Former Olympic champ out of T100 San Francisco – but new mum Lawrence dives back into the deep end

Former Olympic champion Flora Duffy has been ruled out of T100 San Francisco due to injury.

But there’s a wildcard for the 2016 70.3 World Champion Holly Lawrence, who returns to action less than eight months after giving birth to her first child.

The event is the second of this year’s T100 Triathlon World Tour and both the women’s and men’s races take place on Saturday 31 May.

Achilles issue for Duffy

Bermudan superstar Duffy, who won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021, has already made her mark since moving up to middle distance.

She was third at T100 Lake Las Vegas last year and fourth in the finale in Dubai to finish fifth overall and earn a contract for 2025.

But she was a DNF in the T100 opener in Singapore, exiting the race midway through the bike section.

And posting on Instagram she revealed: “Unfortunately I’ve had to pull out of @t100triathlon SF due to an achilles injury. Really disappointed because I was looking forward to racing on this epic course!”

Duffy suffered a long-term knee injury which all but wiped out her 2023 season but she made it back in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics where she produced a masterclass in the swim, dealing with the strong currents brilliantly to lead out of the water before eventually finishing fifth to Cassandre Beaugrand.

And it’s likely that she would have been to the fore in San Francisco too, especially as the race begins with the athletes diving from a boat into choppy waters close to Alcatraz Island.

Lawrence building up to an Ironman

That start was referenced by Lawrence when she reacted to her wildcard, saying on Instagram: “Excited to jump off the boat in a couple of weeks.”

British star Lawrence, the 2016 World Champion and 17-time 70.3 winner, raced just once last season when she finished on the podium at T100 Miami shortly after finding out she was pregnant.

She gave birth to daughter Poppy last October and has since documented what she herself termed the “bumpy road back to racing after pregnancy”.

One big aim this season for her is a first full-distance race, with IRONMAN Lake Placid on July 20th pencilled in as she bids to qualify for Kona.