There is one triathlon summit Kristian Blummenfelt has yet to scale, and this Saturday (October 26) in Hawaii he bids to end the wait.
Kona 2024 sees the professional men return to the Big Island for the first time in two years to fight out the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship, with a stellar field set to line up.
Blummenfelt, third behind compatriot Gustav Iden in 2022, will likely start the favourite to top the podium this time, with his friend and rival still rebuilding from a 2023 beset by injury and personal tragedy.
It will not be a cakewalk though (when is Kona ever a cakewalk), with defending champion Sam Laidlow, two-time king Patrick Lange and giant Dane Magnus Ditlev among those also set to toe the line.
Blummenfelt has already shown he is Ironman-ready for this test – remember how he aced Frankfurt less than two weeks after racing the Mixed Relay at the Paris 2024 Olympics? A blistering 7:27:21 – topped off by a 2:32:29 marathon – shocked many, including the man himself.
Blummenfelt Kona prep
Since then Blummenfelt and Iden have been preparing for Kona in the familiar surroundings of Flagstaff, Arizona. And according to Kristian’s coach Olav Aleksander Bu, things are going well.
The Norwegians are always brutally honest about where they are at heading into a race, and always fiercely ambitious with their goals. This time is clearly no different, Blummenfelt is aiming not just to win…
Bu told TRI247: “Prep has been good. It helps that it is a couple of weeks later this year. Race day will have to show what he is capable of 🙂 The weather plays a big role, but a record is always a good target.”
The current Kona record remember was set just two short years ago, in the last Pro Men championship race on the Big Island. That was Iden with a spectacular 7:40:24.
Once Kona is in the rear view mirror, all attention will turn to what Blummenfelt does from 2025 on. That ambitious plan to move to pro cycling and the Tour de France appears to be dead, so he is once again all in on triathlon.
What next for Blummenfelt in 2025?
If L.A. 2028 is confirmed as a future goal, the big question will be how ‘Big Blu’ approaches the four-year cycle heading once more towards the greatest show on earth.
As Bu told TRI247 recently, 10 months of short-course preparation and racing heading into Paris 2024 was ‘mission impossible’, so it is likely the 30-year-old from Bergen would transition back down in distance much earlier next time round.
Bu explained: “We’ll have to come back to this later, but if LA becomes realistic, it means transitioning earlier with more short-course racing. However, with the development we have seen around the tactics, involving dedicated domestiques, it has become a less interesting sport from an individual level, and more a “team” sport.”
We also asked Bu who he fears among the opposition this coming Saturday, and his response as ever was illuminating. The focus is 100 percent on elite preparation and performance from his own athletes, and absolutely nothing else.
“I don’t know, as I really don’t pay attention to what others do. I obviously know some of the household names, which have been on the podium the last few years, but not how they are performing and who is on the start line.”
