The World Triathlon Podcast

After taking a year away from triathlon in 2020, Jo Brown returned in Yokohama and, despite breaking her nose during the warm up, came away with plenty of positives as the Tokyo 2020 build up continues. The Canadian takes us through the event in Japan, looks ahead to the Olympic Qualification Mixed Relay event in Lisbon, and back over the past year, including life in a van in the wilderness with great friend Chelsea Burns.

The return to the World Triathlon Championship Series finally arrived with WTCS Yokohama more than living up to the hype as the world's best made their return to the blue carpet in Japan. Belgium's Jelle Geens dials in from his trip back to Girona to give us the lowdown on all the comings and goings from the weekend and of course his remarkable final 2km race for the gold with Kristian Blummenfelt.

Hailing from Rabat, Mehdi Essadiq and Badr Siwane are close friends and training partners, and both are on a mission to make history as Morocco's first ever Olympic triathlete. But with only one spot available on the Tokyo 2020 start list and just one ranking place between them, the race is on to see who will succeed.

Beth Potter left her life as an Olympic runner and a teacher to move to Leeds, train with the Brownlees and become a world-class triathlete. Bouncing back from self doubt in Hamburg, 2020 finished well with a World Cup gold and silver. More recently, the Scot scored hit the headlines with a 5,000m World Record time of 14.41 and now has the famous five rings in her sights once more.

At the start of the year, USA's Junior and U23 World Champion Taylor Knibb moved to Boulder, Colorado, to join an international training team for the first time. As the 2021 season start comes closer, she hopes that the environment will help her return to the World Triathlon Championship Series podium she hit at Edmonton 2017 and galvanise her huge ambition in triathlon.

After completing the switch from Team Australia to representing Japan in 2018, Kenji Nener has begun the next chapter in a career that has already seen him training with some of the best in the sport and coping with the disappointment of missing out on what could have been the race of his life. He reveals how he bounced back from that crash in Karlovy Vary and is setting his sights on Olympic qualification and the prospect of a home Games in Tokyo.

After two world titles with the Mixed Relay squad, France's Leo Bergere also landed World Championship bronze in 2020, his first Series podium. He tells us how he is looking forward to the battle for Olympic berths between the deeply talented French set up, why the Grand Prix circuit has powered the current national success and how learning to take risks has improved his racing.

The USA's Kevin McDowell's triathlon journey has taken in some incredible highs and lows, none more so than his diagnosis with cancer shortly after a breakthrough year as a junior back in 2011. Now 10 years cancer-free, he eloquently and openly describes the impact of that time, his mental and physical struggle back to full fitness and how it all just may have delayed his peak at the right time ahead of his final push to reach the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Ahead of the World Triathlon Winter Championships in Andorra on 20-21 March, we take a closer look at the cross-country ski and mountain bike version of swim-bike-run with Italy's Sandra Mairhofer and World Triathlon's encyclopaedia of all things multisport Enrique Quesada.

Kuwait's Najla al Jeraiwi and Egypt's Basmla Elsalamoney join us for an International Women's Day double episode, sharing the stories of their pioneering journeys towards representing their countries on the World Triathlon stage.