The gang’s finally all here! Joanne’s somewhere between the post-Kona high and a jet lag hangover, but that’s not stopping us from diving into what’s next.

First up: The World Triathlon Championship Finals in Wollongong. From the surprising upset in the elite race (and why it was surprising) to Katie's picks for the up-and-comers to watch and a few of our favorite para world champs.

Plus, a couple of the big headlines from the biggest week for World Triathlon:

• What's happening with T100?
• The new 2026 schedule
• And World Tri claims two new race disciplines: Fitness Racing and Swimrun

And of course, a quick update on the new 2026 Ironman World Championship qualification process and why people are upset.

Then we take our first look at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship start list. Yes, it’s definitely going to change in the coming weeks, but to begin: who’s in, who’s missing, and who might not make it to the start line.

All right, Feisties.

Welcome.

We have everyone back together.

It's Kelly, Katie's first year with me and Joanne Murphy finally made it home.

How was.

Did you get stuck in la, Los Angeles during the massive rainstorm?

No, and I didn't get stuck on the, on the Runway in Kona either.

On the Tuesday, Monday, yeah, they were stuck on the Runway with one of the flights for like five hours or something.

It was crazy.

So no, my flight was delayed by maybe an hour.

So I flew on the Tuesday, Tuesday lunchtime.

So no, I actually had a very smooth journey into la.

Lovely Irish weather to welcome me into the airport.

Had a night in LA and a day in LA on Venice beach and then came home.

I was laughing about all of you because so many people have to go through either LA or San Francisco and all of you who are like, oh, I'll just have like a 24, 48 hour layover and see the city.

And it was like dumping rain those couple days.

So I was like, I.

You missed the end of it.

But yeah, like Laura, Philip and like Heather from Global China, like all of you all did this and I was like, oh, you got really bad.

It was like some people just went and had In N Out burgers.

Well, that's not so bad.

I did spot an In N Out burger by the airport, but I never made it to it.

But yeah, no, thankfully I didn't.

But I can tell you, this is the worst jet lag I've had coming back from the States.

And I don't know whether it was that it was such an exciting week and that I was front and center for so much of it or whether it was just me getting old, I don't know.

But I have really struggled now.

I know I had a crazy build up to Kona.

I did only have like a couple of weekends off and I have been traveling.

When I looked back at my diary today, I was like, I've actually been traveling since the 9th of August, as in working away from home for like two weeks, home for 10 days, away for three weeks, home for 10 days.

And when I've been home, it hasn't been like holiday or downtime.

It's been really, really busy because we have been in world championship season and it's end of season accounts.

It's like paperwork.

It's just coming to the end.

So I, I literally have been, I've been a lazy bum since last Thursday.

Since like, oh, definitely.

And I, I mean it's off season.

It's not off season yet.

Almost not yet.

Even.

Even trying to.

To.

To put things on Social.

I'm like, no, not able.

I finally went through my Kona photographs today to try and put up a few.

Few things.

And I was like, the photos are great, but my brain's not working.

I'm going to the gym.

That was about the height of my activity today.

Now, I did manage to get off the couch and I've stopped watching Netflix, which is a bonus.

Oh, well, there you go.

I'll tell you.

This is why I, for maybe 48 hours, thought about flying from Kona to Wollongong and going straight to the World TRI World Champions.

And then I was like, that is an insane plan.

But you know, though, what I think is the plan would have worked.

So I look at Paul day and day in the dj.

They flew from Kona late on Monday night, flew to Portugal, to Cascais.

So flew into Lisbon, worked a mammoth Ironman and Ironman, 70.3 5,000 athletes.

And now they've gone home to South Africa.

Like, I don't know how they did that.

They had done Barcelona the week before, came to World champs, went to Portugal.

But I actually think, like, when I think back to last year, I went straight from Kona into three days or two days of gymnastics, and I was fine until I stopped.

Right.

I think, like, if, you know you're going to keep going, Katie, you're nodding at agreement there now.

I think you would agree.

I think you can do it.

And then, like, afterwards you regret it.

And I think you'd get home and you'd be like, oh, dear Lord.

But you would make it through Wollongong just fine.

Yeah, I think if I had told.

If I had told my husband I was gonna be gone for a whole nother week to go to Australia, he would have killed me.

But, yeah, that's probably true because I'm more tired.

Only because Tommy wasn't willing gong.

I was with Kimball and Josie.

Yeah.

So it's.

So.

It's mad.

So I don't know what it is, but I definitely was falling asleep in the middle of the day.

I was literally.

I was just a mess.

So finally, I think I got a full night's sleep Sunday night, Monday night, and today my phone died overnight.

I didn't have to be up early today for whatever reason, and I didn't plug in my phone and my phone died, so the alarm never went off.

So I slept from.

I think it was 11pm last night to 9am this morning.

I haven't done for a long time.

I Still was lazy today, but hey, it's all part of the job.

It's part of it.

It's like, it's just like athletes, you're just like an, like the pro athletes.

You need your time off now.

They're all, yeah, they're all on vacation right now.

But I did really think about Australia because I was like, well, this is going to be a really exciting week in Wollongong and I really wanted to see it.

And now part of me is sort of, part of me is like, man.

I was like, it didn't disappoint.

So we were going to talk all about it.

