It’s here! It’s finally here! Championship season is upon us — and it’s spread out even further than normal with the split full-distance championship events. But we lead off with more than 6,000 registered athletes for this weekend’s IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Over half the field hails from Europe, with the United States the most well represented single nation at just over one-sixth of registrations.

We expect fast and furious racing all weekend long, but particularly from the professional fields. The women’s race will kick things off on Saturday (or Friday night, for the Americans, with midnight E.T. / 9 PM Pacific broadcast times). Let's take a look at our pre-race favorites.

Women’s Contenders

Taylor Knibb: The defending 70.3 World Champion has been on a roll throughout 2023, taking decisive victories at both IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder and the PTO US Open. More worryingly for her fellow competitors this weekend, though, has to be her run performance at the Paris Test Event, where she closed gaps and moved her way through the field to claim her Olympic slot. The run has been her sole question mark, as she’s faded slightly late on 70.3 runs, including at her victory in St. George last year. She’s never finished worse than third in a PTO Open or IRONMAN 70.3 event, and it would be hard to see her off the podium barring some type of catastrophic equipment failure.

Paula Findlay: Last year’s runner-up, Findlay looks on potential form to swap her silver to gold. Starting off the year with dueling fifth place finishes at Oceanside and the European Open, Findlay delivered a masterclass in Chattanooga to take the win there. She’s wrapped up her summer racing time trial and by taking bronze at the US Open. From a race dynamic perspective, Findlay is one of the few riders who could push to stay with Knibb, then force the race into a run duel, where their times are relatively equivalent. This is a course that rewards athletes who can tick miles off, grinding away uncomfortably. Findlay’s proven to be pretty darn good at it.

Daniela Ryf: Speaking of women who might ride with Knibb, we’d be remiss not to mention the multi-time world champion. For lack of a better term, Ryf is back on her bullshit in 2023, and we mean that endearingly — she’s either won or DNF’d this year. You have to go back to the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships to find a middle distance race Ryf has finished where she hasn’t been first or second. It’s been over a year since she has finished a middle distance event and not won it. It’s hard to imagine a race where she would not be a threat for victory.

Emma Pallant-Browne A consistent podium threat, Pallant-Browne’s gone four-for-five on podiums to starts this year, and barely missed going five for five by missing out in Ibiza. Given the long, gradual grind uphill of this bike course, versus a punchier, more challenging way towards vertical, it may help Pallant-Browne stay closer in touch to the front of the race, allowing her to unleash an outstanding run — one that had her eating into the deficit Knibb and Findlay had at 70.3 Worlds last year. She should also have less fatigue, having raced half the events in 2023 she did last year. She’s my sleeper winner pick.

Laura Philipp: It’s the first time Philipp will race 70.3 Worlds since 2017, where she took third. Since that time, she went on a ho-hum streak of not losing a race in Europe for five years. (It’s a ridiculous statistic that I still can’t get over.) That streak only ended with a “pedestrian” third place in Roth this year, which goes along with three victories, and coming off a fourth place finish in Kona in 2022. It’s really just a question of where Philipp is coming out of the water. If the deficit is small enough, she’s got the ride and run goods. But that deficit out of the water is always the question mark. Still…not picking Philipp for a race in Europe feels like a recipe to look foolish.

Full Women’s Field

1 Taylor Knibb
2 Paula Findlay
3 Emma Pallant- Browne
4 Daniela Ryf
6 Holly Lawrence
8 Jackie Hering
9 Laura Philipp
11 Tamara Jewett
12 Anne Reischmann
15 Kat Matthews
16 Marjolaine Pierre
18 Ellie Salthouse
19 Danielle Lewis
20 Rach McBride
22 Caroline Pohle
23 Pamella Oliveira
24 Anna Bergsten
25 Ai Ueda
26 Olivia Mitchell
28 Charlene Clavel
29 Lucy Buckingham
30 India Lee
31 Maja Stage Nielsen
33 Imogen Simmonds
34 Amelia Watkinson
35 Giorgia Priarone
38 Laura Jansen
39 Hannah Berry
40 Emilie Morier
41 Daniela Kleiser
42 Alexia Bailly
43 Anna Noguera Raja
44 Lottie Lucas
45 Kaidi Kivioja
46 Kate Curran
47 Tiina Pohjalaine
48 Lisa Gerß
49 Justine Guerard
50 Sarah Bishop
51 Julioe Iemmolo
52 Eloise du Luarte
53 Laura Addie
54 Nikita Paskiewiez
55 Brittany Higgins
56 Bruna Stolf
57 Amy Cymerman