The 2025 women’s season finished just as it had started – and indeed had played out for much of the year – with a race that was full of drama, intrigue, elation and heartbreaking defeat.
A year of shock wins, devastating DNFs, and thrilling finishes left us drained but thirsty for more as heroes old and new upped their game with some spectacular multi-discipline racing.
As Kate Waugh crossed the line in Qatar to secure her first major championship title in the T100 World Triathlon Tour, she claimed the final spot on a 2025 roll of honour that could so easily have looked very different, such was the theatre played out during an enthralling triathlon year.
Here, we take a look at some of the highlights of a women’s pro triathlon season, sweeping through the many formats and organisations which have served up some of the most awe-inspiring action for the last ten months.
World Triathlon Championship Series: Lisa Tertsch (GER)
Olympic gold medallist Lisa Tertsch went into the WTCS Final in Wollongong relatively unnoticed, as the pre-race favourites Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) and Beth Potter (GBR) took the headlines in what was expected to be a two-way battle for the title.
Indeed, as the German athlete lined up on Cove Beach, she knew that only a top-two finish – coupled with the collapse of her main rivals – could see her jump from fourth place in the overall rankings and take the title.
Tertsch, who focused her entire season on all eight of the WTCS events, had started the campaign with a win at Abu Dhabi way back in February and followed that up with podiums in Yokohama (3rd), Karlovy Vary (3rd), and Weihai (2nd) to give herself an outside shot of final glory.
What then followed on the New South Wales coastline was one of the most dramatic races of the whole season, as both of the pre-race favourites stumbled in the hot and windy conditions, allowing Tertsch to step in to take full advantage.
Potter and Beaugrand faltered on the run as the unfancied German kicked clear not only to take a thrilling second win of the campaign but also to secure the World Championship title.
What she said: “I’m quite overwhelmed, to be honest. I just focused on what I could do every day, and I was playing around with the points to see what everyone needed, but I never expected it to play out like that. It still feels surreal.”
T100 World Triathlon Tour: Kate Waugh (GBR)
When you look at Kate Waugh’s T100 record for 2025, you could be forgiven for thinking her World Championship win was relatively run-of-the-mill.
Three wins, three runners-up spots and a third from seven races must surely have seen her cruise to the title… right? Well, she would be the first to tell you that in this instance, the statistics do not quite tell the full story.
Waugh went into the Qatar final with only a six-point lead over her nearest rival, Julie Derron (SUI), and was just nine ahead of fellow Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay back in third.
Such was the pre-race intensity that Waugh admitted afterwards how she had struggled terribly with nerves in the build-up, only managing three hours’ sleep and having to wipe away the tears shortly before diving into the Arabian Sea as she battled to hold back the doubts in her head.
In the end, she had very little to worry about, as both Derron and Charles-Barclay faded on the run, and the title was sealed with another victory – ending the season just as she had started it back in Singapore by lifting the tape in celebration.
Just don’t ask her to talk you through the immediate finishing line scenes, as the sheer weight of emotional and physical exhaustion took its toll and she fell to her knees… and promptly threw up.
What she said: “I guess I did it. I got the job done… but it wasn’t pretty. I knew today that it was going to take absolutely everything, and it quite literally did. I have never thrown up over the finish line before. I am slightly mortified and do not want to see any of those photos.”
IRONMAN World Championship: Solveig Løvseth (NOR)
Having seen her compatriots dominate the men’s World Championships with a historic Norwegian 1-2-3 finish in Nice, Solveig Løvseth added her name to Norse triathlon folklore by securing a shock debut victory in Kona.
While her skills and obvious talent were obviously well-admired prior to the big race, few could have predicted that the 26-year-old would be capable of bringing home the top prize after only a handful of full-distance outings.
Having only recently moved up from short-course racing, she had impressed in Hamburg (3rd) and secured victory in Lake Placid, but winning the World Championship at the first attempt? Even she accepts that while she knew she could win it, she really didn’t think that she would.
However, racing on the Big Island is rarely dull, and in one of the most dramatic World Championship races in history, the Norwegian held her nerve on the run to pass the stricken Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) and Taylor Knibb (USA) to take the crown.
The experienced and very much in-form duo of Kat Matthews (GBR) and Laura Philipp (GER) were forced to settle for podium places as they came home in second and third, respectively, behind an athlete who, despite her inexperience at this distance, now looks very much at home in her new surroundings.
Indeed, 2026 promises to be another very big year for Solveig Løvseth.
What she said: “Next year, now that I’ve actually been able to win in Kona, I know what I am capable of on my best day. I know that I can do that now, and I feel like it’s natural to also have that as a goal again for next year. I know it will be super hard to repeat it, really hard. But it’s still something that motivates me now, to be able to see if I can do that again.”
IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship: Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR)
With the pain and sheer disappointment clearly etched across her tear-stained face, Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay bowed out of the IRONMAN World Championships just as she was looking to cement her place at the front of the race and push on for victory.
