Laura Philipp is ready to shake up her pre-Kona preparations as she looks to unlock the puzzle that could deliver world championship success on the Big Island.

Admitting that she ranks the course and conditions in Hawaii among the toughest in triathlon, the German knows she will need to be at her absolute best if she is to have any hope of adding a second title to the one she secured so brilliantly in Nice two years ago.

More comfortable with the challenges posed by the course in the south of France, she will return next month for the 70.3 Worlds – the final part of a three-race build-up which she hopes will give her the edge when Kona comes knocking in October.

Back to her best and ready for Kona

Having shown that she is back to her best after injury and illness, with a dominant victory at IRONMAN Kalmar barely two weeks ago, she will line up in Austria this weekend at the 70.3 Zell am See before tackling both world championship challenges.

Such a packed schedule will no doubt have raised many an eyebrow among fans and fellow competitors, but Philipp is an athlete who takes great care in her race planning, and after struggling with the demands of Kona last year, she needed a change in approach.

Speaking to Jackie Hering on the latest edition of The Women’s Race podcast, which has been embedded into this story below, Philipp explained that the various demands of being champion last year, coupled with the conditions on the Big Island, resulted in a major rethink for 2026.

Instead of spending time in Maui as she did last year, her weeks leading up to the IRONMAN World Championships will be spent competing.

Doing things differently from last year

“Right now, my plan for this season is to do things differently from last year,” she said. “I did feel some pressure last year, even though I kept telling myself that I was the defending champion.

“Obviously, I had not won the title on the island because I became world champion in Nice, but I still got to wear bib number one. That was incredibly special. I tried to remind myself many times that I had to make sure I enjoyed it because it might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I do feel that I was able to do that.

“We headed to Kona during race week, so we did not arrive too early, but the change was huge. We went from being on our own in Maui to arriving in Kona when it was already extremely busy. When you are the defending world champion, you also have many more obligations and appointments during race week than usual.

“The days in Kona feel so short because it gets dark at around 6pm and you need to get up early. I felt very limited by the amount of time I had, and it was difficult to wind down in the evenings and calm my nervous system. That was something I really struggled with while I was there, and it became a little overwhelming.”

‘It was a crazy race day’

Despite collecting her thoughts and putting herself into a positive state of mind, Philipp never truly threatened eventual champion Solveig Løvseth, finishing third behind Kat Matthews following the struggles of Taylor Knibb (USA) and Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR).

“I felt as though I was in a good place mentally and physically,” she added. “Before the start, I remember repeatedly telling myself, almost like a mantra, that I could do it. I genuinely felt as though I had a chance of winning because I felt good.

“It was a crazy race day. We don’t have to go into detail, but with Lucy and Taylor dropping out and Solveig winning the race, there was so much happening.

“There were long periods when I think I was in fifth position, and I started telling myself that, if nobody caught me, I would finish fifth. Obviously, that was not what I had dreamed of, but I had already started thinking that way.

“It was strange to then move into a podium position towards the end. I don’t think that is how you want to reach the podium, with other people dropping out, but ultimately it demonstrated how hard the day was and how high the level of competition has become. You need to have your perfect day in Hawaii.”

‘You can lose some of the enjoyment’

Those thoughts have stuck with her as she now looks to learn the lessons of a very tough day as the defending champion.

“Looking back, I feel that perhaps I overdid things because I was determined to be extremely well prepared for the heat and had set myself the goal of winning,” she said. “There is a fine line between wanting something and perhaps wanting it too much.

“You can lose some of the enjoyment and relaxation that are also really important if you want to execute the race properly.

“That is my goal for this year. By racing in Nice (at the 70.3 Worlds), you don’t really have time to travel to the Big Island several weeks in advance. This time, we will go there two weeks before the race. I think that is probably the minimum amount of time you need when travelling from a European time zone.

“I really want to place fewer expectations on myself. There may be people who think that what I am doing now – racing in Kalmar, Zell am See and Nice – could limit my performance in Hawaii, but this is my way of doing things.

“You are never guaranteed that it will work, but neither are you guaranteed success if you focus solely on Hawaii from now onwards and train incredibly hard. I think it is exciting to do things differently. Obviously, I don’t know how it will work out, but I still feel that my best performance is yet to come.”

‘Definitely the toughest place to do it’

And she accepts that the particular dynamics of racing at Kona do not necessarily match her skill set quite like those in Nice, where she tasted glory in 2024.

“I’m not sure whether I will ever feel as though I have produced my best race there,” she adds. “Obviously, that is what you dream of, but it is definitely the toughest place to do it.

“Nice was also a very difficult race, albeit in different ways, but the conditions in Kona are so different from those I am accustomed to that it will always be a major challenge.

“The race dynamics are also very different in that particular race. Group dynamics usually play a huge role, which is not so often the case in women’s racing.”

No pressure and nothing to lose in Nice

So what chance, then, of another world championship win in Nice next month, with the 70.3 title being added to her full-distance success?

“I’m realistic enough to know that I’m probably not the favourite going into that race, but I still think it’s pretty cool to be part of it,” she said. “You never know; the first thing is to show up. I think that’s the first little success for all of us, especially at the big races, and then so much can happen when we have such a large field.

“I feel like I have no pressure and nothing to lose, and it’s a place I like. The bike course, especially, is something else. My heart belongs to climbing and descending. We don’t have too many courses where we can actually do that.”