On a tough-and-tactical course in Nice, France, the women’s pro field at the 2024 Ironman World Championship treated us to a race that left triathlon fans on the edge of their seats from start to finish. In the end, it was Germany’s Laura Philipp who took the win, running away from Great Britain’s Kat Matthews in the early miles of the marathon en route to a 8:45:15 victory.

The win is the first world title for Philipp, whose previous best was third in 2023 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Rounding out the podium in Nice was Matthews with an 8:53:20 and American Chelsea Sodaro in 9:04:38.

2024 Ironman World Championship Nice Results: Race Morning

In the lead-up to the race, the contenders all agreed the new Nice course was full of unknowns. Unlike Kona, with decades of historical race performances to draw predictions and strategy from, no one knew just how things would play out on the new 2.4-mile swim in the  Mediterranean Sea, 112-mile bike course through the mountains of France, and 26.2-mile flat-and-fast run along Nice’s Promenade des Anglais. The Ironman World Championship had only been held in Nice once before – a men’s-only event in 2023 with a much different cast of characters and race tactics than the women’s event.

Most pre-race predictions favored Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay, the super-swimmer who led last year’s world championship race in Kona from gun to tape. With Charles-Barclay in the race, it might have ended up as a game of cat-and-mouse, dragging the field forward as they attempt to bring her back. That all changed less than 24 hours before the race, when Charles-Barclay shocked the triathlon world by withdrawing due to injury; suddenly, the odds and dynamics shifted to favor anyone who emerged from the water close enough to work their way up to a lead group that was less hurried without a Charles-Barclay carrot to chase.

2024 Ironman World Championship Nice Results: The Swim

On race morning, water temperatures were substantially cooler than they’d been earlier in the week, and a pre-race reading of 71 degrees F meant that pros would barely be allowed to use wetsuits (for age groupers, the temperature cutoff is 76 degrees F). The wetsuits, combined with the salinity of the Mediterranean Sea (and the absence of Charles-Barclay), previewed a bunchier swim than the strung-out affair we can sometimes see.

In the first 875-meter stretch, a rotating cast of leaders, including Lauren Brandon (USA), Rebecca Clarke (NZL), and Marta Sanchez (ESP), took their turn pulling a train of 12 at the front. Unsurprisingly, Fenella Langridge (GBR) was a constant companion at their feet, taking advantage of the draft. The front pack also included the expected array of strong swimmers, including Hannah Berry (NZL), Lotte Wilms (NED), India Lee (GBR), Nina Derron (SUI), and Rachel Zilinskas (USA). But within that pack was one interesting addition: Kat Matthews (GBR), who had settled snugly in the middle of the lead group, behind Langridge, midway through the M-shaped swim course, having a fantastic swim.

Anne Haug (GER), Chelsea Sodaro (USA), and Marjolaine Pierre (FRA) found themselves fighting to stay in contact with the front pack. Haug and Sodaro, in particular, seemed to struggle at times – falling back, then surging, over and over.

In the final 800-meter stretch, Langridge attempted a big move, shifting to the left of race-leader Sanchez’s draft and increasing her stroke, but the pack was relentless, staying right with her all the way to the shore.

Langridge and Sanchez hit the timing mat together in 49:13, with Clarke, Brandon, Wilms, Berry, Zilinskas, and Matthews hot on their heels. Sodaro and Pierre were 45 seconds down, followed by Lee, who had surprisingly fallen to a three-minute deficit. Four minutes further behind were Haug, Derron, and Phillip – followed by Americans Jackie Hering and Alice Alberts at 6:10.

Eight minutes back was the largest chase pack, including Anne Reischmann (GER), while Els Visser (NED) emerged from the water 9:45 down. As the remaining pros exited the water and headed for the hinterland of Nice on their bikes, it was still anyone’s race.

2024 Ironman World Championship Nice Results: The Bike

Pierre – perhaps taking a page out of countryman and 2023 Nice winner Sam Laidlow’s playbook – went for it immediately out of T1, pushing to the front within the first miles of the bike. By mile 17, she had built a lead of 2:37 over a chase pack containing Matthews, Sanchez, Langridge, Brandon, Berry, and Clarke; by mile 25, her lead had extended to 2:53.

Sadly, the DNFs also began early, starting with Haug, who withdrew with a puncture in her super-light prototype Schwalbe tires only 200 meters out of transition and stuck without neutral support – leaving only one Ironman world champion left in the race. Next, Zilinskas took a spill on the first climb of the bike while adjusting her shoes and received attention on the side of the course. Later, she would be diagnosed with a broken collarbone.

