World Champion Solveig Løvseth will focus her 2026 season on the IRONMAN Pro Series – starting with the 70.3 at Oceanside later this month and ending with the defence of her title in Kona.
The Norwegian has listed seven M-Dot-branded races for the coming campaign as she prepares for what looks to be a two-pronged assault on both the full-distance and 70.3 crowns in her second year on the tour.
With no indication of any short-course races included in her roster, it seems Løvseth has, for now, decided against trying to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Pro Series schedule revealed
Her schedule kicks off at the 70.3 event in Oceanside on March 28 and includes two further mid-distance races at Aix-en-Provence in France (May 17) and Swansea, Wales (July 12), as she builds up for the World Championships in Nice on September 12.
With only two full-distance events currently planned ahead of her world title defence in Kona on October 10, Løvseth will be looking to hit form early in Texas on April 18 before she then returns to the scene of her very first IRONMAN in Hamburg on June 7, where she provided a glimpse of her huge potential by finishing third.
Posting her calendar on Instagram, the 26-year-old – who competed for her country at the Paris Games in 2024 – said: “The plan is to start the season in Oceanside and then to race in Texas after that; Texas will be my first full IRONMAN of the year.
“After Texas, I will do the 70.3 at Aix-en-Provence, and then I will race Hamburg again. I am very excited to go back to Hamburg. I loved racing there last year; it was my first full-distance race, so I am very excited for that, and I love the crowds there.
Finishing off with world title races
“The plan is to do the 70.3 Swansea, and after that it’s the 70.3 World Championships in Nice, which will be really cool; I think the course there looks really exciting. And then I will top it all off with the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona.”
In Paris, she competed alongside Kristian Blummenfelt, Vetle Bergsvik Thorn and Lotte Miller as the mixed relay team finished 11th, and Løvseth herself was 48th across the line in the individual race.
In an exclusive interview with TRI247 in November, Løvseth said she would never fully close the door on a potential Olympics appearance at LA28 but added: “I’m definitely thinking about it. You always want to try to do it all. But right now, I don’t see it as likely that I will try to qualify for it. I haven’t officially closed the door, but I just really enjoyed doing the Pro Series, and that’s what I think I’ll do again.
“If I don’t do any short-course races, it’s already starting to get quite tight with getting the ranking up and getting the Olympic ranking, especially since it is a two-year qualification period. I haven’t closed the door, but the opening of the door is quite small, I think.”
Eager to repeat debut success
And with her world championship crown still very much sitting pretty, it is understandable that she has set her focus once again on repeating her debut season success on the Pro Series.
In that same interview, she explained just how driven she is to prove that her 2025 victory was not a fluke. “It definitely does give me confidence. As I said before Kona, I didn’t think that I was in a position to be able to win that race. Now I go into this next year, and I really want to repeat that achievement.
“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. 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.”
