Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes

22 February, 2021

Tommy Zaferes is one of the dedicated official World Triathlon photographers, part of the Triathlon family and aims to capture moments as they happen. Tommy travels the world generating coverage and content of World Triathlon races and from training locations.

My top ten moments captured in the sport were really too hard to narrow down. So the first thing I did was limit my selections to “World Triathlon” moments captured; then I chose a mix of memorable moments between “right place right time”, “historical in the sport” and “personally memorable”. The following (in no particular order) are my favourites with a short description of why. Hope you enjoy! -TZ

Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This was at WTS Montreal and Gustav Iden had his chain bounce over his crank and get jammed on the outside. I just happened to be in the perfect spot to capture him trying to fix it, going about 40kph. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to fix it while riding, so had to jump off the bike and fix it, but he got right back on and finished the race in 14th!
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This was one of the most controversial happenings our sport has had in a while. Jessica Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown dominated the 2019 Tokyo Olympic Test Event so much so that they were able to celebrate together down the finishing chute and finished the race hand in hand. While this was an awesome showing of sportsmanship and camaraderie, unfortunately it is illegal to “manufacture a tie” and therefore they both had to be disqualified. The story was picked up by news outlets all over the world and the result is still debated about to this day.
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This moment from WTS Bermuda 2019 was a personal favourite for me. Watching my wife have the best race of her life, and be able to come down the finish chute with such a large gap to second place that she was able to stop and hug her parents, her aunt and my parents made for some full body goosebumps.
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This was from the 2019 Tokyo Para Triathlon Paralympic Qualifier. Covering Para Triathlon is a massive undertaking. With so many categories all racing at the same time and a different course than the elite triathlon races, it’s a huge challenge to be in the right place to cover everything. I was actually running to a completely different part of the course when I saw Hwang Tae Kim going through the aid station. When I saw how he had to get his water (literally the volunteers just throwing it at his face) I was like “I have to get that shot!” So I waited an entire lap for him to come around again and had one chance, but I ended up getting the shot.
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This epic sprint finish between Jodie Stimpson and Andrea Hewitt was from 2017 WTS Abu Dhabi. I actually didn’t mean for this angle to happen, but I misjudged how much time I had to get back to the finish and realised I wasn’t going to make it. I ended up climbing up a random tower and got this angle of the moment Jodie looked back to see Andrea finding one more gear to come from behind the last 25m and take the win.
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This was from 2017 WTS Gold Coast and was one of those once in a lifetime images where Jonas Schomburg was turning his head to look behind him for a split second, but I happened to capture his face (during a 1/20th of a second pan shot) looking directly at me. To this day it is one of my favourite pan shots ever.
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This was from Cape Town World Cup in 2018, and I was just trying to get some fun champagne shower images, but one second after Rich popped his bottle, the cork hit me in the head. So this one definitely makes the list of fun memorable moments.
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
This is from the 2018 JR/U23 World Champs Mixed Team Relay in Gold Coast, Australia. At World Championships there are typically two photographers covering each event since there are so many events during a world champs week. So for this race I chose to be hunkered down to the side of the finish to get a unique angle. Little did I know I would be capturing the closest finish I have ever seen.
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
For most people this moment from the 2019 Lausanne Grand Final is just a standard “finish pic”, but to me it is much, much more than that. This was the moment when my wife, Katie Zaferes, won her first ever World Title. She had an extremely bad crash just 2.5 weeks before this race at the Tokyo Olympic Test event where she broke her nose, had 23 stitches in her mouth (essentially her gums had to be sewn back on to her teeth), bruised ribs, destroyed bike, and much more. She was barely able to swim for the two weeks leading up to the Grand Final, but she was extremely smart about not pushing herself too hard. All she needed to do was finish the race in 13th or better and she would win the World Championship, but she came out and WON the Grand Final and of course, won the World Title!
Great moments in triathlon by Tommy Zaferes
Finally we have this photo from the 2016 Cozumel Grand Final. It probably doesn’t need much of an explanation as it is one of the most famous moments in our sport, but the fact I was there to capture Alistair Brownlee helping his brother Jonny Brownlee (mid heat stroke) finish the race was pretty crazy.
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