2026 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Nice: Jelle Geens, Kristian Blummenfelt, Taylor Knibb, Marjolaine Pierré, Audrey Merle... Who are the favorites?

On Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, Nice will host the 2026 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. A total of 3,000 women will compete for the Elite and Age-Group titles on Saturday, followed by 3,500 men on Sunday. The start lists are packed with talent, with the race also serving as a springboard toward the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, four weeks later. Here is our analysis of the favorites.

This year, the IRONMAN 70.3 and IRONMAN World Championships are just four weeks apart, and their order has been reversed. The IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds will come first, which is an advantage for triathletes planning to race both events. There will be plenty of them, as the schedule allows athletes to build toward their peak and recover more effectively. That is why the announced start lists are loaded with athletes capable of chasing both world titles in late 2026.

Who can stop Taylor Knibb in the women’s race?

The withdrawal of the defending champion, Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay has removed a major obstacle for her rivals. She has chosen to skip Nice to focus on her preparation for Kona and the IRONMAN World Championships, the main goal of her season. The decision is also historic: since 2011, no defending IRONMAN 70.3 champion had declined to defend her title. Charles-Barclay is therefore opting for focused preparation rather than a packed schedule. The way is clear for a new world champion.

One athlete appears to be the natural choice to take that spot: American Taylor Knibb. She is one of the most versatile athletes in the world and already owns three IRONMAN 70.3 world titles, from 2022, 2023 and 2024. She has also finished on the podium at every 70.3 Worlds she has raced since 2021. In other words, when she starts, she is almost always in the mix.

Her 2026 season has been somewhat less conventional, however. Knibb won IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside in the United States and finished second at IRONMAN Texas, while also continuing to compete on the World Triathlon circuit, including a World Cup win in Edmonton, Canada, and seventh place at the WTCS race in London, Great Britain. Before Kona, where she is also qualified, she will race the cycling time trial world championships in Montreal, Canada, with Team USA. That ability to switch from one format to another, and from one sport to another, is exactly what makes her so difficult to beat. In Nice, she will target a fourth 70.3 world title. The French course could suit her perfectly: she is a powerful cyclist who can blow the race apart on two wheels and still have enough left to run very fast.

Britain’s Kat Matthews knows exactly what it takes to produce a strong IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship performance. Runner-up to Knibb in 2023 and again in 2024, she has already shown that she delivers when the stakes rise. Her 2026 season has been a strong one, with wins at IRONMAN New Zealand and IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong in Australia and Elsinore in Denmark. Most importantly, she has the combination that a course like Nice demands: outstanding bike strength and the ability to hold a fast pace on the run after more than two hours of racing.

Another serious contender is Norway’s Solveig Lövseth. She has taken a spectacular step forward since winning the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, last October. After finishing second at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside in the spring, she went on to win two IRONMAN races, in Texas and Hamburg, Germany. Her profile is particularly intriguing in Nice. Lövseth is not simply a specialist in one discipline: she has the qualities to stay in touch across all three sports and appears to have gained even more maturity since her world title.

Germany’s Laura Philipp will also be in the mix, and she knows the terrain well. In 2024, she won the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice in dominant fashion, establishing herself at the top of the long-distance hierarchy. She also won IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See in Austria a few weeks ago. Her main objective for 2026 remains the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, but that certainly does not mean she will pass up the chance to win in Nice.

For the home crowd, Marjolaine Pierré will obviously be one to watch closely. The Frenchwoman knows the region well and arrives with a résumé that justifies the highest ambitions. A two-time long-distance world champion under the World Triathlon banner, in Ibiza, Spain, in 2023 and Pontevedra, Spain, in 2025, she also finished fifth at last year’s IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds in Marbella, Spain. In 2026, Pierré won IRONMAN 70.3 Aix-en-Provence before finishing second at the IRONMAN 70.3 European Championships in Jönköping, Sweden, behind Germany’s Bianca Bogen a few weeks ago, then heading to a training camp in Font Romeu. Her preparation has therefore been tailored to this major target.

Behind this leading five, the list of outsiders looks almost as strong as the list of favorites. Germany’s Bianca Bogen, the defending IRONMAN 70.3 European champion, is also making rapid progress. Fifth at T100 Gold Coast in Australia at the start of the year, sixth at T100 Vancouver in Canada and already a winner at 70.3 Hradec Králové in Czechia, she now has enough results to challenge for a world podium.

The Swiss athletes Julie Derron, recent winner of T100 Vancouver, and Imogen Simmonds, fifth in Vancouver and third at the 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds in Lahti, Finland, will also deserve close attention.

What about the other French women?

Several other French athletes will be worth watching. Audrey Merle, a former U23 world champion and an Olympian in Rio in 2016, took an impressive third place at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside in the United States and fourth at Elsinore in Denmark this year. Her time on the T100 circuit, including eighth place in Pamplona, Spain, and 12th in Vancouver, shows that she can compete against the world’s best and has adapted well to long-distance triathlon.

For Aurélia Boulanger, the road back has been more complicated. After a very difficult period from 2024 to mid-2025, during which she battled depression, the Gard native has returned to competitive form. She won IRONMAN 70.3 Mont-Tremblant in Canada in June, earning her qualification for Nice, then finished third at IRONMAN 70.3 Krakow in Poland at the beginning of August.