Even though when this comes out, it will have happened almost a week ago.

But the elite.

Okay, Katie, I sent somebody a clip of Belinda Granger going crazy during the elite race.

Being like, what is happening?

This is crazy.

And the person I said it to is like, wait, I don't understand why this is crazy.

So somebody who is very good and had won one of these races before and was ranked fourth one.

Why is that crazy?

And I was like, well, you have to understand the numbers, the context.

Yeah, no, it was, it was funny because I only watched it like fully yesterday, but for all of Wollongong, because of the time it was here, like, it was whenever Josie was awake at night and I was nursing her, that I was following on live timing and like for multiple of the races, I'm like, following on live timing and I'm like, what is going on?

And like for the women's race, we do spoiler alerts here, right?

Sure.

I mean, it's been a week ago.

It's been a week.

Like, we're beyond that.

But like, I was like looking at, I think it must have been on the run, but when I woke up and I'm like, wait, like, where's Cass?

Like, where's Beth?

And then I'm like, well, I guess they just didn't make it out of the swim.

Like, because of them normally being.

As long as they're there on the run, they're usually sure finishing in the top.

And then I was like, no, they were in the breakaway.

Like, you know, it was only like a seven person breakaway.

Like, so to me, I, I, I described it as the, the Walangon Kona.

I mean, it's true though, right?

Because you had like the two kind of favorites going in.

Both have things go wrong.

Right?

Like both sort of just completely fall.

I mean, Cassandra even ended up dnfing and Beth ended up 15th, which is just like not super normal for Them.

I don't even know exactly what happened.

Well, I know like Beth posted later about a foot injury that she was dealing with after Weihai and like not feeling like herself.

And I think for like Cassandra, like it just.

Well, she said she ate too much, so I think she was dealing with cramping.

But I think primarily it was just like not having it on the day that you needed to have it.

And for her she didn't have enough.

Well, either way, like the grand final is worth more points than any of the other races and you have to, you have like three plus the grand final.

So with her not having her full number of races plus DNFing the grand final, like she fell to seventh which is kind of a bit insane, but not insane, but just like unpredictable.

Unheard of.

Yeah, unpredicted.

But it was, it was like, it was a really interesting race and I think part of that was they changed the swim course so that it was an M because of the wind which gives you like it's a two lap M course.

M swim course, which I've never done in my career or never even seen it.

You could turn it around.

Well, oh boy.

I guess.

Depends on which letter you learn more.

Oh, right.

But there are so many more buoys and I think it broke that up like, oh, having so many more turns.

It like broke it apart more.

But also like the swim was kind of weird.

Everyone was kind of like all different directions.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So you were laughing so Joy last week Katie was basically talking up how it's like the beach starts and the getting out.

It's crazy.

It makes things crazy.

And then she sent me this clip of everybody practicing and like what looked to me like very calm.

It was like a lake.

It was like a lake.

I, I sent it.

Yeah, I sent it to Kelly being like, oh no.

But the actual race, it was, I was like, oh.

I properly prepared everybody based off of the actual race conditions.

But Tommy, when I asked him about it, he said that was literally the only day it looked like that.

With like a lot of chop and waves.

And I don't know if you anyone saw the video of Matt Hauser like running into the water dominating, like the men's start.

It was very Australian.

Very Australian.

Yeah.

It's interesting because like we talked about last week too.

It was a slightly smaller field for a grand final.

And then, yeah, to your point, like, I was like, oh, the, the breakaway came together and I was just like, oh, well, I bet guess Beth and Cassandra have this.

Do you think okay, so, like, Emily Barty was really pushing it, right?

And part of me was like, is she.

Like, is this.

Like, is she accidentally screwing a teammate?

Like, is she accidentally dropped?

But then I don't know if they actually use team tactics at that point.

I think there were no French team tactics in that.

Just based off how they were racing.

Like, it seemed like they were all racing very much for themselves, which, like, unless the country, your country tells you to race any different way, that's how most people are going to race and how, like, you race rate yourself unless told otherwise.

The only one that I don't know about that.

I was wondering if Jess Boligar was working for Beth only just because when Emma Lombardi attacked, like, Jess didn't go with her and she's one of the.

Strongest, but then she kind of, like, dragged everybody up and.

Yeah, so that's an interesting question.

See?

Yeah.

So I don't.

I don't know the answer to that, but I definitely don't think the French.

French for using team tactics.

But it was.

It was an interesting one to see, though.

And just because I felt like you would have looked at that and been like, that's all the, like, runner.

Like, not all the runners, because obviously Leonie came like, from pretty far back.

Minute deficit onto the podium or not.

Onto the podium, but, like, she, like, ran her way up.

She finished fourth, didn't she?

Yeah.

But it was an interesting group because it was.

I mean, Jess Boligar was doing a lot of work.

Emma Lombardi was doing a lot of work, but no one else was doing too much work in that pack.

But they were still maintaining their minute.

And, like, Spivey, actually, she was so close.

Like, did you see her on the coverage?

She was quite close to making it into the.

She was in no man's land for a bit of time, but then she had the third fastest run.

So.

So it goes like.

And she would again just like in car La vivari.

So here's my question.

Did you predict Lisa Tirsch winning and winning the world title?

No.

Did you?

No, but.

