Norway Strikes Again: Solveig Løvseth (NOR) is Victorious on Debut at the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawai`i

October 12, 2025

- Kat Matthews (GBR) and Laura Philip (DEU) finish in second and third respectively, completing the podium - A day for the history books that saw both the 2022 and 2023 IRONMAN World Champions DNF, and a dramatic lead change just two miles from the finish

KONA, Hawai`i /endurance sportswire/ – In a spectacular race for the ages in stunning Kailua-Kona, Solveig Løvseth of Norway was crowned the 2025 IRONMAN World Champion, crossing the line in a time of 8:28:27. Great Britain’s Kat Matthews secured her third second place finish at an IRONMAN World Championship event, with defending champion Laura Philipp (DEU) finishing in third.

In a race of attrition where the famous Hawai’ian heat and humidity took its toll, Løvseth held strong as those ahead of her faltered, with pre-race favorites Taylor Knibb (USA) and Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) falling short and retiring in the latter stages of the marathon.

Løvseth, an IRONMAN World Championship rookie, took home the $125,000 USD winner’s prize money and 6,000 points in the IRONMAN Pro Series.

“It has been hard to wrap my head around it,” said Løvseth after her victory. “I didn’t have the best swim but felt like I kept my calm. Out of the bike I felt really good and couldn’t really believe it when I started the run. But the run was really hard from the start, I genuinely didn’t know if I was going to be able to get to the finish line. I started to feel a bit better about halfway, which is unbelievable, because I really didn’t expect that. I was trying to keep my calm the whole way. I feel really sorry for both Taylor [Knibb] and Lucy [Charles-Barclay]. It was not the way I wanted to pass them. For the first time, I realized I can win this if everything goes right. The thought started to pop in my head and then when I passed Taylor I realized now that I had a chance, I just needed to not blow up.”

2025 IROMMAN World Championship in Kona Race Recap

Within the first few minutes of the ROKA swim course, and as a surprise to no one, Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) surged to the front, asserting her trademark dominance in the water. By the halfway mark, she was on record-setting pace, clocking 23:46. With a greater than usual swell on the way back to the pier, Charles-Barclay dropped the pace slightly, coming out of the water first in a time of 49:29.

In another repeat of history from the 2023 edition of the race, Hayley Chura (USA) led a chase pack of 10-15 women. By the time they reached the swim exit, the group had thinned to seven athletes, including Taylor Knibb (USA), Chelsea Sodaro (USA) and Holly Lawrence (GBR). The third pack featured some of the strongest cyclists in the field; Laura Philipp (DEU), Kat Matthews (GBR), Marjolaine Pierré (FRA), and Solveig Løvseth (NOR).

For the first 20km of the ZOOT bike course Charles-Barclay stayed in the lead, with Knibb on her tail followed by Marta Sanchez (ESP) and Lawrence.

Despite a six-minute plus deficit out of the water, the powerhouse chase group featuring Philipp, Løvseth, Sodaro, Hannah Berry (NZL) and Lisa Perterer (AUT) got to work to bridge the gap. It was the eventual winner that made her move early and kept working her way through the pack until she sat in third by mile 40.

At mile 45, disaster struck for the 2022 IRONMAN World Champion, Chelsea Sodaro, who was forced to pull out due to sickness.

By the turnaround in Hawi, Knibb had made up the two minute deficit on Charles-Barclay to allow for a quick stop in special needs to pick up essential race nutrition. However, it wasn’t until another six miles down the road until the American finally made her move to overtake the Brit and lead the IRONMAN World Championship race for the first time ever.

Another blow to Charles-Barclay came shortly after as she received a yellow card for unintentional littering. To minimize the deficit, she surged to get ahead of Knibb and remained cool and collected as she spent one minute in the penalty tent.

As they made their way back to town, Knibb made the most of the advantage she got while Charles-Barclay was in the tent, opening up a minute and a half lead. Behind her, a hungry Løvseth had dropped the chase gap and was bridging the gap to the front.

Behind the leading trio was a pack of eight chasing athletes, more than 14 minutes off the front. The pack featured heavy hitters Philipp and Matthews – two of the fastest runners in the field – as well as IRONMAN World Championship rookie and three-time Olympian Perterer.

Knibb was first back into ROUVY Transition, stopping the clock at 4:31:00 for the ride, almost a minute and a half clear of Charles-Barclay, with Løvseth third. More than 14 minutes behind Knibb off the bike were the chasing pack of Philipp, Matthews, Jocelyn McCauley (USA), Berry, and Perterer.

Knibb held the gap to Charles-Barclay steady through the early stages, before the British athlete began chipping away at the deficit on the out and back section along Ali’i Drive. Charles-Barclay made her move heading up the crowd-lined Palani Hill, taking the lead as they turned left and headed out onto the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway.

