To celebrate what’s been an incredible year of triathlon racing, we’ve looked back on the season and carefully selected a handful of winners for our 2023 TRI247 Triathlon Awards.
We’re now onto our penultimate award – the ‘Male Performance of the Year’ Award, picked from a shortlist of phenomenal athletes by our expert panel.
This year, the shortlist in chronological order was Magnus Ditlev at Challenge Roth, Jan Frodeno at the PTO US Open and Alex Yee at the Olympic Test Event.
The Nominees
This was another hugely difficult one to even decide the nominees – with incredible displays such as Sam Laidlow’s IRONMAN World Championship win in Nice not even making the final three.
Let’s start with Great Dane Ditlev’s masterclass in Roth where he battled with the aforementioned Laidlow throughout the bike before surging clear on the run to knock an incredible 11 minutes off the previous Roth course record, held by Frodeno.
None other than Sebi Kienle put the performance into context at the post-race press conference by saying: “I think also some people don’t understand what that was today. It was like the first landing on the moon in our sport, or breaking supersonic sound or something like that.”
Also pretty much perfect was Yee’s exhibition performance in Paris a year out from the Olympics.
The Brit had made the Test Event the priority of his season – and how he delivered.
He was near the front on the swim, in the lead pack throughout the bike and then pulled clear early on the run to win by 14 seconds, automatically qualifying for next year’s Games in the process.
There were some thrilling battles behind for the minor places but Yee was in splendid isolation up front as he put down a real marker for 2024.
Both he and Ditlev would have been more than worthy winners of the award, but for our panel, one race stood above them…
Our Winner – Jan Frodeno in Milwaukee
After a frustrating year or two, things had been moving in the right direction for the man that many regard as triathlon’s GOAT – but could he still deliver on the highest stage just a fortnight ahead of his 42nd birthday?
The answer was an emphatic ‘yes’ against a stacked field at the PTO US Open in Milwaukee in what our Tomos Land said was “a performance that was just a joy to watch for fans of the sport.”
And as Jenny Lucas-Hill added: “It really was a message to some of those young guns that he really is the greatest of all time.”
The fairytale flourish to his career as he bowed out at the IMWC in Nice didn’t quite follow the script but with that display in Milwaukee, Frodeno provided one of the stories of the season which will live long in the memory.
Are we in a triathlon boom, or hurtling towards burnout? Laura Siddall on the growth of the sport
