Olympic History

Results, news & multimedia from past Olympic events

Triathlon made its official Olympic debut at Sydney 2000, where Simon Whitfield (CAN) and Brigitte McMahon (SUI) stamped their names in the history books as the sport’s first gold medallists. In Athens four years later, it was Hamish Carter (NZL) and Kate Allen’s (AUT) golden moment, before Emma Snowsill (AUS) and Jan Frodeno (GER) won the golds at Beijing 2008. At London 2012, it was Alistair Brownlee (GBR) who became Olympic champion in front of his home crowd along with Nicola Spirig (SUI), a feat he would repeat in Rio 2016 where Gwen Jorgensen (USA) was also crowned champion.

At Tokyo 2020, Flora Duffy made history by becoming Bermuda’s first ever Olympic gold medallist, beating Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) and Katie Zaferes (USA) into second and third. Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway won the men’s race, Alex Yee (GBR) and Hayden Wilde (NZL) with the silver and bronze. Tokyo also saw the first ever Olympic Mixed Team Relay event, with the Great Britain squad of Taylor-Brown, Yee, Jonathan Brownlee and Jessica Learmonth winning gold, USA finishing second and France third.

The official distance for Olympic triathlon is set at a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run - taken from existing events in each discipline already on the Olympic programme.

History of World Triathlon

Beijing 2008

Beijing, China | event page
Women: 18 August • Men: 19 August

Athens 2004

Athens, Greece | event page
Women: 25 August • Men: 26 August

Sydney 2000

Sydney, Australia | event page
Women: 16 September • Men: 16 September
Results
Results: Elite Men
1. Simon Whitfield CAN 01:48:24
2. Stefan Vuckovic GER 01:48:37
3. Jan Rehula CZE 01:48:45
4. Dmitriy Gaag KAZ 01:49:03
5. Ivan Raña Fuentes ESP 01:49:09
Results: Elite Women
1. Brigitte McMahon SUI 02:00:39
2. Michellie Jones AUS 02:00:41
3. Magali Di Marco Messmer SUI 02:01:07
4. Joanna Zeiger USA 02:01:25
5. Loretta Harrop AUS 02:01:42