Charles-Barclay opened up a slender lead as they headed along the highway, with Knibb hot on her heels. As Charles-Barclay slowed through an aid station around the 12-mile mark, the American moved back into first. The pair ran shoulder-to-shoulder and traded the lead heading to the next aid stations where Charles-Barclay slowed once again, allowing Knibb to surge ahead.

As Knibb pushed on, extending her lead through every mile, the heat took its toll on Charles-Barclay, with the British athlete eventually retiring from the race at the 17-mile mark of the run. Charles-Barclay’s retirement promoted IRONMAN World Championship rookie Løvseth into second, with the Norwegian flying through the later stages of the run, putting pressure on Knibb at the front. With four miles remaining Løvseth had cut Knibb’s lead down to just over two minutes, and then disaster struck for the American. With just over two miles remaining, Knibb slowed to a walk through an aid station, getting much needed fluids on board. Unable to start running again, a heartbreaking moment saw Knibb come to a stop at the side of the highway and forcing hers out of the race.

With just a handful of miles remaining Løvseth suddenly found herself in the lead but the fastest on course was Matthews, who was going to do everything in her power to catch the Norwegian. Matthews clocked the fastest run of the day, setting a new course run best – but ultimately ran out of road and finished just 35 seconds behind Løvseth.

Defending champion Laura Philipp rounded out the podium, ahead of Berry in fourth – who had her best ever result at an IRONMAN World Championship – with debutant Perterer fifth.

Top five professional women’s results:

Full results for the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship triathlon can be found at www.ironman.com/im-world-championship-kona-results.

News and Notes

• With Solveig Løvseth taking home the IRONMAN World Championship victory, she becomes the fourth Norwegian to win the IRONMAN World Championship on their debut (also Kristian Blummenfelt in 2021, Gustav Iden in 2022, Casper Stornes in 2025)
• For the second year in a row, an athlete from the same country has won both the women’s and men’s edition of the IRONMAN World Championship (2024 – Germany’s Laura Philipp and Patrick Lange; and 2025 – Norway’s Solveig Løvseth and Casper Stornes)
• Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) was the first out the water in a time of 49:26, 10 seconds faster than her time from the 2023 IRONMAN World Championship.
• Charles-Barclay has led out of the water in all six of her IRONMAN World Championship races.
• Taylor Knibb (USA) was the first athlete off the bike in 4:31:00 – a time three minutes faster than she posted in 2023.
• En route to a second-place finish, Kat Matthews (GBR) set a new Kona Run Course Best with a time of 2:47:23 – besting Anne Haug’s 2:48:23 in 2023.
• With today’s finish, Kat Matthews has claimed her third 2nd place finish at the IRONMAN World Championship, joining Sylviane Puntous (3 – 1986, 1987, 1989), Erin Baker (3 – 1988, 1991, 1993), Lori Bowden (4 – 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001), Mirinda Carfrae (3 – 2009, 2011, 2016) and Lucy Charles-Barclay (4 – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022) as the others to record that feat. Puntous, Baker, Bowden, Carfrae, and Charles-Barclay would all go on to win IRONMAN World Championship titles, putting Matthews in top company and with good prospects for the future.
• Making Matthews’ third 2nd place finish at the IRONMAN World Championship even more impressive is all three results were earned on different courses (2021 in St. George, Utah; 2024 in Nice, France; 2025 Kona, Hawai`i)
• The time gap between first and second place – 35 seconds – marked the third closest finish in IRONMAN World Champ history, behind Julie Moss and Kathleen McCartney (29), and Dave Scott and Scott Tinley (33).
• Hannah Berry’s fourth place finish was the best finish by a New Zealand female athlete since Joanna Lawn finished fourth in 2007.
• Lisa Perterer joined Kate Allen as the highest placed Austrian female finisher with her fifth place finish at the IRONMAN World Championship
• On race day morning, professional triathlete Anne Reischmann (DEU) took to her socials to announce her pregnancy. After consulting her doctor, Anne toed the start line and went on to finish in an impressive time of 9:30:30.
• Nine years after winning the 2016 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Holly Lawrence made her debut appearance in Kona at the IRONMAN World Championship earning an impressive sixth place finish just one year after the birth of her daughter.

IRONMAN Pro Series Standings

The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series with professional triathletes being able to earn points at 18 select races in 17 locations globally. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters™ with every second behind the race winner equating to a point earned or lost. For any athlete, only their top five event results count towards their overall Pro Series points and standing, of which a maximum of three IRONMAN results can be counted. How it works can be found here.

With today’s one-two finish of Løvseth and Matthews, and a nearly 3,000-point difference from third place in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings, the duo have wrapped up the top two spots and will battle for the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series Title. With one race remaining in the IRONMAN Pro Series, Kat Matthews leads the series with 20,845 points, 827 points ahead of Solveig Løvseth.