But then when I was like, telling this to Sarah and she was like, why is this crazy?

Lisa, like, has won a WTCS already this season.

I was like, well, that's fair.

Like, that's a fair point.

Yeah, it is fair.

But I wouldn't call her as dominant as, like, you see, like, Cassandra and maybe I wouldn't call Beth dominant.

Like, this year she's been her up and down and I think she might have been more Surprising.

But you have never see if Cass have a bad run.

Like, if she's there, she runs really well.

She's had bad race or she's had races where she hasn't performed as well, but it never is her run.

So.

Yeah.

And I feel like Lisa to like Emma Lombardi's point in her post race interview.

She just doesn't do much of the work, so people don't see her until the finish.

Right.

Like, she's quite hidden.

She's very tactically savvy and plays a strategy in the race.

And it looks like I didn't see much of the coverage now.

I literally just saw the snapshots on the socials.

I didn't get to watch the race, but it looked like Lisa Turch actually had a good lead in the end.

Coming down the finish line.

She was able to celebrate on the blue carpet with plenty of daylight between her and the girls behind her.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She ran away with it pretty like in the end.

Much off the bat and for Lisa for not off the bat.

Not off the bat.

But when you look at her performance, then you look at her races throughout the year, was that a better performance that she had in terms of how she raced across swim, bike and run versus one of the other races that she would have had during the year?

I think it was a smaller group for her to be in from the very beginning.

To me, to me, it felt like that.

But yeah, I guess, like, to your point, it's maybe it's not so surprising.

Maybe it's just because she hasn't had, like, she won the.

She won Abu Dhabi, which apparently was.

Worth less points, by the way, because.

They hadn't equalized it out for sprint races.

It started after that.

Yes, correct.

But yeah, so she won Abu Dhabi and she's been up there the whole time.

And she was ranked fourth going into this, so.

So some of our surprise is a little bit ridiculous.

Bias.

Biased?

Is it biased?

Okay, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it was Beth and Cassandra who basically were the two favorites going into that race.

Like, all they had to do was to win.

To win the whole thing.

Yeah, pretty much the reason.

And because they were tied too.

And because they were tied too.

And so I think the re.

Like, everybody makes these, like, crazy diagrams going to these races to be like, in order for this person to win, like, these people have to do badly and this person has to place above this person, and then this person has.

And the diagram for Lisa to win was quite complicated.

And so that's why I think everybody's like, no, we all just sort of wrote it off.

It was like, the diagram for anyone who wasn't Beth or Cassandra to win involved more Eros and, like, more possibilities.

So.

So basically what you're saying is that every other thing had to happen for Lisa to, like, the.

The map that was created, the diagram.

There was too many things.

Okay, right.

So, like, Jen, who.

Jean was also not in the breakaway group, so she also didn't.

Right.

So there's all sorts of things that had to happen.

Right.

Katie's thing about that.

Well, no, because I. I was listening, like, listening to the interviews of the athletes afterwards.

They're all, like, to your point, you've asked us before in.

In the podcast, like, do you pay attention to any of these, like, numbers or, like.

And I. I think you do.

But when they were asking, like, Emma Lombardi and Lisa about Cass and Beth and, like, where they were, they were both like, I mean, we're aware of it, but, like, we're running our own race.

Like, we're doing the best we can.

So, like.

And I think that's, like, really what it comes down to is, like, everyone on the outside is really paying attention far more to, like, this means this, and this means this.

And then I feel like most athletes kind of, like, have an awareness of it, but then you finish and you're like, okay, well, where am.

Like, where did I end up in the series?

But this one, I felt like there were a lot more.

There was, like, a lot more movement in it, and it was a lot.

You just had, like, different faces, kind of have breakthrough races for.

And thinking particularly of, like, Jess V. Are Tilly Enema.

She, like, it was her very first World Triathlon Championship series, and she was 11th and, like, let out of the swim in, like, a very strong fashion.

So I was gonna say, who else.

Katie was your breakout names we should be paying attention to out of this race.

I think the.

Honestly, those two.

And, like, Jess, I feel like has.

You've.

I think, a bit.

I'm just, like, more aware of her coming out of, like, the leads program and having, like, a little bit of more connection with that.

Where Tilly, I feel like I've just started seeing her name, and then for her to, like.

I mean, 11th is quite good.

Like, at a World Triathlon Championship series.

We also had Danielle Orey.

This was her second world triathlon championship, and she finished 18th for the U.S. so that was pretty cool.

So I think.

I feel like when you look at the up and comers.

I almost, I think there are a lot in this crew.

But then I also am like looking at the junior and U23 races as well because.

And even the mixed relays as you see like the countries and like where they're at because that shows how robust they are with four athletes in one.

Katie.

It's difficult coming out of the Olympic years.

So it's like the athletes haven't had a break.

Like you look at some of those names that you've mentioned, you know.

Cassandra.

Lisa, Emma Lombardi, you know, so like they're at the end of another full on season of racing post Olympics, but obviously they're probably looking at LA now as well.

And we have these younger athletes coming through these under 23s, these younger athletes that you're mentioning there as well.

Like, so how do you post Olympic year focus on this year while still trying to have one eye on LA and also trying to like have a break?

Because I feel like they just didn't get a break this year.

