IRONMAN Kona: Lisa Norden says she’s in 2012 shape and looking forward to Taylor Knibb factor

Sweden’s Lisa Norden will go into Saturday’s IRONMAN World Championship in Kona feeling fitter than at any point since 2012 when she was just 0.009 seconds away from winning gold at London 2012.

That day 11 years ago, Norden played her full part in an epic battle with Nicola Spirig and this weekend in Hawaii she is hoping to be part of the post-race story again.

The 38-year-old is very much trending in the right direction since her IRONMAN debut at Lake Placid in 2021. She won that day with an overall time of nine hours and 11 minutes and then finished sixth in the rescheduled IMWC in St George in May 2022 before going one place better when dipping under nine hours for the first time on her Kona debut last year.

This season has seen her clock two PB times – an 8:43 when fifth at a stacked Challenge Roth and then an 8:47 last time out when winning on home ground at IRONMAN Kalmar.

Norden on Kona preparation

Speaking in the opening episode of IRONMAN’s ‘A Fighting Chance’ preview show which is embedded below and also features reigning champ Chelsea Sodaro, five-time winner Daniela Ryf and Ruth Astle, Norden said: “Training back home has been really, really good.

“I’ve had one of the best blocks ever in terms of Ironman preparation, and I feel the fittest I’ve been probably since 2012. So I’m super happy where the body is at.

“And consistency is key. If you want to stay consistent, you want to stay healthy, you want to stay injury-free, but you also want to improve.”

Lisa puts focus on the run

One area where Norden feels there are gains to be made is on the marathon. Her best time so far is her 3:10 from Kalmar in August and she said: “Hopefully I can get another improvement and move it closer to 3:05, which puts me a bit better into the race.

“That’s what I would like to do and I think that’s what I could do. I have the capabilities. I have been one of the best runners [at Olympic distance].

I used to run down Anne Haug in the 10k!

“At the moment, there’s a lot of girls who have a faster marathon time, like a way faster marathon time than me. So on a very, very good day, I could get on the podium and that’s where I’m aiming. But on a very good day, I could also be top 10.

“It’s so competitive these days and if you have a little bit on off day, there’s like five more girls coming past you.

“And you don’t always get what you deserve – if everyone would get that, everyone would be world champion!”

Intrigued by Knibb factor

And like so many, Norden is fascinated to see what reigning 70.3 World Champion Taylor Knibb can do on her full-distance debut, explaining: “Because there’s so many different ways she could play it. She can go out and just be the ‘tourist’ and say I’ve done everything I need to do this year [so] I can relax and just go with the flow.

“She could also go out and just absolutely kill it and see how long it lasts for and she might get away with it, or it might be some difficult times out on the Queen K. But it’s going to be amazing to watch and I think she’s going to be very smart.”