The racing might only start this weekend, but the games have already begun.
Even at this early stage, strategy is coming into play in the 2026 WTCS season since, in a long campaign, race selection will have a big role to play in determining the WTCS champion. While turning out at every race worked for Lisa Tertsch last year, it is the norm for the world champion to pick and choose their battles. With that in mind, some athletes have made the decision to opt out of Yokohama, however in doing so they have opened the door for their rivals to steal a march on them..
In the bigger picture, WTCS Yokohama also signifies the start of strategizing in the build-up towards LA 2028. Namely, this is the case for one middle- and long-distance superstar making an eagerly anticipated return to the Series in a hope of keeping an Olympic flame alive. Find out who will be playing these games in Japan as we comb through the women’s start list below.
Who’s there?
Lisa Tertsch (GER) came away with a bronze last year, one of the five medals she added to her collection across 2025. The world champion seems set for a similarly hectic campaign this time round as she will tackle WTCS Samarkand and WTCS Yokohama in quick succession. With a fast start to the year, her chances of defending her title will look rosy. Laura Lindemann, Nina Eim, Annika Koch, Franka Rust and Julia Bröcker make up the rest of the German team.
Beth Potter is back after a silver medal in Yokohama last year. She actually had the better head-to-head record against Tertsch across the season, although the German athlete won when it counted most. To make amends, look for Potter to make a statement against her rival in the first part of the season. She starts alongside Kate Waugh, Sian Rainsley and Jess Fullagar for the British women.
Last year’s winner Jeanne Lehair is also back, racing in Luxembourgish colours alongside Eva Daniels. As such, there is no shortage of top-end depth in the women’s race and there is every chance the podium is the same as last time around.
Lehair is not the only past winner to return to Yokohama with 2021 gold medallist Taylor Knibb (USA) dipping back into short distance racing. We last saw her in this format at the Paris Olympic Games. Knibb also medalled in Yokohama in 2024 and 2023; those stood as her only Series medals in either year. It is clearly a venue she has an affinity with, and if there is a race to expect her to make a splash at, it is this one.
Moreover, Knibb will be joined by other American athletes with positive experiences in Yokohama under their belt. Taylor Spivey and Kirsten Kasper qualified for Paris at this location while Gwen Jorgensen placed 4th at the event last year. Jorgensen was also a multiple winner here a decade ago. Perhaps more than any other team, then, the Americans have the credentials to put multiple women on the Yokohama podium. Danielle Orie and Erica Ackerlund complete the American contingent.
Diana Isakova (AIN) similarly had a strong showing in Yokohama last year on her way to a top-10 overall in the Series. The World Cup winner is back in search of a maiden WTCS medal and starts with Valentina Riasova and Iana Chenskaia for company.
For Spain, Miriam Casillas Garcia and Cecilia Santamaria Surroca will be heading over to Japan while the Czech team will be two-strong through Tereza Zimovjanova and Heidi Juránková.
As was the case with the men’s start list, a huge Japanese team will race, with eight athletes in total on the start list. The talented up-and-comer Manami Hayashi will likely be the leading presence following the retirement of stalwart Yuko Takahashi. In Kanae Takenaka, Sarika Nakayama, Miyu Sakai, Himeka Sato, Minori Ikeno, Mako Hiraizumi and Yoshiko Sato, she will have no shortage of competition simply to be the best of the home bunch.
Shifting across to the solo acts, Emma Lombardi (FRA) is the biggest name to watch. A medal at the Wollongong Final was a great way to end a slightly bumpy 2025. In Yokohama, she will look to build on that result and, being the location of her dazzling debut back in 2022, chances are she will find the course to her liking. With her illustrious compatriots absent, might this be her chance to scoop a maiden WTCS win?
Yokohama will also represent the WTCS debut of World U23 champion Richelle Hill (AUS). It has been a minute since we have seen an Australian woman on a WTCS podium, but the 2025 Oceania champion has shown a knack for putting herself in a position to fight for wins. She has only raced once this season – taking a bronze medal at the Oceania Sprint Championships – so her form is a little hard to gauge.
However, Hill went 7 months without international competition last year before winning her world title, so she will likely be up to speed in no time. Her challenge will be not simply to hit race speed, but WTCS speed, a challenge that even Olympic champions of the past have struggled with, let alone debutants.
Among the other solo entrants are Djenyfer Arnold (BRA), Tilda Månsson (SWE) and Márta Kropkó (HUN). All three will have eyes on a top-10 finish, or better.
Who’s not there?
While there may have been an opportunity for Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) to exorcise a couple of demons after crashing out in the Yokohama rain last year, she has decided against starting. So too has the 2024 race winner, Leonie Periault (FRA). With both aiming for the overall title, their decision not to contest these points will likely leave them chasing in the standings for the foreseeable future.
Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), the 2022 winner in Yokohama, is also absent, highlighting the divide among the top contenders between chasing points and biding their time for later in the year. Anna Godoy Contreras (ESP) is another to have enjoyed success in Yokohama not to return. Finally, Bianca Seregni (ITA) and Jolien Vermeylen (BEL) are two further noteworthy names to also skip the race.
The door therefore hangs open for the likes of Tertsch, Potter, Lehair and more to put some meaningful distance between themselves and their missing rivals. These strategic games, however, will only matter if they take the chance for gold on offer. Find out which, if any, of them succeed by tuning in to the action live on 16th May. View the full start lists here.