Cassandre Beaugrand claimed victory at the World Triathlon Championship Series Grand Final in Torremolinos, Andalusia, Spain to become world champion and Olympic champion in the same year. She is only the second woman to achieve this after Flora Duffy in 2021, and also makes history as the first French female world champion.
Beaugrand has had a truly dominant season going undefeated over the Championship Series races, but the Grand Final was anything but a formality as she faced formidable competition as well as a fright in the swim.
Positioned on the right side of the swim start, the Paris Olympic gold medalist started strong but veered off course in the choppy waters. She reached the first buoy last, but moved up to end the first lap of 750 metres only 30 seconds down. Closing the gap even further, she came out of the water in the top 10, just 15 seconds in arrears.
With a good swim-to-bike transition, Beaugrand began the 40-kilometre bike leg in the lead pack and set the pace around the eight-lap course, alienating the chase groups and setting up a showdown on the 10-kilometre run with 2023 world champion Beth Potter and French teammate Emma Lombardi in the mix.
Running shoulder-to-shoulder with Potter and Lombardi for the first two laps, Beaugrand surged at the tail end of the second lap to put daylight between her and the rest of the field. From there the title was hers to lose but she would only tighten her grip on it even more, breaking the tape with a 37-second margin.
Already leading the Series going into the race and in contention for the USD $19,000 series top prize as well as the $70,000 bonus, Beaugrand solidified her #1 ranking with the win and added the $30,000 prize from the Final for the maximum payday possible, capping what has been a superlative year.
She said post-race, “It was moving so much, the waves, so I had no idea where I was on the first lap. I just knew I was in a very tricky position on the first buoy. Obviously it was my mistake. I just tried not to panic and to find a solution to come back to the front. I’m not letting this title get away from me right now.”
Recalling her training build post-Olympics, Beaugrand revealed, “I was like, okay, no, I need to prove I deserve to be Olympic champion and maybe I need to be world champion for that. And it was hard, the last few weeks of preparation because after the Olympics you go through so many emotions as well. It is hard to motivate yourself to train hard again.”
Having been on the cusp of a world title last year only to come away the runner-up drove her. “I just wanted this world title so badly and have dreamed about it for so many years. Last year I was very disappointed finishing second. Nobody can take this away from me now. I was training hard and fighting all year for this one.”
Bahrain Victorious 13 teammates Georgia Taylor-Brown and Kate Waugh finished 21st and 19th respectively for a final series ranking of 6th and 8th.
