World Triathlon

Of the 41 nations to have qualified at least one athlete for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, sixteen teams are now confirmed to be competing for the Paris 2024 Mixed Team Relay.

The final names and race order of the two men and two women selected to represent those 16 countries may only be decided at the last moment, but the intricate planning behind their efforts to capture only triathlon’s second Olympic Mixed Relay gold is well underway.

Several of the medal favourites, including France, Germany, USA and Great Britain, have 3 men or 3 women (or both, in the case of France and Germany), to call upon when selecting their final foursomes for the super sprint showdown, the deadline for final submissions being two hours before the action begins at 8am on 5 August. So add the date to the calendar, and get set for the drama to roll.

How they got there

The French were first on the list as hosts, followed by Great Britain as runners up behind 2022 World Champions France, and Germany as the 2023 World Champions in Hamburg.

New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, USA, Italy and Portugal were the next-top-6 teams not already qualified at the cut-off date to then confirm a team by virtue of their Olympic ranking.

Then, at last month’s Mixed Relay Qualification Event Huatulco, the first two over the line also guaranteed themselves a team if they fulfilled the criteria. Norway and the Netherlands duly complied at the end of a nail-biting finale at the expense of third-place Hungary.

Adding the other nations to already have the minimum requirement of two men and two women qualified via the individual rankings to the mix, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico and Austria, and there is a fascinating 16-deep chase for only the second ever Mixed Relay Olympic medals coming up at 8.30am on 5 August 2024.

Hosts looking to light up the capital

Only France and Germany have the luxury of three men and three women to choose from for their team, and with the form of all of them running red hot over the last 12 months, the final compositions will give yet more headaches for the selectors.

All of the French squad - with the exception of Emma Lombardi – have at least one Mixed Relay world title to their name, while the Germans won both the 2023 world title and the Test Event gold, Laura Lindemann and Tim Hellwig featuring in both line ups. The French took bronze in Tokyo, Germany 6th. Expect both to improve considerably on those positions this time around.

Defending champions’ new-look line up?

For GB, the squad that was so consistent in the run-up to the gold-winning Tokyo display could look very different this time around. Only Alex Yee from that foursome is guaranteed his place, Jonathan Brownlee could still be chosen for the second male slot, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sophie Coldwell and Kate Waugh chase the two spots alongside Beth Potter.

The Tokyo 2020 silver medallists Team USA have a similar predicament. With only Morgan Pearson and Taylor Knibb confirmed for the individual at the time of writing, Pearson will be joined by one more American male, while two women will join Knibb in looking for a place on the team in the coming days. 

The winners in Huatulco, Norway will have a potent attacking force in Kristian Blummenfelt and Vetle Bergsvik Thorn, Solveig Lovseth and Lotte Miller. Netherlands’ kept the drama rolling as Mitch Kolkman made the ranking top 140 criteria at the last chance in the individual race that same weekend after helping the team to silver.

Portugal make Olympic relay debut

Having missed out in Tokyo, Portugal’s Melanie Santos will be joined by some young power in the form of Vasco Vilaca, last year’s U23 world championship runner up Maria Tomé and former Junior World Champion Ricardo Batista, while the Spanish and Austrian teams will look to banish memories of three years ago with something special.

Team New Zealand will have Hayden Wilde to call upon and a very experienced if still relatively young squad likely to come together once more in Paris, while the Australians have also been a force in the format in the past, with the full squad joining Matthew Hauser and Luke Willian set to be announced late June.

For the Belgian Hammers, Jolien Vermeylen will join the familiar faces of Claire Michel, Jelle Geens and Marten Van Riel, while Brazil’s formidable foursome of Miguel Hidalgo, Manoel Messias, Vittoria Lopes and Djenyfer Arnold have the potential to produce some fireworks.