Eight world titles among 38 wins in 2022 bring the Bahrain Victorious 13 total to 34 since the team was created seven years ago. The team’s stable of champion athletes took on every opportunity to push their limits and make their mark to promote a culture of health, wellness, and endurance sporting excellence to the Gulf region and beyond.
When he won the Ironman World Championship in St. George back in May, Kristian Blummenfelt became the first athlete ever to win an Olympic gold medal, the World Triathlon Championship, and Ironman World Championship in the span of 12 months. But his year was just getting started; one month later he became the first man to go under seven hours over the full distance of triathlon at the Pho3nix Sub7 Project, Powered by Zwift. He then went on to win the Ironman 70.3 World Championship only a few weeks after he placed third in his first appearance at Kona for the year’s second Ironman World Championship.
Blummenfelt wasn’t the only man to go under seven hours. At very short notice, Joe Skipper took on the challenge to race him at Sub7 when Alistair Brownlee bowed out due to injury. Skipper then recorded Ironman wins in Wales and Arizona; in between them he recorded his highest career finish at Kona, placing fifth.
In that small window of time between a hip stress reaction that took him out of Sub7 and a stress fracture in his femur that kept him from racing Kona, Brownlee won Ironman 70.3 Swansea and Ironman Sweden.
Daniela Ryf took her fifth Ironman world title in May to surpass Chrissie Wellington’s four and become second only to Paula Newby-Fraser’s seven. She also defended her Ironman Switzerland title and raced alongside Blummenfelt and Holly Lawrence to help defend Team Europe’s title at the PTO Collins Cup.
Lauren Parker won both Ironman World Championship races held in 2022, proving her mettle on the vastly different courses and environments in St. George and Kona. She also showed versatility across distances by defending her Paratriathlon world title and winning every short-course race she entered.
Georgia Taylor-Brown raked in a gamut of medals: Commonwealth Games individual silver and mixed relay gold, World Triathlon Championship Series silver, a successful Super League Triathlon championship defense and the World Triathlon sprint distance world title. With 2022 seeing the introduction of the Bahrain Victorious Scorpions in Super League Triathlon teams racing, Taylor-Brown led the Scorpions to the overall team win, supported by Cassandre Beaugrand and Tyler Mislawchuk snapping up points and bonuses for positions and performance in swim, bike, and run.
Beaugrand also had a banner year finishing a career-high 5th in the WTCS world rankings and anchoring France’s mixed relay team to another world championship.
Vincent Luis was another major contributor to the French mixed relay gold, achieving this between getting heart surgery early in the year and overcoming a running injury. He then came back to win WTCS Bermuda and finished the year ranked #5 before achieving back-to-back middle distance wins including the Ironman 70.3 Middle East Championship Bahrain.
Racing on every continent in the world in the signature red and white colors they share with the kingdom of Bahrain, the Bahrain Victorious 13 continues to be the benchmark of excellence in triathlon standing tall as the most successful team in the sport.
