Could Vincent Luis be a CrossFit Champion? Who are the ultimate athletes - triathletes or CrossFitters? Could you row a marathon?

Hailing from San Diego, California, Lauren Fisher is a 7 x CrossFit Games athlete and former Junior national weightlifting champion in the US who tuned in to the world of CrossFit from a young age initially to help with her basketball training. The multi-dimensional fitness competitions soon took over as her sport of choice, however, and after a decade competing at the top level, she now also runs her own signature fitness programmes and retreats for those looking for a slice of the Lauren lifestyle. Lauren hit her first Olympic distance triathlon in Hamburg's open races and thinks there could be more crossover potential between the sports.

Listeners can receive a 50% discount for Lauren's Grown Strong fitness programme for women using the code worldtriathlon

Will McCloy is best know to triathlon fans as the commentary voice behind the Arena Games and Super League, for whom he has been calling races for over five years. The Australian took a first dip into Age Group World Championship racing in Hamburg in mid-July, where he puked, fought walls and raced actual former elite champions. McCloy reveals the importance of testing himself, the power of preparation and the potent competition to be found among middle-aged men on an AG triathlon start line.

Rasmus Henning (DEN)

Two-time top 10 Olympic triathlete ✅ Multiple World Cup and Ironman winner ✅ One of Denmark’s most successful triathletes of all time ✅

Back in 2010 he joined an elite club of male athletes to complete a sub-8hour Ironman and posted one of the fastest ever times at Challenge Roth, a four-time Kona vet, he could most recently be seen rolling back the years and tearing up the course at the WTCS Hamburg Age Group Sprint World Championships, winning silver in the 45-49 category. He is also the CEO and performance director of Triathlon Denmark after recently working with the Danish Olympic Committee.

Denmark's triathlon titan Rasmus Henning found his competitive edge was as sharp as ever as he returned to the blue carpet in Hamburg. After picking up silver at the AG World Championships as legends like Daniel Unger and Stuart Hayes took to the opportunity to get back to competition, the Great Dane relives the Hamburg magic, the unique tussles of the $200,000 Hy-Vee race and missing out on winning a Hummer.

We take a look ahead to the fourth stop on the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series - WTCS Montreal - with former World Champion Non Stanford and Tommy Zaferes, to figure out just where the race can be won and lost - and by whom. The chase for World Championship points continues over a demanding sprint-distance course, Vasco Vilaça of Portugal and USA's Taylor Spivey wear the golden #1 and look to continue their chase for the 2023 world titles.

After switching from representing the tricolor of France to the tri-suit of Luxembourg in 2022, Jeanne Lehair has been in the form of her life, seizing the new opportunities that have come her way to post career-best Series finishes and become the Triathlon Champion of Europe. She gives us the lowdown on squaring off that difficult decision to switch ahead of Paris 2024, the battle in Madrid and her targets for the rest of what is already a season for the ages.

You can watch her race in June's French Grand Prix and WTCS Montreal over on TriathlonLive.tv.

A four-month goal achieved together - France's Marjolaine Pierre and Clement Mignon took Ibiza by storm as they won the 2023 World Triathlon Long Distance Championships in May. Taking the tape just minutes apart, it was an iconic finish to two outstanding races by the couple that have been together since racing the Junior National Championships back in 2018. That was the end of a long and difficult road for both of them, but now the ambitions are turning to Nice and Kona.

Portugal's Vasco Vilaça heads to WTCS Cagliari as the world number one after an electrifying start to the 2023 season saw back-to-back podiums in Abu Dhabi and Yokohama. We catch up with him and World Triathlon photographer Tommy Zaferes from his base in Sardinia to find out what makes him tick on and off the blue carpet and who is the FIFA king of the JFT training crew.

episode notes

02'50 - FIFA wars - Vilaça vs Geens vs Bicsak

08'50 - Natalie Van Coevorden - passenger imposter

11'50 - Swim cap crying - losing the coveted no.1 cap

15'35 - WTCS Yokohama rewind - cramping capers, Hauser pounces

20'10 - Battling the waves in Cagliari - tips from a former lifesaver

31'40 - Sprint finishers - who you got, Coninx or Bergere, Wilde or Yee?

34'35 - Eagle versus Falcon

25'20 - Race no.1: passing the time on the starting line

38'00 - Pre-race nerves and the power of the nap

43'00 - Abstinence among athletes

45'30 - Fantasy Triathlon League: Tommy kiss of death obstri.com/fantasy

51'50 - What's next in 2023 and Paris 2024 plans

The USA's Erika Ackerlund spoke out recently about the paralysing nerves she felt at the start of the 2022 season, and where the pressure she had unwittingly placed on herself had put her mental health. The 26-year-old reveals what helped her through it, and how she hopes to channel her nervous energy into something positive in 2023.

