Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt, who is in the midst of a well-documented return to short-course racing, believes his bid to retain the title he won in Tokyo is now progressing well.

Following a year where Blummenfelt and training partner Gustav Iden chased (and won) titles over the middle and full distances in 2022, the pair are back on the short-course circuit and dreaming of glory at Paris 2024. The drop back in trip though has not come without early challenges.

Still chasing a first podium in the WTCS since August 2021, Blummenfelt recently finished fifth in Montreal and told the Talking Triathlon podcast that his confidence is growing with every race.

Blummenfelt feeling sharp

With his results progressing in the right direction, it seems like Blummenfelt is finding his form at just the right time ahead of the Olympic Test Event in Paris next month, a sentiment the Norwegian shares.

“I’m feeling the sharpest I have been feeling this year and I am hoping that it can be a good year.”

Reflecting on his 15th place at WTCS Cagliari and discussing the topic of stepping down in distances, Blummenfelt was keen to state that he isn’t worried about the gradual progress so far this year off a less than ideal winter of training.

“I feel like it is not too scary. If you look at the results it looks poorly, like I was 15th in Cagliari and two minutes behind Alex and Hayden, but still I feel I am closer than that.

“I felt like my performance overall was better than a 15th place, I was doing the most work on the bike and still had a solid run, without feeling too sharp, so I thunk if I can put it together I will be up there.

“If you look at the results last year, I feel like they were even better than last year. I don’t think Ironman training was the issue so much, it’s just I haven’t had a very good winter.” 

Peaking for Paris is the key

Looking back on his Olympic win in Tokyo, Blummenfelt is confident he can repeat in Paris, stating that results a year and a half out are not as crucial as they might appear.

“If I think back to 2020 and how I was then, I think the most important thing for Paris is having good training in the 6-8 months before the race, so the level a year and a half before the Games isn’t so critical.

“Getting the qualification done as soon as possible, in terms of my points, is the most important. Of course, I would prefer to be winning races, but it’s not like I don’t know what is missing and I know my winter wasn’t the best.” 

Paris course a very different test

In terms of the race in Paris, Blummenfelt underlined that Paris, offering a potentially different race dynamic to Tokyo, will present a set of different challenges that he is excited about.

“I think you will have more fatigue coming on to the run in Paris than you did in Tokyo, with a hard bike and hard swim with the French team tactics.

“I think there will be different ways to attack the race tactically in Paris, whereas in Tokyo I was confident it would only go one way and it would be a run race.”