London.

After her indoor success, Szalai won Europe Triathlon Junior Cups in Caorle and Tiszaujvaros, before taking the Junior European Championship title in Banyoles. Then, to cap off an already incredible season, she finished 14th overall in the SLT Championship Series.

Each of Lombardi, Pierre and Szalai were more than worthy of winning the award, having enjoyed an incredible amount of success in a thrilling season. However, for our panel, one woman stood above the rest after a brilliant 12 months.

Our Winner – Kate Waugh

Just a year on from her World U23 Championship title in Abu Dhabi, Britain’s Kate Waugh has been the undisputed female breakthrough athlete of 2023, as she immaculately made the transition to the senior ranks.

After a string of solid WTCS performances throughout the season, which included a first Top 5 finish in Yokohama, the North East of England native rounded out the year with two brilliant races, first in Paris before the big breakthrough in Pontevedra.

At the Olympic Test Event in the French capital, Waugh finished seventh, cementing her status as one of the contenders for a berth on the Team GB squad next summer. One month later, with a phenomenal performance, Waugh pushed World Champion Beth Potter all the way at the WTCS Grand Final, clinching her first podium with a second place finish.

Rounding out the year in style, Waugh also held off a number of established names to take home the SLT Championship Series title, with a brilliant win in Toulouse demonstrating her ability to beat the best in the world. One of the most exciting prospects heading into 2024, Waugh is our well deserved winner.