Hans Christian Tungesvik has played his own part in Norway's triathlon explosion in recent years, an Ironman and Norseman champion who made the switch to Winter Triathlon in 2021 in triumphant fashion, winning individual and relay golds on his championship debut. With the 2023 World Championships being held in his native Skeikampen, we catch up with one of the favourites for this year's title and hear just what it takes to become an extreme tri world champion, and how Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden have reshaped Norway's triathlon landscape.

It was one of the most gripping climaxes to a season possible as a dramatic final 500m of the men's 2022 World Triathlon Championship Finals saw Leo Bergere eventually emerge with gold and the world title at the end of a hard-fought campaign. Ahead of his return to the desert for the 2023 season opener, we caught up with Bergere in Girona to hear how he finally got the better of Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde and what makes the French squad such aa force to be reckoned with heading in to the new year of racing.

Watch WTCS Abu Dhabi on 3 March on TriathlonLive.tv

With the start of the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series just around the corner, World Triathlon met up with Vincent Luis in the Girona hills where he lives and trains. This bonus episode is a short excerpt from the full interview with the two-time World Champion, and will be available to watch soon exclusively on TriathlonLive.tv along with all of the new season's action from the blue carpet.

Stand by for the season launch on 17 February.

In mid-December, the word was finally out - Rio 2016 Olympic Champion Gwen Jorgensen was coming back to World Triathlon racing in 2023. A seven-year break from the blue carpet, two children and some serious marathon running since she hung up her tri-suit, one of the best of all time is back and eyeing a spot on the USA Mixed Relay squad for Paris 2024. Hear how it all came about and why on the latest episode of the World Triathlon Podcast.

Netherlands' Maya Kingma kicks off the new season of World Triathlon podcasts, the rising talent who fought through the pain barrier at the end of 2022 to help determine the outcome of WTCS Bermuda, was caught up in a bike crash in Abu Dhabi, and is looking to ease into the new year fully fit and ready to consistently hit the heights she has shown over the past two campaigns. After a little glitz at the first ever Global Triathlon Awards!

Gillian Sanders and Tommy Zaferes join the podcast to give their own inside takes on a season that has had it all, and look ahead to the big one - the 2022 Championship Finals Abu Dhabi, where the headline battles between Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee, Flora Duffy and Georgia Taylor-Brown for the men's and women's world titles are set to provide the season's final chapter of unmissable action!

Ahead of his first race back from an injury that has kept him off the blue carpet since Abu Dhabi 2021, we are in Chile to speak with USA's Morgan Pearson at the Vina del Mar World Cup and catch up on where the Olympic Mixed Triathlon Relay silver medallist is at mentally and physically as he builds back towards the all-important Paris 2024 campaign.

For 2022 World Coach Day, we catch up with Brazil Triathlon's High Performance Manager Rodrigo Milazzo and Tibor Lehmann, coach of Hungarian hotshot Csongor Lehmann, and hear how they are determined to convert years of work into Olympic success at Paris 2024, and exactly what it might take to realise those dreams over the next two seasons on the World Triathlon blue carpet.

Ahead of an hotly anticipated first World Cup in their hometown of Bergen, Norway’s triathlon totems reveal the secrets of the City of Seven Mountains and just how they manage to keep pushing each others limits and buttons during training. From Iden’s mortal fear of birds to the sneakier side of Blummenfelt’s race tactics and the prospect of a complete overhaul of their Olympic formula for Paris 2024, it’s a brilliant hour in the company of the two great friends and rivals.

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New Zealand's Craig Kirkwood began working with Hayden Wilde back in 2016 and has since helped develop a raw multisport talent into an Olympic medallist and world title contender. On this episode, he reveals how a tenacious Wilde first made him aware of his ability as the pair chased a $1,000 prize and how he prefers the art of coaching to the science, and looks forward to a potential world championship showdown in Abu Dhabi.

Dogged by injuries at almost every crucial step of his young career, Sam Dickinson is now ready to break out of the shadows in 2022. Serving as a domestique and standby for GB’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic hopefuls, Sam has had to bide his time, but after helping land the first Mixed Relay spots of the Paris 2024 qualifiers - including a controversial penalty that nearly cost the team dearly - he is now laser-focussed on a big Commonwealth Games debut and kicking on in the new Olympic cycle. 

We're back and delighted to cast an eye over some of the remarkable action from the Championship Series races over the past months, as well as a first look ahead to the Commonwealth Games, with one of the young athletes making a name for himself in Leeds and Hamburg, Jamie Riddle. The 22-year-old is a shining example of the power of positivity and seizing your opportunities when they present themselves, as we take a look at the new generation coming through and bringing the heat to start of the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle.