When Lucy Byram crossed the line at last year’s T100 World Tour Finals in Qatar, she not only completed one of the bravest comebacks of the 2025 season, but she also delivered one of the most emotional moments witnessed in triathlon.
With her friends and colleagues lined up to welcome her home, the 26-year-old looked to the skies before completing what had been an incredible show of strength and courage.
Her 11th-placed finish secured a top-ten spot in the overall rankings for 2025, while she also recorded the fastest bike split of the final at 1:54:24 – impressive for an athlete who had not competed since the end of August.
Feeling the love of her fellow athletes
The love shown for Byram by her fellow competitors that day was clear; they all understood just what it had taken for the Yorkshire-based athlete to once again line up for a race following the tragic death of her partner, Sam O’Shea, a matter of months before.
Such support from the T100 family continued this week as her colleagues voted Byram as their Athletes’ Athlete of the Year for 2025.
Announcing the award on their Instagram page, the T100 team praised her ‘resilience’ in fighting back from the heartbreak to compete once again at the highest level.
“Heart of a lion 🫶. As voted by her fellow T100 pros, @lucymaybyram is your 2025 Athletes’ Athlete of the Year 🤩,” they posted.
“One of the most consistent athletes in the series and a force to be reckoned with on the bike, Lucy brought a whole new meaning to the word ‘resilience’ this year 👊.”
Messages of support and admiration
Liked by pretty much the entire triathlon cast of athletes, including Lucy Charles-Barclay, Paula Findlay, Sam Laidlow, Alex Yee, Hayden Wilde, Solveig Lovseth and Kate Waugh, the T100 post was also commented on by Taylor Spivey, who said: “She won our hearts”, and Will Draper, who simply wrote: “An inspiration”.
Sam O’Shea, who competed for Gibraltar at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, died in September after he was hit by a motorbike while out cycling in Perpignan. He had travelled with Byram to the French Riviera T100 a matter of days before.
After the T100 Final in Qatar, Byram said: “I’m so proud of the life and career that me and Sam have built together over the last eight years. I hope to keep living this life with Sam always in my heart and will try to make memories for the both of us.”
Byram has been named in the starting line-up for next month’s Gallagher Insurance Challenge Wānaka Half, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and there is little doubt that triathlon fans and competitors around the world will be wishing her well for the forthcoming 2026 season.