Well and I think like the older athletes are just used to working in quads and so like, I mean not, not all of them, but a few of the ones on those, like on the start list, they've, they've taken time to like do other things or just probably have a different, not commitment level to it but like focus level.

Like they know they have to kind of manage their energy throughout until we get to like LA and really like starting honestly starting next year.

So if there's any time to back off, it's this one.

But that being said, like, no one really takes it easy.

I just think you have this fatigue going into a post Olympic year that eventually kind of dwindles away and you feel more refreshed.

Well, because it's like, I don't know, I think it's just hard because the motivation is like you're not really motivated for qualifying for the Olympics yet again.

This year doesn't count for your Olympic points ranking.

Right.

So when that starts, you really have to be like really engaged with your races that you're doing and, and then.

You, and then you figure out all the points thing or have someone do it for you.

I was never like, the thing is if you're like performing really well, you're probably, you don't have to worry about the points.

It's like you're in that middle ground.

Like that was for, for myself, that was when I was coming back after Kimball and trying to qualify for Paris.

It was like, what do I have to.

Someone just tell me what to do?

Like.

But there was a bunch.

I mean, the other thing Obviously in W Gong was like, there were U23 races, there were juniors races, there was mixed relay, there was para athletes, uh, when you were watching.

Because I know obviously development's a big topic in your household when you were watching the U23s and juniors.

I mean, who is standing out to us there?

Who are we keeping our eye on?

Well, Naomi Ruff was a little bit of a heartbreak in the U23 for the USA because not, not, not the pressure is not on her for that, but just I felt for her because that was another one.

I was watching live timing on and I saw like, lap four of the run, which means they're almost done.

Right.

And.

And then I saw the finish and her name wasn't there and she had been running with the leaders.

And it turns out that she collapsed, like 10 meters from the finish and didn't end up finishing.

And so she is my one to watch.

While it doesn't show on the results of, like, how well she was doing up until that point, but she did go.

She.

She's okay.

She went on to race, like, the mixed team relay the next day.

So I think for.

For us athletes, like, I feel like we have.

We're still like, dialing it in.

So it's exciting to see.

I mean, Danielle Ori is someone who I think is one to watch, even though she was in the elites, but she's just a collegiate crp, so she's new to racing track.

You mean collegiate recruitment program.

Oh, yeah, sorry.

Collegiate recruitment.

All your acronyms.

Yeah, yeah, right.

So that's for the US I think.

The U23 race is pretty exciting though, because it came out of sprint and Rochelle Hill won kind of from behind.

I mean, not behind behind, but you.

Know what I mean?

Like, she had a sprint.

She was not in first, and she had to sprint past a bunch of people.

But then she, like, sprinted dominantly.

Yeah.

So you would think that she'd.

But that would.

I think, like looking at just Australia in general and the results, like, they're in.

They're in the home field.

Energy coming in, I think, because there was a lot of.

There was a lot of Australians on those.

Yeah.

But then they didn't have to travel halfway around the world to get to the race.

True.

That's a valid point.

Also, the fans of the Australians and.

Fans home support is.

It's like in.

It's like in France, like you look at what Cassandra did in France last year.

That home support is incredible.

The guys and girls did there in the sport.

Incredible again.

But that home base support.

So it is like.

Yeah, Australia does get really into it because, yeah, obviously Matt Hauser won on the men's side and they were going crazy.

Crazy.

And then, yeah, Rochelle hill won the U23.

They're going crazy for that.

There was in the para, Lauren Parker won the wheelchair race and a new Hill.

Did I say that right?

A new Francis.

Francis.

Thank you.

Why did I say that Wrong?

Won the PTS2 and I think they were going pretty crazy for them too.

They were also the mixed team relay second Australia.

So there's a lot.

The paramedics team relay is interesting.

I know.

Like they have been testing it for the last.

Like they want it.

They want it to be in la, right?

And they want.

They want to make its Paralympic debut.

And the way it works is like there's a.

There's sort of like a cap on points and you could have any mix of impairments and categories, except there are certain parameters.

Like you have to have, I think a wheelchair athlete, you have to have a V. And then you can have like a mix if it's under this like category, amount of points.

So it's like kind of.

So you can have like athletes going at different abilities at different times and it's sort of.

Yeah, it's really nutty.

There's like parameters on it.

Yeah, it's like there's a lot of rules.

But I'm like summing up how it works.

It's a more complicated version of like in track when they have the 4x4 and you can pick the different, like however you go.

Right?

Yeah.

They do a pair of 4 by 4 mixed relay too.

That's like this where you have to have certain categories but then you can like mix and match.

And it's also interesting.

So, yeah, they've been testing this out for the last couple years to try and like figure out all those little rules and parameters.

And so I think now it seems like this was the second time they've done at the World Championships and the US won, which was very exciting with Grace Norman and.

And Chris Hammer, I think.

And Grace.

Grace Norman won also her sixth world title.

I was trying to think how many she'd won.

That's.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, the last time I talked to her, she hadn't lost a race.

In like I was gonna say in Grace Norman fashion.

She's kind of dominating.

Yeah, she like hasn't lost.

And the other athlete that was really impressive was Susanna Rodriguez who raced with Sarah Perez.

Pala.

Isn't that her?

Is Sarah Perez?

Yes.

