IRONMAN Lake Placid takes place this weekend in the US, with a number of top athletes chasing IRONMAN World Championship slots and Pro Series points in upstate New York.
Defending champions Joe Skipper and Alice Alberts return to the start line, with other notable names including Canadian Lionel Sanders, who is undefeated in 2024, and Jackie Hering, the recent IRONMAN European Champion.
In our preview piece below, you can find all the information you need on start times and how to watch live, plus a full rundown of the professional men and women’s fields.
Start times and how to watch live
IRONMAN Lake Placid takes place on Sunday July 21. The pro men start first, with the gun going off at 06:18 local time. This corresponds to 03:18 on the West Coast, 11:18 in the UK and 12:18 CET.
The pro women will start four minutes later at 06:22 local time. This corresponds to 03:22 on the West Coast, 11:22 in the UK and 12:22 CET.
You can watch live via the YouTube stream, which will be embedded here before race day!
In the US and Canada, the race can also be streamed live on Outside TV, with coverage in the rest of the world available via the IRONMAN Pro Series website here or DAZN.
As always, the ever reliable IRONMAN Tracker is the perfect data addition to support your viewing. If you haven’t got it on your phone already, where have you been?!
Pro Men
Defending champion Skipper has endured a testing 12 months since tasting victory here in 2023, with the Norfolk-based pro without a podium since he took the tape in Lake Placid.
Fifth at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona less than two years ago, the 36-year-old is yet to qualify for this year’s championships, with this weekend the penultimate chance to punch his ticket to the Big Island.
Sixth over the full distance in Australia last month, Skipper lost close to seven minutes on the run to Kiwi Braden Currie, who finished in second, and along with Sanders will be one of the Brit’s biggest rivals to take the win on Sunday.
Currie is without a win over the full distance since June 2023, when he won IRONMAN Cairns, whereas Sanders has not won an IRONMAN race since Arizona in 2017, going almost seven years without taking the tape.
Boasting a near unbeatable record over the middle distance, will Sanders finally land himself on the top step of the podium, having finished as the runner-up in no fewer than seven IRONMAN races over the last seven years.
Only time will tell, but to do so, he will have to hold off several top Americans, including training partner Trevor Foley, who recently destroyed the bike course record at IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder, and Matthew Marquardt, the oncologist who has been making waves since his pro debut last April.
Finally, veteran racers Matt Hanson and Sam Appleton will undoubtedly be in the mix for the top five if they’re firing on all cylinders, which both athletes seem to be doing this season, with Jackson Laundry, racing a full for the first time since IRONMAN Mallorca in 2021, my dark horse for a Kona spot.
Pro Women
In the women’s race, Hering leads an American-dominated lineup, with the PTO World #16 racing for the first time since her magnificent victory at IRONMAN Hamburg, which doubled as the European Championship, and saw her run to victory with a 2:52:32 marathon.
On a three-race podium streak after also finishing third and second at IRONMAN 70.3 St. George and IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga so far this year, the 39-year-old has established herself as a leading contender for the IRONMAN Pro Series title.
Currently sitting in sixth place in the standings, a win here could leapfrog her to the top of the standings, but only if she can get the better of Australian Kylie Simpson, who currently sits in second, just over 2,000 points ahead of her.
Simpson, along with her compatriots Penny Slater and Regan Hollioake, will be flying the flag for Oceania in Lake Placid. Slater in particular, off the back of a brilliant second place finish at IRONMAN Texas in April, could be one to watch on Sunday.
Other names to look out for include Dutch athlete Lotte Wilms, who finished third in Texas and second at IRONMAN Cairns, Olympian Sarah True and defending champion Alberts, who is chasing her first podium of the year.
Prize Money: What’s on the line?
The prize purse on offer this weekend is $125,000 – with each of the winners collecting a $18,000 share of that total.
As part of the IRONMAN Pro Series, athletes will also earn points as they seek to become the IRONMAN Pro Series Champion and win a share of the $1.7 million bonus prize purse.
In the USA, the maximum possible score will be 5,000 points for 1st place, with points for all remaining professional finishers diminishing based on the time deficit to first place, at a rate of 1 point per 1 second deficit to the winner’s finishing time.
In addition to money and series points, there will be a total of eight qualifying slots (four MPRO/four FPRO) for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice and Kona later this season.
The total funds will be paid ten-deep, as follows:
- $18,000
- $11,500
- $9,000
- $6,000
- $5,000
- $4,000
- $3,000
- $2,500
- $2,000
- $1,500