By mile 25, Phillip had moved her way from 17th out of the swim to 10th place. By mile 33, Phillip had joined the chase pack, riding in third place only one minute down from Matthews and 3:23 back from Pierre.

Though the Col d l’Ecre was full of entertaining position changes throughout the field, it became the Philipp-Matthews show on the signature climb, with Philipp finally joining Matthews at mile 35. Would the two strongest cyclists on the course work together to catch Pierre, or would it be every athlete for herself?

At the top of the Col d l’Ecre, Pierre began to shift around and look over her shoulder. Just before the halfway point, she fumbled a water bottle grab at an aid station. Soon, Philipp was breathing down her neck, only 23 seconds down at the 59-mile marker; Matthews was another 30 seconds back.

Philipp bided her time behind Pierre through several switchbacks before finally making her move on a straightaway. At the halfway point, Philipp moved to the front of the race – something no one could have predicted at this point in the game a few days ago.

At this point, the race became just as much of a mental game as a physical one, as Philipp, Matthews, and Pierre fought for position while staying just close enough to evade drafting penalties. Pierre took back the lead briefly, then Philipp, then Matthews again; the cycle repeated itself once more, almost as if they were taking turns blocking the wind on a Sunday group ride. As the trio rode together, Pierre often sat up in the base bars, a stark contrast to Matthews’ and Philipp’s perfectly stationary aero positions.

Behind, other groups were forming: Wilms, Sodaro, and Sanchez five minutes down in fourth through sixth place at the halfway point, further back, Astle, Reischmann, and Nikki Bartlett (GBR), were working their way through the ranks, riding from 21st, 27th, and 22nd out of the swim, respectively, to 10th, 11th, and 12th at the halfway point of the bike and gaining ground.

On the Descente Greolieres, a 5%-grade downhill at mile 75, these packs started to break apart. First, Matthews and Philipp dropped Pierre – surprising, given the Nice resident’s knowledge of local roads. Sodaro and Sanchez sat in the next pack, five minutes back. Up next was the most technical portion of the course – the long, twisting, and windy descent into T2.

At first, it looked like Philipp’s skills – built on what she called her “training playground” in the mountains of Europe – would prove advantageous. With each hairpin turn, Philipp gained a bit more ground on Matthews, building a lead of four seconds at mile 76, then 42 seconds at mile 89. Pierre fell back even further, losing almost three minutes to Philipp in the span of just 13 miles. At mile 89, the gap back from Matthews and Philipp to Sodaro had swelled to roughly six minutes and would grow from there, as Sodaro lost substantial time on the descent back into Nice.

But then, as she did earlier in the race, Matthews stealthily bridged the gap, initiating another challenge for the front position. If the move was a psychological one, it worked – in one of the final turns heading into transition, Philipp – who had otherwise been technically perfect on the course – took a left-hand corner too wide and jumped the curb onto a sidewalk. But a crash was avoided, and Philipp was able to not only catch back up to Matthews, but arrive in T2 right on her shoulder.

Both dismounted at exactly the same time – Philipp with a race-best 5:02:25 bike split, Matthews with the second-fastest ride of the day in 5:05:46. They pulled into T2 together to find out who would come out on top – hoping that it wouldn’t be Pierre, who entered T2 in third place 6:43 down, or run speedster Chelsea Sodaro in fourth, 9:48 behind.

2024 Ironman World Championship Nice Results: The Run

Even in T2, it was an all-out competition between Matthews and Philipp – seeing who could speed through transition the fastest. Out onto the run, Matthews took off first, but Philipp quickly joined her, making a statement by pulling up right on her elbow and running shoulder to shoulder, averaging just above six minutes per mile through the first six miles.

Then, in a move that would prove to be a turning point in the race, they suddenly split to opposite sides of the road. It seemed to be the space Philipp needed: At about 7.5 miles, Philipp put on a surge and finally got the gap she’d been looking for.

Behind, Sodaro passed Pierre for third place around mile five, moving through with 6:40 min/mile splits to Pierre’s 7:13 average pace. Though Sodaro set out with almost the same intensity that she brought to her 2022 Ironman World Championship victory, where she averaged 6:10 min/miles for the marathon, there was still a lot of ground to cover, and more than a 10-minute gap to bridge to the front.

And that gap was growing larger by the mile, with Philipp striding to a lead of 53 seconds ahead of Matthews at the 11.5-mile marker – the greatest distance between the two since they had taken over the front of the race on the bike course.