With 3,000 points on offer at the Precision Fuel & Hydration 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain, and Løvseth’s lowest score being 2,073, she can improve her point total by a maximum of 927 points.

Therefore Løvseth needs to finish within 100 seconds (927-827) of the winner in Marbella to stand a chance of winning the series.

Matthews’ worse score is 2,500. A score higher than 2,600 would guarantee her the title. This is the equivalent of finishing within 6:40 of the winner in Marbella.

Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Female (After 14 Events)

Full IRONMAN Pro Series standings can be found at proseries.ironman.com. 

Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Event Prize Money

In addition to the IRONMAN Pro Series’ $1.7M year-end bonus prize pool, there is an event pro prize purse payout of $2,450,000, distributed across IRONMAN Pro Series events. With sixteen races now complete, over one million USD has been earned by professional athletes so far – leaving just under $500,000 USD to be claimed at the final event of the series – the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship.  

 
Top Five Female Prize Money Earned (After 15 Events)

Next IRONMAN Pro Series Events Coming Up

Next up, Marbella, Spain will host the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship and the culmination of the IRONMAN Pro Series, and with 3,000 points and a share of $250,000 per gender up for grabs, fans of the sport can expect another incredible day of racing with the winners.

For more information about the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship in Kaulia-Kona, Hawai`i, please visit www.ironman.com/races/im-world-championship-kona. For more information on the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 brands and global event series, visit www.ironman.com. Media inquiries may be directed to press@ironman.com.

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About the IRONMAN World Championship

On February 18, 1978, 15 competitors came to the shores of Waikiki, Hawai`i to take on the first-ever IRONMAN<sup>®</sup> triathlon. It was an idea hatched by John Collins, a Naval Officer stationed in Hawai`i, and his wife Judy during a swim club gathering. Collins’ proposal was a friendly test of fitness combining the three toughest endurance races on Oahu into one race: The 2.4-mile Waikiki Rough-water Swim, the 112-mile Around-Oahu Bike Race, followed by a 26.2-mile run on the Honolulu Marathon course. That first race would set the stage for what IRONMAN triathlon would become: the most-challenging single-day sporting event in the world, and a brand symbolizing the belief that “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE^®.” Since its inception in 1978 on the Island of O`ahu and continued history in Kona on the Island of Hawai`i with recent stops in St. George, Utah and Nice, France, the IRONMAN World Championship^® triathlon has etched its name in history through historic performances, inspiring athletes, and a lifetime of memories that define the sport of triathlon today. The IRONMAN World Championship remains the most iconic single-day endurance sporting event in the world and is the culmination of 40 global IRONMAN events with over 94,000 athletes around the world striving for one of the coveted qualifying slots of any sporting event in the world. For more information, visit www.ironman.com/races/im-world-championship.

About IRONMAN Pro Series

The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based world series that showcases and rewards top professional triathletes as they vie for points and event prize money, on their way to claiming the title of IRONMAN Pro Series champion and a lion’s share of the lucrative $1.7 million USD year-end bonus prize pool. Along the way, athletes will battle for the prize money offered at each individual IRONMAN Pro Series triathlon, equating to over $2.5 million USD, as well as coveted world championship qualifying slots. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters – every second behind the race winner equates to a point earned or lost. Incorporating iconic distances, challenging courses, and stunning destinations, every IRONMAN Pro Series race will be broadcast live and free to a global audience. In 2025, the IRONMAN Pro Series will be contested over 18 events and 17 race locations around the globe, including a combination of six IRONMAN^® and eight IRONMAN^® 70.3^® triathlons, as well as the IRONMAN World Championship® women’s and men’s races and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon. An additional 40 events outside of the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series will also offer IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 professional racing fields with world championship qualifying opportunities, and over $1.8 million USD in prize money. This creates a total professional prize purse of over $6 million USD in 2025. For more information, visit proseries.ironman.com.

About The IRONMAN Group

The IRONMAN Group is the world’s largest operator of participation sports with a portfolio of brands, events, media, partners, merchandise, and digital platforms operating in over 50 countries worldwide. A global portfolio consisting of hundreds of events includes the IRONMAN^® Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN^® 70.3^® Triathlon Series, 5150™ Triathlon Series, IRONKIDS^®, premier running events including the Rock ‘n’ Roll^® Running Series, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon™ and City2Surf^®, the UTMB® World Series of trail running, the Epic Series™ of mountain biking including the Absa Cape Epic^®, and a collection of road cycling and other multisport races. Since the inception of the iconic IRONMAN^® brand and its first event in 1978, millions of athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE^® by crossing finish lines around the world. From its beginnings as a single race among friends in Hawai’i, The IRONMAN Group has become a global sensation and collection of high-growth lifestyle brands that inspire people to unlock their potential in life. For more information, visit www.ironman.com/about/ironman-group.