Anne-Sophie Pierre, runner-up at IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea in Wales in July, will also take the start. Her journey is remarkable in its own right: she began triathlon in 2020, then suffered a serious cycling crash in 2021 that caused several spinal fractures and kept her away from her best form for nearly a year and a half.

Finally, Nikita Paskiewiez is attempting a particularly ambitious double: Nice and Kona. Qualified for both races, she arrives with some uncertainty surrounding her Achilles tendon, although she felt no further pain when she finished 15th at IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See in Austria a few weeks ago.

As for Julie Iemmolo, who injured her scaphoid in early July, she will mainly be there to enjoy the occasion, with a preparation that has inevitably been disrupted.

Jelle Geens takes on the Norwegian pack

Around 3,500 men will take part in the event. In the professional race, the story could once again come down to a showdown between Belgium and Norway.

The obvious first name is the defending champion: Belgium’s Jelle Geens. He has won the last two editions of the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. In Marbella, Spain, last November, he edged Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt by just three seconds after 113 kilometers of racing. The two men met again a few months later at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong in Australia, where the Norwegian got his revenge.

Kristian Blummenfelt remains one of the leading favorites. Olympic champion in Tokyo, IRONMAN world champion in 2021 and IRONMAN 70.3 world champion in 2022, he probably boasts one of the most impressive résumés in the field. This year, he has won IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside in the United States and IRONMAN Texas.

But reducing Norway to Blummenfelt would be a mistake. Casper Stornes, the defending IRONMAN world champion, finished third at the IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds in Marbella behind Geens and Blummenfelt. Since then, he has continued to show his consistency, taking third at both IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside and IRONMAN Texas before winning the IRONMAN European Championship race in Frankfurt, Germany, with authority.

Alongside him, compatriot Gustav Iden will return to a particularly symbolic venue: he won his first IRONMAN 70.3 world title in Nice in 2019. Runner-up at this year’s IRONMAN Frankfurt, he is naturally still a podium contender.

Can the Germans break up the duel?

Several German athletes will try to split the leading contenders. Rico Bogen, in particular, has something few others can claim: he already knows what it takes to become an IRONMAN 70.3 world champion. He won the title in 2023.

Also keep an eye on Lasse Nygaard Priester, who has put together an exceptionally consistent season: five podiums in five races, including wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Sweden and Zell am See-Kaprun in Austria, second place at IRONMAN 70.3 Valencia in Spain and third at IRONMAN 70.3 Pays d’Aix in France, plus runner-up at T100 San Francisco in the United States. Jonas Schomburg completes an especially deep and competitive German trio.

What about the Olympians?

The field also features an impressive collection of Olympic medalists and Olympians. New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, the silver medalist in Paris in 2024, is one of the men capable of overturning the pre-race predictions. The same goes for Americans Morgan Pearson and Seth Rider, as well as Britain’s Sam Dickinson. And especially Belgium’s Marten Van Riel. He made a spectacular arrival on the IRONMAN 70.3 scene and has been unbeaten over the distance since 2019. In 2026, he has won IRONMAN Lake Placid in the United States and IRONMAN 70.3 Elsinore in Denmark, while finishing second at IRONMAN Texas. In Nice, Van Riel will be far more than an outsider.

The French men without Sam Laidlow and Vincent Luis

For France, Sam Laidlow, the 2023 IRONMAN world champion, has chosen to prepare for the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona by racing Challenge Samarkand in Uzbekistan on the same Sunday, where he will find a flatter bike course more reminiscent of Kona.

French fans had therefore turned their attention to Vincent Luis, who is racing his final season. Last July, he narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth at IRONMAN 70.3 Boise in the United States, after qualifying for the Nice Worlds at the end of 2025 by winning IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain. Unfortunately, the French icon will not be in Nice, and will meet his fans directly in Kona for his final dance at the IRONMAN World Championships. Earlier in the season, he finished a solid fourth at IRONMAN Texas, followed by fifth at the IRONMAN European Championships in Frankfurt, Germany.

In the absence of these natural leaders, several Frenchmen can target a top-15 finish. Simon Viain has been remarkably consistent in 2026: third at IRONMAN 70.3 Elsinore in Denmark, fourth at IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea in Wales, sixth at IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See in Austria and fourth at IRONMAN 70.3 Valencia in Spain. A top-10 finish, or better, looks well within his reach.

Quentin Barreau, the top French finisher at the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds in Nice, where he placed 12th, returns with more experience. He won an IRONMAN 70.3 in Ecuador in 2025, finished 11th at Challenge Samorin 2026 and also raced IRONMAN Frankfurt this season. A training block in Font-Romeu in August should help him arrive with his reserves fully topped up.

Nathan Guerbeur has also qualified for both Nice and Kona. A former duathlete who became a full-time long-distance triathlete in 2024, he finished eighth at IRONMAN Frankfurt and fifth at IRONMAN 70.3 Pays d’Aix in 2026.

Also worth following is the ever-reliable Casimir Moine, who enjoyed a spectacular 2025 season with three podiums in four races, including wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Tours in France and IRONMAN 70.3 Peru. In 2026, he has also finished second at IRONMAN 70.3 Punta del Este in Uruguay and fifth at IRONMAN 70.3 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain.

Valentin Rouvier, the 2025 French canicross champion, finished 9th at IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau in Germany and 8th at Embrunman 2026.

Félix Forissier, a three-time cross-triathlon world champion and the 2025 XTerra world champion, will race his first major international event on a road bike in Nice. He completes a French delegation that features a wide range of ambitious athletes.