Meanwhile, Sodaro still sat in third as she approached the halfway mark of the marathon, and while she’d distanced herself from Pierre, who still sat in third, Sodaro wasn’t gaining on either Philipp or Matthews at all – in fact, she was losing time, falling to 12 minutes behind Philipp at the halfway point. Behind them, the fastest movers in the top 10 were Bartlett and Penny Slater (AUS), who were both running well and had gone from eighth and ninth off the bike into sixth and seventh, respectively at mile 13.

With 10 miles to go, Matthews began to show signs of cracking. She slowed to a walk, pulling an emergency gel from her kit and taking the time to eat it all before resuming her run. At aid stations, she paused to take in calories and hydration. Cramping set in, and she grimaced as she grabbed her leg. With eight miles to go, Matthews still had more than 10 minutes on Sodaro, who had just picked off Pierre for third place. Could she salvage second, or would the wheels fall off?

What wasn’t in question: Philipp’s lead, which continued to grow even larger. In the final miles, she showed no signs of fatigue, opening up her stride and smiling for the first time on the Promenade des Anglais. Shaking her head in disbelief, she accepted high-fives from the crowd and fellow competitors before turning into the finisher’s chute. With a marathon time of 2:44:59, Philipp achieved her longtime goal of winning her first Ironman World Championship title.

The cushion Philipp built over the course of the race was more than enough time to soak in the enormity of what she had accomplished. She collected high-fives and fist bumps from the crowd before embracing second-place Matthews at the finish line eight minutes later. Sodaro finished 19 minutes down in third, collapsing from exhaustion at the finish line.

Pierre received a hero’s welcome from the hometown crowd as she finished fourth with a time of 9:09:34, and Bartlett, in her best Ironman World Championship performance to date, placed fifth in 9:15:47.

Laura Philipp on winning the 2024 Ironman World Championship

“It was one of those days, it was super tough,” Philipp said at the finish line. “I have no idea about my swim time, but I think it wasn’t too bad…[after the swim] I thought, OK, let’s push the bike as hard as possible. and I think I overdid it a little, but I really wanted to catch up to Marjolaine and Kat at the front. Once I caught up, I couldn’t get rid of them, and it was a bit of cat-and-mouse. I knew it was going to be tough, but I just tried to believe and tell myself I could actually do it.”

Philipp also credited her dedication to menstrual cycle tracking, something she has previously mentioned as a factor to success on the race course. “For this race, a lot of things were actually coming together. So for example, I was in the first half of my menstrual cycle, and I always told myself, once this happens on on a world championship race day, this is the chance. I feel so much stronger than in the second [half].”

On running a sub-2:45 marathon, Philipp said “I knew I was capable of something like this, but I didn’t really know it was possible until after that bike ride, because I really had to attack in order to get a chance to come to the front here. I’m just so thankful to my body that I was able to stick together.”

Kat Matthews on second place at the 2024 Ironman World Championship

“Hands down to Laura Philipp, she was totally the better athlete,” Matthews said at the finish line. “I’m so proud I got the most out of her.”

After what she called a “career-best swim,” Matthews said that during the bike leg, “I was surprised to Laura come up and suddenly come past me and drop me so quickly. I took some time on the hill, she took some time on the descents, it was really quite fun.”

As for her struggles on the run. “I gave it what I had. I went out hard, I really wanted to try to have a PB [personal best], but it wasn’t to be.” Saying her glute “properly spasmed” and that she “couldn’t move her leg,” Matthews says the move to walk the aid stations was the best one, allowing her to reset.

“It totally took the pressure off me, and it was all about finishing,” she said. “Silver lining, I could control and do whatever I could to get to the finish.”

Chelsea Sodaro on third place at the 2024 Ironman World Championship

“It was one of the hardest races of my life,” Sodaro said at the finish line. “I had a good swim, I did my best to navigate that bike course, and the run was going OK until it got really hard in the second half or so.”

Though Sodaro says she would “have preferred to be up front” on the bike course, she admitted she’s “not quite there yet.”

“I just stuck to the plan as best I could. Kat and Laura were just spectacular today. They were spectacular. It was a big battle just getting to the start line here, I’m just happy I was able to produce such a solid performance.”

Marjolaine Pierre on third fourth at the 2024 Ironman World Championship

“I felt so, so good,” Pierre said at the finish line. “I started riding after the swim and my legs were just phenomenal. I’m just so happy.”

2024 Ironman World Championship Nice Results: Top 10

For the full race results from the 2024 Ironman World Championship, visit the Ironman Tracker.