And she came off the bike coming out of transition.

The.

The bike.

She came off the bike and then they got back on the bike and then they won the race.

And then Sara went on to race the T100 I think.

Did she do the mixed team relay as well?

Incredible.

And she finished on the podium in the T100.

Sarah.

Yeah, she was third and that was crazy because they did.

She guided for Susanna in the morning and then she raised the T100 in the afternoon, which is nuts.

And Susanna won her seventh world title, which is also nuts.

And did you know there's a bar, they made a Barbie for Susanna a few years ago.

Like Barbie, like a honorary Barbie.

But yeah, Sarah Presala was third in the T100 which was also like also in this week of Walagong Happening.

Tommy was working it and he was, he's properly smashed now coming home from.

From doing all the rate like covering all the races.

Was he photographying or.

Yep.

And you handed in the two children and said I'm off, dear.

Yeah, pretty much.

He was trying to take a nap yesterday and I was just like not having it like playing with Josie.

Right, right in front of him but asking him questions.

Anyways.

Anyways, just to say there was a.

Lot of racing, there's a lot going on.

Yeah.

So the T100, I mean I do feel obviously like this T100, I think this isn't like a controversial statement.

It was a little smushed in between things and so it did have like a lighter field.

Um, like a lot of the contracted athletes didn't do it.

So it was like.

I mean the joke was it was nice at the T100 to have a race entirely for wild cards.

But that was the, that was.

The joke was how many actual contracted athletes were there?

Because three were there four or five.

I was double check three, something like that.

But I mean it's like nice obviously.

Like, I mean it's nice for other people to get a chance.

Obviously Ash Dental is a contracted athlete and she was second.

Kate Woff was what, like a hot shot athlete?

I don't difference.

But yeah, but she's of course now leading the series and then yeah, Sarah Perez was in third.

So yeah, which is I don't know, just Sarah having a big weekend.

It's pretty cool.

Yeah, she took advantage of all those races but she.

But ultimately she did really well as well.

Like when you think about it, I mean she's racing in the morning, the afternoon and then the mix team relay as well.

Like it's.

It's not easy, you know.

Well no, because you add on probably all the things they have to do outside of actual racing too.

Like she's going to all the course previews, she's going to all the meetings for like everything.

It's not like.

It's just for her.

She has the responsibility of guiding for Susannah as well.

I mean that come.

That brings its toll in terms of mental and physical and emotional fatigue away from the physical fatigue that you would have from racing and the excitement and the adrenaline and everything that goes with it.

So yeah, hats off to Sarah or Sarah Perez.

Yeah, it was very impressive there.

I also have to give a.

There are some people being mean about her in the comments and the T100 was like stop it.

Or whoever manages T100 social account told people to stop it and shut that down.

Yeah, they would have been really mean about her.

Her tri suit or her swimsuit.

Yeah, which is just like stupid.

I don't even know.

It's just.

It's just keyboard warriors I think being.

Really mean that is shocking.

Not in this day and age.

Now kids, behave yourselves.

There was also like all these other meetings happening in Wolligong.

Like all these.

It's.

If you were following the headlines there was like a lot of news.

Like they announced Hamburg was going to host the championship in two years because it's in part of Asia next year and it's in New Zealand the year after.

They announced like the whole schedule.

London will happen.

London will have a WTCS which is going to.

It's at the same weekend as the T100 but T100 won't have a pro race so it's just going to be like the London T100amateur race and the WTCs.

Well, and going back to Hamburg too.

There's a pair series so that'll be exciting too.

They announced like a whole calendar.

You can go look.

And didn't T100 announced that they're going to have the men and women race on difference?

Oh, they announced.

They announced.

Oops.

Contracts were a bad idea.

No, that's not how they announced it but they did say they.

They made a huge massive change as they do every year to their system and they are Getting rid of contracts for reasons that might be obvious.

And then they are also reducing the number of total races athletes have to do.

And in order to do that, in order to reduce the number of total races but still have a full calendar per.

Like they're basically having four.

Four of the races will be women and four of the reasons will be men's pro races.

So they're like, do you see what I mean?

Like, so they still have like a TV product for eight races, but athletes only have to do four.

And then they'll come together for the grand final, which honestly I really like.

I know the keyboard warriors have opinions, but I think it actually sort of, it's like makes the most sense.

So you know the way they had contacted athletes and then they have wild cards and they have.

What was the other one you had?

Wild card and the hot shot shots.

So there's a certain amount of athletes can race each T100.

So now that they're separating the men and women, are they going to allow more of the pro athletes race the individual races?

Yeah.

Still going to be 20.

It's still going to be 20 athletes per race.

And now that we're not doing it with contracts, since no one was fulfilling their contracts anyway, they're going to rankings based.

So like for the first race it'll be based.

And I'd obviously, I can't remember off of my head which rate.

Like, there's contender rankings and PTO rankings and like, who, Like, I don't remember which one.

But for the first one, it'll basically be the top athletes from this year and then we'll get invited and then after that it'll be like the, like you can work your way into the rankings and then you'll get an in.

So basically just go down the rankings and invite people and then they're like leaving.

They're leaving room for themselves also to still invite wildcards.

Yeah.

Because like, so say you invite the top 20.

That doesn't give an opportunity for those up and coming athletes who might have reached.

