Kristian Blummenfelt may be swimming against the tide right now when it comes to retaining his Olympic Games triathlon title, but he will not go down without a mighty fight at Paris 2024 next month.
On Tuesday July 30 (water quality permitting), the 30-year-old Norwegian superstar will plunge into the River Seine, bidding to repeat the mighty moment he delivered in the steamy heat of Tokyo back in 2021.
Since then, Blummenfelt has successfully moved up in distance to claim an IRONMAN World Championship title and an IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship crown. Among many other glitzy baubles.
But now he is bidding to achieve a much more difficult goal, coming back down in distance again to defeat the speed freaks headed by Paris favourites Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde.
So far in 2024 the evidence is not looking particularly promising for ‘Big Blu’ – he started the year with 10th at WTCS Yokohama and then followed up with 31st in Cagliari, where a puncture ruined his hopes of being in the mix at the end of the race.
Blummenfelt knows he faces a race against time, with his run in particular needing a sharper edge to match the fleet-footed Yee and Wilde plus US danger man Morgan Pearson on the streets of the French capital next month. Not to mention the strong French home team.
But he is absolutely not giving up hope.
Blummenfelt on Olympic hopes
Speaking on the latest episode of ‘The Norwegian Method’ podcast, (watch in full at the bottom of this page) he revealed: “I would have preferred to have raced better in both Yokohama and Cagliari. I’m not gonna pretend that I was happy with those two races. But I still believe there is a way to beat both Alex, Hayden and Morgan and the French guys in the Games.”
Blummenfelt says the remaining weeks leading up to the Games will be all out as he bids to increase that run speed – combining the “perfect mix” of elements as he majors on high volume and high intensity. Living “on the edge”.
“It’s gonna be risky, but risk it for the biscuits. We are not travelling to Paris to be top 5 or top 10 or maybe even bronze. We are going there for the win.”
Yokohama and Cagliari revisited
Blummenfelt admitted he came away from those disappointing days in Yokohama and Cagliari with very different feelings.
“In Yokohama I was just not good enough, while in Cagliari I got a flat. I guess I wouldn’t have been good enough to fight for the win there either, but I would have been better prepared in order to be higher up on the results list than what I was in Yokohama.
“So from Yokohama, it’s more like trying to figure out what have you done in training and what’s required in order to be improving what’s missing.
“In Cagliari, it was more like being a little bit pleased with how I felt in the race, before the race. Like I felt more on fire for that race than in Yokohama. But not letting a puncture destroy the mindset or the reflections of the race. So more taking where was the fitness and what can we do in order to build on from there.
“And also being pleased with if I’m getting a flat tyre this year or puncture, it’s good it’s happening in Cagliari and not in Paris, or in Kona.”
Less Instagram, more structure
While Blummenfelt, along with coaching mastermind Olav Aleksander Bu, will work together on tweaks to training strategy ahead of the Games, he also feels the need to apply more focus and tunnel vision to what he is doing right now.
“I try to be less on my phone, so more disconnected from like social media. It’s so easy to be on Instagram and just scroll through for hours. Try to be more aware of my time there – I try to be more where I’m actually are rather than being on the phone for most of the day.
“And maybe be less like with headphones on all the time, more like efficient with the time and more structured.”
