Triathlon: Ironman Hawaii – Laura Philipp collapses two hours after the race

Triathlon Ironman in Hawaii

Collapse two hours after the race – Laura Philipp collapses

Status: 15.10.2023 | Reading time: 4 minutes

At the award ceremony, Laura Philipp was still somewhat strong

Quelle: Getty Images for IRONMAN/Christian Petersen

Laura Philipp delivers a spectacular World Championship race at the Ironman in Hawaii. But two hours after crossing the finish line she collapses. The 36-year-old reports that she still cannot hold herself upright.

She was in 26th place on the bike course and then in third place on the running course. It was a big fight that Laura Philipp fought on Sunday night at the Ironman in Hawaii – and which secured her, who came fourth in 2019 and 2022, a place on the podium: behind the winner Lucy Charles-Barclay and second place Anne Haug.

But no matter how happy Laura Philipp was with third place at the award ceremony, the big fight had its price. As she herself reported, Philipp suffered a breakdown. The 36-year-old professional triathlete from Heidelberg reported on Instagram that she collapsed two hours after crossing the finish line. She still can’t hold herself upright properly. As Philipp reported in another post, she unfortunately ended up in the medical tent instead of at the party. She was therefore missing from the official press conference of the top five athletes over the 3.86 kilometer swimming, 180.2 kilometer cycling and 42.2 kilometer running.

After four second places, the British Lucy Charles-Barclay secured victory with a new course record of 8:24:31 hours ahead of Anne Haug, who ran the fastest marathon in 2:48:32 hours and thus catapulted herself to the top. Behind him, Philipp had fought for third place late in the race (read the detailed race report with background information here). “This is a mega German result,” said Haug. And Philipp wrote: “I’m slowly feeling better and want to make sure I can celebrate properly tomorrow.”

“I learned my lessons”

Because the 36-year-old from Heidelberg more than deserved the celebration. She wanted that podium spot so badly. She, who came to triathlon late as a career changer and only taught herself freestyle swimming eleven years ago. Fourth place in her Hawaii debut in 2019 was a huge success, especially since she was able to do very little running training during preparation due to an injury. In the spring of 2022 she seemed to be in the form of her life to perform at the World Championships, which had been postponed from Kona 2021 to St. George in May 2022 due to the pandemic – but a week before she had to cancel due to COVID-19 illness. Philip was heartbroken.

Here you will find content from Twitter

In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.

Things should work out in Hawaii in 2022, maybe even with victory. But a five-minute time penalty “destroyed her race,” as she said in retrospect. Hawaii experienced an unprecedented number of slipstream penalties in both the women’s and men’s races last year; it turned into a farce because some reasons were not given and some athletes – including Philipp – felt treated unfairly. As a strong cyclist, she is always careful to follow the rules. In the end she fought her way up to fourth place. “It was hard to cope with that,” she says. At the race briefing before this race, the slipstream and other rules were a big topic. Not just for Philipp, who would prefer to have larger distances than the twelve meters required for Ironman events.

also read

Her goal this year was clear, and at a press event in Kailua-Kona before the race, she made no secret of it: she wants to finally get on the podium. “I have learned my lessons,” said Philipp. The fact that she lost more than seven minutes while swimming sounds more dramatic than it is: she still achieved her best swimming result in Hawaii. She then excelled on the bike and took to the running course in third place. Haug later rushed past her inimitable and also overtook the young American Taylor Knibb. Philipp fought, but until five kilometers from the finish it seemed as if it wasn’t enough again.

also read

Then, in her Ironman debut, Knibb had to pay tribute to the course, her pace and the island’s conditions: she stopped and walked. Philipp was already running with the last reserves, but overtook the American after kilometer 38. “I think,” triathlon legend Julie Moss once said, “it is your heart, your passion, that allows you to advance into new areas.”

also read