No, that's where, like, that's where the contender rankings come in.

Like there's a whole rather different rankings.

This is what I'm saying.

I don't, like, I'm not.

My brain doesn't.

My brain's not computing well.

I think they're trying to figure it out too, but it's kind of nice that they're not just like, oh, we're just gonna stick with it.

After seeing that it really.

There could have been a better way to do it because it's too much on the calendar.

Yeah, it's too much on the calendar.

I think honestly they, I don't think it's out of the goodness of their heart.

I think this is because like nobody was filling contracts and they were like, we're paying contracts and no one's doing it.

Which was a problem for them financially and media wise.

Like they kept promoting people and then people weren't coming.

So I think they want to have like a better way to like know who's actually coming.

They also, they are increasing the amount of prize money per race, but the overall prize pool is basically halving because like just if you add it up, which obviously was not one of the things they said in their press release, but if you add it up it is.

And obviously they don't have contracts anymore either.

And people are getting paid like you know, 80 to 100 per contract.

So like, so the overall amount of money is definitely.

So there was also some financial concerns, I think.

I guess watch this space and see what happens.

And yeah, hopefully it all works out.

Which you still see it.

Pay all the way down through 20th, I think to like 3, 500, right?

Yeah.

Which is like, yeah, maybe not like we hope for more but still like this good top, top for our sport.

Yeah, I know people still make money.

The, the other really funny out of all the headlines that came out a while ago, the one that I got, I didn't see till like yesterday got super buried was apparently World Triathlon approved two new disciplines to add to like World Triathlon, Hyrox and swim.

I was like, why is hyrox in triathlon?

What is hy?

It's completely different.

I am going to do Hierarch.

Actually, we've discussed this, but it is the sport of fitness.

It's basically like you run a kilometer in between doing all these different types of set gym activities.

So it could be like burpees or wall balls or all these different things, but I think it's a kilometer.

You have to run in between each session and there's like singles and doubles options.

It is like one of the fastest growing sports I think in the world at the moment.

Or it's kind of like a move on from CrossFit where there was certain exercises or things you could do in CrossFit that weren't accessible to everybody.

So if you'd certain weaknesses, you couldn't do them.

Whereas Hyrax, what they've selected like sled pulls or pushes or whatever they are, it's accessible to more People or more people can.

Can do it.

It's really.

Katie.

It's really, really, really big in Europe and Australia and it's like only just making it over to the us.

Okay.

That's why you're like, what?

Yeah, yeah.

It's a pickleball explosion.

So it's like.

I know what it.

What's it.

What?

Yeah.

So.

But they now they have like a world championship and stuff and it's getting so.

Yeah.

World Try has declared that it's overseeing Iraq.

Sorry, it's overseeing fitness.

Multi sport Fitness because they can't call it Hirox because Hyrax is copyrighted.

But Multi sport fitness.

Yeah.

So anyway, I thought that was really funny.

I actually would love to give Hyrax a go.

It's on my list.

It's on my list.

The feisty team of all of us have been like eyeing different Hyrax competition, so you should get that.

It's impossible to get tickets here because they sell out like this.

Oh, yeah.

Like any event.

Yeah, sold out like mad.

So a lot of the people, a lot of even some of the tri club gang here in Galway have gone abroad to do the Hyrax and do it in doubles.

So it's more fun.

Goodness.

Yeah.

Serious.

Yeah, but she'd be so fit and strong.

I'll be ready to smooth cycling on then.

Carrie, who edits this, is probably listening right now, is training for her first one in Austin or in Dallas, whatever, in Texas in like a month.

So, hi, we need to get her.

On the podcast to tell us about Hierarchs properly.

Before we talk about the number three worlds.

The other thing, I know a lot of our listeners because I've been getting a ton of emails coming out of Kona.

We had another Ironman here in.

It was Ironman California.

And then so again we had like the Kona qualification for next year and people are quite like, a lot of women are very upset because there was only one performance pool spot that went to women and all the other 19, I believe went to men and the majority of them went to men 50 to 59.

So it was like nine spots to men 50, 59 and one to all of women.

So anyway, partially I'm hearing a lot about this because I live here.

Partially.

I think coming outta Kona, people are worked up about it.

Partially.

We're now at like a dozen races and so I think like we're seeing this happen over and over and over again.

So this is my note to everyone who has emailed us and asked like you gotta tell like tell Ironman your feelings, okay?

Like I know you have feelings.

Don't tell me, tell Ironman.

Give them feedback.

Because I know they actually are watching how this plays out.

They do want feedback.

They do know that it's not going the way they intended it to go.

So like reach out to them.

That's my, my PSA is reach out to Iron Man.

So.

All right.

70.3 worlds though is in two weeks, Joanne.

The 8th and 9th of November.

But before we go to 70.3 worlds, can I just give a big shout out to Lizzie R. Trainer from the UK who won Ironman 70.3 cash kite at the weekend.

Back to back wins.

So she is thrilled and delighted for her based in the uk.

So yeah, it was a big win for her to, to take that race and I think Kate Curran was second coming back from.

I think it was a bike crash she had earlier in the season.

So great to see two of the British athletes on the podium in cash.

Kate Coran is American I believe, isn't she?

Is she?

Oh, maybe I thought Kate Curran was from the uk.

