Show Notes
A very special guest joins the podcast to mark the 100th episode, the Paris 2024 Olympic Triathlon Champion Cassandre Beaugrand! It is a deeply honest hour in the company of our Olympic and World Champion, each story revealing a little more about just where all the grit, determination and competitive spirit that has taken the 27-year-old to the very top of the sport came from. Cass explains why she so cherished the support of teammate Leonie Periault, even when she was being ‘a nightmare’ to train with, why she was so envious of the cool, calm spirit of Andrea Hewitt, and why she threw up all over her feet next to Georgia Taylor Brown in Paris.
SHOW NOTES 02:20 – 'All change' - Why she is joining coach Glenn Poleunis in Girona and saying goodbye to Loughborough 13:17 – ‘How success feels’ - Releasing the pressure, the 5km French record and Lievin 19:40 – ‘Early years’ - Growing up in Paris, losing her mum, moving to Antibes 23:50 – ‘All change’ - Leaving her father as coach and moving to Montpelier 27:45 – ‘Bad mindset’ - Being hard to coach and pushing too much in training 31:37 – ‘Good people’ – Support of Stephanie Gros and Leonie Periault 33:25 – 'Christmas present’ – Being the youngest woman at Rio 2016 37:20 – 'Shattered dreams' – The trouble with Tokyo 41:40 – 'I need a plan' – The move to Loughborough 45:26 – 'Pain threshold' – Pain and gains in WTCS Cagliari 52:08 – 'Paris panic' – The rain returns on Olympics day 57:00 – 'Lost at sea' – Turning it around in Torremolinos
More from The World Triathlon Podcast
Will McCloy and Belinda Granger are back on the pod with Doug Gray for the all-encompassing 2026 World Triathlon Championship Finals Pontevedra Preview Show! After a quick spin over the Karlovy Vary Demolition Derby, it's all eyes on Spain, where this year's Finals will open on 23 September, before four days of racing culminating in the women's and men's world championship showdowns on 26th and 27th. Can Vasco Vilaça deliver his destiny with a first world title? Will Cass Beaugrand succeed where she couldn't in 2023 when Beth Potter pipped her to the crown? Just what drama does the the Grand Final have in store for us this time around?! There is always something that spills out of the pressure pot of a champ finals, it's just a matter of what, when and how big. See you out there!
It was quite the weekend of racing at the World Triathlon Championship Series Weihai to close out August and lead us into an almighty September that will decide our 2026 World Champions. Cassandre Beaugrand hit the perfect score with a fourth straight gold, Matt Hauser hit the deck and finished 10th, and the men's world title is now firmly in Vasco Vilaça's hands. TriathlonLive's crack commentary duo Will McCloy and Belinda Granger join Doug Gray to pick through the racing and look ahead to WTCS Karlovy Vary on 13 September. Watch it all unfold on TriathlonLive.io from 10am local time.
Dialling in this week from an August altitude camp in Font Romeu is Alberto Gonzalez. One of the few men who has been able to push Matt Hauser and Vasco Vilaça all the way so far in 2026, a late penalty robbed the Spaniard of a big finish and potential medal at WTCS London. Fifth place was still a huge result for the 28-year-old as he builds the best season of his career, and the man known as Speedy Gonzalez heads to Weihai still gunning for that first WTCS podium, plus a real chance to help his training partner Vilaça slow Hauser's charge up the rankings with a massive race in China!
The penultimate stop of the regular 2026 World Triathlon Championship Series heads to Weihai, China on 29 September, with two very high profile names chasing the wins that would give them the perfect 4000 points score going into the decisive Pontevedra Championship Finals. So will it be mission accomplished for Matt Hauser and Cassandre Beaugrand or can Beth Potter and Lisa Tertsch, Alberto Gonzalez and Csongor Lehmann slow their rivals' seemingly unstoppable progress? The build up begins here in the company of our very own WTCS commentary duo Will McCloy and Belinda Granger!
The WTCS Hamburg weekend cooked up plenty of thrills and spills across the Championship Series, Para Series and Mixed Relay World Championships action. In this episode we go back into the mix, from pre-race penalties to unexplained pull-outs, transition crashes to super-sprint thrashes, as well as previewing the WTCS London on 25 July and saluting an all-time great as Flora Duffy announces her retirement.