Norway’s Solveig Løvseth won one of the most dramatic IRONMAN World Championships of all time in Kona as first Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) and then Taylor Knibb (USA), who had between them bossed much of the race, suffered meltdowns late on the run in what were brutal conditions.
And there was still more drama to come as Britain’s Kat Matthews cut down Løvseth’s lead dramatically in the closing stages but just missed out by 35 seconds when the line came after a race for the ages.
Løvseth was following in the footsteps of compatriot Casper Stornes who led home a Norway clean sweep in the men’s IMWC in Nice last month.
This was her Kona debut and she only raced her first full-distance race earlier this season when she set the fastest-ever IRONMAN time by a rookie.
Laura Philipp (GER), who beat Matthews to the IMWC title in Nice last year, rounded out the podium in third, nine minutes back.
It was a quite incredible race and here’s how it played out from start to finish…
Swim – Statement start from LCB
Charles-Barclay produced another swim exhibition as she made the perfect start.
The Briton went wire-to-wire two years ago when she set a new overall course record in Hawaii to finally win the sport’s biggest race after four successive second places.
And she wasted little time in carving out a big advantage after the cannon sent one of the greatest-ever women’s fields on their way at 06:25 local time.
Charles-Barclay opted for the middle of the field at the start, with a little bit of swell about after a mixed morning of weather.
And within the first 200 metres of the 3.8km she had already put daylight between herself and the rest. A couple of metres soon became 25 metres but plenty of jostling was happening in behind. LCB flipped onto her back for a few strokes to see what was unfolding in behind and she must have liked what she saw.
Haley Chura was leading what looked a 10-15 woman chase group and of the big-race favourites, Chura’s fellow Americans Knibb and 2022 winner Chelsea Sodaro were in that pack.
In the next group were last year’s one-two Philipp and Matthews. Also there were dark horses Lisa Perterer (AUT) and Løvseth, who had both leapt to full-distance prominence this year.
At the halfway mark, Charles-Barclay was ahead of her own swim record pace (48:14) in 23:46. As the sun started to rise after the turn it was choppier out there and it looked like hard work for everyone even though there was a bit of a tail current. Charles-Barclay was in splendid isolation but the tricky conditions pushed a swim record out of reach and when she exited the water the clock was at 49:26, though that was actually 10 seconds quicker than her 2023 swim time.
Two years ago it was Chura in second and history repeated itself there too – on that occasion she was 1:40 back and here it was 1:29.
Holly Lawrence, the 2016 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, was in third on what was her maiden Kona appearance and back racing just a year after giving birth to her first child. The chase group had thinned down to seven athletes but it still included Knibb and Sodaro.
Meanwhile there was a potentially super-strong bike group in behind, with Philipp, Matthews and Løvseth all closely matched. However they already had more than six minutes to make up on Charles-Barclay. Game on.
Bike – Yellow card drama
Charles-Barclay continued to pour down the power on the bike section. Heading out of T1, Lucy was 1:16 ahead of Lawrence, 1:21 in front of Sodaro and 1:32 to Knibb.
Knibb is arguably the best cyclist in triathlon – she qualified for the Olympics in Paris last year in the road race time trial as well as swim / bike / run.
But rather than cut down the gap on Charles-Barclay early on, it actually went the other way. After 25 miles it was up to 1:47 between the two athletes, who are both coached by Dan Lorang.
In behind it was fascinating – the 2022 winner Sodaro was dropping through the field from what had looked a position of strength. But the emerging talent that is Løvseth had broken away from the next pack, leaving Philipp and Matthews in her wake.
Hawi was the most northerly point of the course and just before came the news that Sodaro was out of the race – more details here.
And the next big news was that Knibb was closing on LCB.
It was at the 68-mile mark that Knibb made the catch, though Charles-Barclay stayed right in touch until the point where she had to serve a 60-seconds penalty for unintentional littering when a bottle dropped off her bike.
Knibb was first into T2 after a 4:31:00 bike split. LCB was at +1:26, Løvseth was at 5:30 and it was now over 14 minutes to Philipp and Matthews in fourth and fifth.
Run – Drama-packed war of attrition
Starting the run in Hawaii and the temperature had climbed into 82 degrees Fahrenheit while the humidity was now over 70%.
But early on Charles-Barclay made short work of cutting into that gap on Knibb.
So much so that well before the 10-mile point it was LCB who moved into the lead, patting Knibb on the back as she eased to the front.
But the battle was far from over and it soon became obvious that not only was Knibb battling back but Charles-Barclay was beginning to struggle.
Charles-Barclay was suddenly walking at an aid station and before the halfway point it was now Knibb who looked strongest as the two were running shoulder-to-shoulder.
The pattern continued for a while but now things started to spiral out of control for Charles-Barclay. She was alternating walking with running and taking on ice and nutrition at the aid stations wasn’t enough to reverse the trend, with Knibb by now having moved over two minutes clear.
And Lucy’s race ended when husband Reece stepped in to help her decide that stopping was the sensible course of action. She’d given it absolutely everything but there had been nearly nine miles still to go.
Surely now the title was going to Knibb, even though Løvseth had trimmed the gap on her to just under five minutes?
It was down to four minutes with 10km to go and now the alarm bells were starting to ring for Knibb even though she was tantalisingly close to the finish.
It was on the very final climb on the run, less than 4km from the line, when Knibb came to a shuddering halt as she started to weave around the road and then sunk to the tarmac.
Two minutes later she would see Løvseth run past her, with a similar gap at that point to Matthews who moved into second.
It was heart-breaking for both Knibb and Charles-Barclay but huge credit to Løvseth – and Matthews – for somehow managing to finish strong despite the conditions.
Matthews was finishing fastest of all as she completed a remarkable course record 2:47 marathon in the heat but Løvseth had just enough in hand.
Philipp was almost exactly nine minutes behind in third
IRONMAN World Championship 2025 Results
Saturday October 11th, 2025 – Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 3.8km / 180km / 42.2km
PRO Women
- 1. Solveig Løvseth (NOR) – 8:28:27
- 2. Kat Matthews (GBR) – 8:29:02
- 3. Laura Philipp (GER) – 8:37:28
- 4. Hannah Berry (NZL) – 8:46:25
- 5. Lisa Perterer (AUT) – 8:48:08
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