I, I could be wrong.

Oh, you're right.

No, you're right.

She is, she is, she is British.

I think she is trained, maybe.

I thought I was manifesting there for a minute anyway.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

It's.

Before we look at Marbella, I just wanted to give a shout out.

That race looks like it was sizzling as well.

And in Portugal.

Yeah, also like a beautiful.

Oh yes.

Yeah.

So like the swim is in the Atlantic.

So the water was like 17.5 degrees, a little bit cooler than Kona.

And it's a hilly bike course and a bit of a hilly run, but it is absolutely fabulous.

Like you get out of the water and you run uphill to transition.

Like uphill, literally uphill.

But it is a brilliant race.

I think they had 5,000 athletes over two races.

70.3.

Did you.

That made me think.

Did you see Amsterdam marathon was this past weekend and in the Amsterdam, it's like one of the large ones, you know, one of the big Abbott, whatever.

They run through Amsterdam's like art museum in the middle.

Like they run into it and through it and then there was like an orchestra playing.

It looked very cool.

I was like, oh, that's very cool.

I did see that the Cape Town Marathon was cancelled.

It was, yeah.

The winds.

Yeah.

So a lot of disappointed runners.

But what's lovely to see was that a lot of people went and did the course anyway.

I think I saw that.

Yeah.

And I think they only found out it was canceled like, 90 minutes before it set to start.

So a lot of runners were kind of like, already there, which is.

Yeah.

Kind of like the year they.

The year two years ago when they canceled Ironman, California.

Jan Frodeno was here, and they canceled it because.

I don't know, the storm was so bad.

Like, semis were blowing over.

That was a good few years ago, though.

That was.

No, no, no, no, no.

I lived.

It was three years ago.

It was three years ago because I was driving in the morning to go.

So I was like, it wasn't two years ago.

No, but three years ago.

But what I was going to say is a bunch of those athletes, because you definitely couldn't be out on the roads, went to the 24 Hour Fitness and did a whole Ironman in the 24 Hour Fitness.

That's worse than a regular Iron man, for sure.

I agree, Katie.

And that 24 hour fitness is not.

Not a nice 24.

Not high performance.

Not a high performance.

24.

Oh, my gosh.

Nothing worse.

I'm sure that center was like, what is going on here?

Okay, let's move to the 70.3 worlds.

Right.

So coming up, Joanne will be headed out, obviously, to announce it.

Very exciting.

I think it is.

Everyone's kind of like, you know, a very, very fake.

Like, a lot of people love it.

It's kind of their favorite race of the year because you do have, like, so many athletes.

I mean, the last time I was there was close to like 5, 000 athletes.

It's like across the men's and the women.

I think it's gonna be over 6, 000 across the two days from what I recall.

I think it's over 6, 000 eight.

Between eight and the women.

Are the women still going on the first day and the men going on the second?

It's like 130 pro athletes across the two days, I believe, which is huge.

That's crazy.

Yeah, so it's like 60 something in each field.

So, yeah, they released the start.

The reason we're talking about this is they released the start list this week.

And it is a very sex start list.

I will say there is definitely and we don't have any inside knowledge of this.

It's just wild.

There's definitely open question on whether Lucy and Taylor are actually going to race it because they are definitely still recovering from Kona and I personally think they should recover.

They should focus on recovery.

Are you manifesting again, Kelly?

I am manifesting that they should focus on their recovery.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But even, even beyond that, you have Kat Matthews, Paula Findlay, Solvang.

Solvang is coming.

And I understand that the pro series is going to kind of come down to how her versus Kat do because they're both like right there.

You also have Caroline Poole, Grace Tech, Laura Phillips, Laura Phillips Sanchez, who also was in within Kona.

You have George Taylor Brown, Jackie Herring, Danielle Lewis, Laurie Jansen, Regan Hollyoak, Marjolaine.

The list is stacked.

And even looking at this list here, Indy, Indy Lee, Lisa Preterer, Catherine Grace.

I mean these were all in Cola as well.

Yeah.

So I would imagine some of them don't make it because people always like sign up and think they're.

And then some of them don't make it.

But I see Lydia Russell, I was.

Like, what a crazy way to do it.

Like have a Ironman world champs into a 70.3 world champs.

Like that's it does.

Have you ever done that?

It does feel very short.

Like once you start running when you do a 70.3.

Oh, that's true.

You're going down.

Yeah.

You're like, oh, I only have to run a half marathon.

This is so quick.

Which is either good.

I mean I do that with sprint races on Olympic distance, two hours to one hour.

But it feels a little different from an Ironman 2.

And I see Feisty's Lydia Russell is on the start list as well.

Yeah.

I will say Lydia is over there already in Europe training anybody.

And she is definitely.

I would keep an eye on her because you know, if she is recovered from being sick, she should be one to watch out for.

And then we do have a bunch of the Olympian people like Georgia Taylor Brown's on the list.

Olympian people.

Olympian people.

Yes.

I was saying that's an interesting.

Like people who have not raced 70.3 worlds before like Jesse.

But.

But you know, I would.

They're not like, they're not like new to this game.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

No, I feel like plus they've done the T like most of them have done.

True.

A lot of T1 hundreds, which is not like a leap from.

And they've had to race to 70.2.3.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

They didn't qualify.

