A new season, a fresh start, and an LA2028 Olympic build up that, for some, begins right here on 15 February: It’s time for the 2025 season, and it’s time for a new-look WTCS Abu Dhabi to get us underway.
For the athletes, the first year after an Olympic Games is always a period of renewal and reappraisal, and the opportunity to establish themselves as rising WTCS regulars, first-time medallists or winners and even world champion.
And the opportunities at this year’s opener are even more apparent than usual without our last two world champions, Cassandre Beaugrand and Beth Potter, as they hold off on their returns to the blue carpet. Add in a brand-new course, the heat of the UAE and a little off-season rust, and this year’s Abu Dhabi fireworks could just be the brightest ever.
Watch it all unfold on the new-look TriathlonLive.tv from 2pm local time on 15 February.
Olympic gold medallist Lisa Tertsch wears the #1
Looking to get her year off to the perfect start is Germany’s number one and last year’s overall Series 4th-placed Lisa Tertsch. After finally taking a Series tape for the first time at WTCS Weihai last year, the self-belief will be flowing more than ever through the 26-year-old.
First out of the water in that race, she was to be 26th out of the water just weeks later in the Torremolinos Finals, and those are the kind of margins that could define her outcome in Abu Dhabi, albeit with fewer variables over the sprint distance. Assuming she is well-placed off the bike, can anyone on the start line match her 5km kick?
Experienced heads ready to pounce
Among those ready to accept that challenge will be the only other athletes on the start with Series wins to their names; Leonie Periault, Laura Lindemann and Gwen Jorgensen. Periault’s best performances have arguably come over the Olympic distance with a win and silver in Yokohama and a Karlovy Vary World Cup gold, but the French star has sprint-distance Series silver in Montreal and Indoor super-sprint fourth in Lievin to prove she has the top speed as well as the endurance.
For Lindemann, a sense that her Paris 2024 top 10 finish did quite not live up to expectation was offset by that brilliant Olympic Mixed Relay gold and we can expect a ravenous hunger to return to her very best.
Then there is the Rio 2016 Olympic and two-time World Champion Gwen Jorgensen who has delivered plenty of golden World Cup moments over the past two seasons of her return to the blue carpet and will now want to convert that to a Series podium. The American was also in flying form in Weihai last September but did lose a minute the run to Tertsch.
Lehair's time to shine?
Jeanne Lehair had another brilliantly consistent season in 2024 with four top 10 finishes that saw the 2023 European Champion knocking louder than ever at the door of a first Series podium. This year’s season opener is a huge opportunity for Luxembourg’s number one – and last year’s overall fifth in the world - as she looks to leave the disappointment of that Paris Olympic bike mechanical far behind.
Kate Waugh flies the flag for Great Britain. A big-occasion racer and a true all-rounder, the former U23 World Champion has very clear ambitions for the LA 2028 cycle as well as a more imminent T100 debut. Also limbering up for a T100 debut is USA’s Taylor Spivey. What a time this would be to register a first ever Series win after seven podiums.
Also a Continental Champion in 2023, Mexico’s Rosa Maria Tapia ended 2024 with Brasilia World Cup gold and has tasted Series silver in Yokohama two years ago. Expect a strong start from Italian torpedo Bianca Seregni and Tilda Mansson continues to be one to watch as she marches into a new Olympic cycle full of potential and with some lightning run splits already to her name.
Further German podium potential comes in the form of Annika Koch, Tanja Neubert and Nina Eim, while Hungary’s Marta Kropko makes her Series debut as one of the new generation of young stars in the making.
WTCS ABU DHABI WOMEN'S START LIST
15 FEBRUARY, 2PM LOCAL TIME
TRIATHLONLIVE.TV