Her DNF, and the images of her standing by the roadside being comforted by husband Reece, must go down as one of the most heartbreaking moments of 2025, particularly as her closest rival on the day, Taylor Knibb, was also struggling in the Kona heat.
Fast-forward four weeks, and Charles-Barclay was back on the big stage – together with Knibb – seeking redemption from her Big Island blowout and lining up for the 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain, where there would be a very different and much more satisfactory outcome.
Few neutrals would have begrudged her victory; indeed, many surely would have been wishing for it, as both she and Knibb delivered races that screamed of a determination to hit back swiftly and strongly from their heartache just a month earlier.
Charles-Barclay led from the swim as she posted the fastest time of 25:05. Knibb then delivered the quickest bike ride of 2:28:36 before LCB demolished the field with a stunning 1:17:14 run to take the tape in 4:14:54, a full three minutes ahead of Knibb in second and more than seven minutes ahead of third-placed German Tanja Neubert.
It was a deserved win that was celebrated and welcomed as much as it was emphatic, highlighting the sheer depth of skill, courage and determination that LCB possesses.
What she said: “There was a lot of heartbreak in Kona. Then we came home, and we unfortunately lost a family member, someone really special to us. So it was a really, really tough time. Hopefully, this is going to bring some positive energy to the family. I definitely had some angel wins out there today, and I think they helped me fly around the course, so I’m really grateful that I could do that for them.”
IRONMAN Pro Series: Kat Matthews (GBR)
Another impressive season from Britain’s Kat Matthews saw her retain the overall Pro Series title – even if she did once again miss out on securing what would be her first major championship title.
The athlete, who once said that ‘consistency isn’t always super sexy’, remains the very model of steadiness, stability and reliability, with five of her six races in 2025 resulting in either wins or runner-up finishes.
Frustratingly for her, those wins did not come in the two big races of her year, as she finished 35 seconds behind Løvseth in the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona and then recorded a DNF at the 70.3 World Championships in Marbella after suffering a calf injury.
Her three wins came in Texas, and the 70.3 races in Swansea and Zell am See, while the Kona second place was added to in Hamburg and Hawaii – the Hamburg race regarded by many as the very best of the entire season, as she did battle with Laura Philipp in a race which saw the [IRONMAN-branded] world record shattered.
While Løvseth was able to hold her off in Kona for the World Championships, she was not able to catch Matthews up in the Pro Series rankings, even with the Brit being forced out of the running due to her injury.
Her ‘non-sexy consistency’ was enough once again to see Matthews crowned at the top of the Pro Series, and the $200,000 US cheque will hopefully have put a smile on her face as she contemplates another assault on the season’s big prizes in 2026.
What she said: “I’m really proud of my commitment; emotionally these last weeks after IMWC Kona, the hype of race week, the swim, bike and the few kms I completed of the run. Finishing the year as the overall IRONMAN Pro Series Winner again is comforting despite my main performance goals being incomplete. I’m still playing this game.”
Challenge Roth: Laura Philipp (GER)
Home favourite Laura Philipp was simply a class apart as she added a first Challenge Roth crown to 2024’s IRONMAN World Championship title.
The German superstar was in total control after moving into the lead in the second half of the bike leg to finally win a race where she had finished third in 2023 and was runner-up last year.
Those results, combined with the fact that Philipp went into the race on the back of her brilliant win over Matthews at IRONMAN Frankfurt, where she posted a time of 8:03:13, meant speculation was high that a first-ever female sub-eight-hour time was within range.
However, a non-wetsuit swim on account of the hot weather mitigated against that, and Philipp rightly prioritised the race win, running solo the whole way as she put daylight between herself and the rest of the field and crossed the line in 8:18:18.
That was a full 19 minutes clear of Grace Thek (AUS) in second in what was her first full-distance race, with Alanis Siffert (SUI) overtaking Nikki Bartlett (GBR) late on for the final spot on the podium.
What she said: “The eight hours will fall at some point. The fact that it didn’t happen today doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Supertri Championship: Jeanne Lehair (LUX)
The French-born Supertri champion will have more than one reason to remember the date of her October title-winning clincher in Toulouse – because it was also the day she accepted a marriage proposal.
No sooner had she crossed the line in triumph to secure both her individual honours and also those of her Podium Racing team than she was greeted by partner Nathan Lessmann – a fellow pro triathlete – who got down on one knee, produced a ring and asked her to marry him.
It made what was already an emotional day even more special for an athlete who had failed to finish in her previous two races on the home course of Toulouse but who raced away with the title-clinching victory she needed this time around.
Her win followed on from previous successes in Jersey and Chicago, while she was fifth in Toronto.
What she said: “I’m almost more relieved than happy. I think when I crossed the line, I was like ‘amen’ and ‘finally’. And winning the overall title too – finally, it’s a happy ending. And then, oh my god, I was not ready for that. He (Nathan) is not one to do the ‘show’, so I was like, ‘What is happening?’ This is a day that will stay in the book of my life forever.”