Which one did Georgia do?

Was it Bahrain last year?

Oh, gosh.

Probably.

Probably.

It was probably.

I think that's probably.

It was actually, wasn't it?

And he was the guy that won.

It was the two of them, Vince.

Yes.

That makes sense.

But then what's interesting, Kelly, is actually the people who aren't on the star list.

Ah, we get a clue.

I said that we know aren't.

All that we know aren't on the.

So the one I picked is Holly Lawrence, 20.3 world champion.

I think this will be one of the first ones she'll have missed.

Skip.

She in New Zealand?

No, she was pregnant.

Was she?

Yeah, she was pregnant last year.

She didn't.

She didn't do it last year.

Yeah, because.

Well, she was either pregnant.

She had just given birth.

Yeah, she was like a month after just giving birth.

So she did not do New Zealand last year because she was like very.

Recently posted a year old since like the week before Kona or the week of Kona.

Yes.

So obviously she got six in Kona.

So I think that was her focus this year and I think just combo of like travel, new kid focus.

She's not doing it.

But yeah, that's crazy because she is super dominant.

70.3s when she focuses on them.

She's definitely a specialist at that distance or at least she was.

And.

But then let's look at like, I don't see Julie Duran.

Ash, Gentle Ash has been focusing on T100, so I don't even know if she.

Same with Holly.

I don't think Holly did a qualifying race and I don't even know if Ash has done like a qualifying race this year, so.

But yeah, I mean, ash would be one.

I keep waiting for her to win a 70.3 world title.

I think it's like any.

Any year she's going to win one.

She was in the top five last year in New Zealand, wasn't she?

She was definitely.

She was like.

Was she?

I can't remember.

Oh, my God.

My brain has gone to mush apparently.

I promise my brain will have absorbed all of the information for the next episode for the preview, but at the moment it is just not absorbing anything.

I look at this.

Yeah, I know we are.

We are gonna.

I was like, we are gonna do a full preview in like two weeks before the race.

But we were just looking at the start list.

It's a. I think.

I mean, I actually have never raced 74, three Worlds, I've been a number of times because, like, my husband raised or I covered it.

But I do think it's like.

It's kind of like the most fun event because you just kind of have.

You know what I mean?

Like, the women, the men have their own day, but you have so many athletes, and it's like.

And it's a good amount of time.

Like, you don't have to be out there all day to watch a race.

It's like four and a half hours.

Well, for the pros, for the half hours, for the age groupers.

Kelly, don't be frightening the listeners that are going to the world thinking they have to do it.

And like, like four and a half hours.

But it's pretty fun.

And Portmanus are absolutely beautiful destination locations.

Go swim in the Mediterranean, cycle in the mountains.

1700 meters of elevation, which, interestingly, I don't know what that is in feet, but you'll be able to tell me because it is the same elevation that we had in Kona, over 180km.

I believe I could be wrong again.

My brain is mush.

But I do think that it's the same elevation or thereabouts that we had over 180km.

We now have 90.

Now, Marbella is very hilly, and then the run is along the.

The promenade.

Do you want to know.

This only made me laugh.

Do you want to know how much elevation gain there was at Ironman, California this week?

Minus.

Because the swim was downstream.

400Ft.

Yes, the swim is downstream, and then there is 400ft of elevation over 100.

Must be less than 100 meters.

We joke often in Wales about, you know, because the Ironman, Wales, it's a hilly bike, a hilly run, and sometimes you have a hilly swim as well if the weather is bad.

Yeah, yeah.

This is the opposite.

So.

So when people complain about drafting, I'm kind of like, well, guys, like, what did you think was going to happen?

Anyway?

So Marbella, I think that's about 6,000ft, 5,000 something.

Yeah.

Of elevation.

Let's go.

You're gonna have to bring some timing legs, people.

Yeah, it's gonna be fun.

It'll be a great race and you'll have a good.

You'll be recovered by then, Joanne.

Well, I hope so.

I really need to get back to work, though.

This is my first.

All you need is two to three weeks.

Don't have that.

I have three days of gymnastics competitions coming up.

Yeah, it's very exciting.

So I've dash and then I have an open water swimming at forum in Dublin and then I fly out to Spain.

So I'm doing two weeks nearly in Spain, a couple of days before I'm due to work, and then a few days after to chill.

But it's nearly the end of the season.

It's hard to believe it.

And that's the other thing about this race with the 70.3 being after Cola is that I think everyone's.

Well, T100 championships will be later again, I think.

Is it December?

Like, I feel like everyone is building up to this massive pot of just excitement and party Central for the 70.3 Worlds.

Joanne, I don't know where I saw it, but somebody was sharing, like, you know, behind.

I saw a video of you singing at the party at 70.3 worlds last year.

The VIP party.

Yeah, yeah.

So I hosted the VIP party and then I lashed out a rendition of Valerie.

Yeah, yeah.

So no, there was none of that now in Kona.

I don't think so.

I think I sang on the finish line.

Maybe at some point Caroline or something.

Not sure, but maybe at least that's.

My line and I'm sticking to it.

All right, well, we will be back next week.

We should have some guests again soon.

And then we will have a 70.3 preview.

And we're getting close to the end of the year too, so.

Yeah, hang in there.

It's gonna be awesome.