Already at the summit again: Jan Frodeno repeats his triumph in Hawaii and also wins in 2016. Image: dpa
At the Ironman World Championships in Nice, the German triathlete is facing perhaps the biggest, but certainly last, race of his career. Can he still do it at 42 years old? Jan Frodeno is under pressure.
It’s his last race. His last fight. His final goal in this sport. On Sunday (start at 6:50 a.m. on hr television) Jan Frodeno will end his unprecedented career at the Ironman World Championships in Nice. Not in Hawaii, which he regrets but cannot change because the Ironman organizer, in his brazen search for financial optimization, decided this time it was right to transplant the men’s competition from the Big Island to the Côte d’Azur – an idea that makes no sense , as if Formula 1 were moving the Grand Prix from Monaco to Ibiza. But whatever.
The athletes were not in demand and so Frodeno will make his last appearance on a European stage, with Nice as a second choice not a bad place. The city has a long triathlon tradition, the atmosphere is right, the World Cup has a worthy setting, even without the mythical force that makes the Ironman in Hawaii unattainable in every respect.
