At the 2018 Ironman World Championships, Daniela Ryf was stung by a jellyfish and left the water 10 minutes behind race leader, Lucy Charles. In one of the more extraordinary performances on a course famous for extraordinary performances, during the final 90km section of the bike she produced the third fastest OVERALL split (men or women), ran to the victory, and set a new course record. It was her fourth in a row.
Over a 27-year career that has included junior, U23, and Relay World Championships, World Triathlon Series victory, Olympics, and World Records—her exploits at Hawaii alone will be enough to cement her place as a legend of the sport.
Yet among the many retrospectives Daniela has received since her retirement announcement two weeks ago, an insight into her dominance may be seen not from Kona but in securing the Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa Triple Crown 2015—and its staggering $1 million prize.
Arriving ahead of the must-win Bahrain 70.3 in December, Daniela was a shell of the unstoppable force seen throughout the year, which included seven half or full Ironman victories since February. She was overwrought with illness, exhaustion, and the stress of a potentially life-changing amount of money. In the desert heat the night before the event, a scarf wrapped around her neck, nose running, and throat so sore she couldn’t speak above a whisper—she left dinner early to go to her room. It was all too much.
Daniela was never the killer robot people often thought she was and dealt throughout her career with very human (and relatable) physical and mental frailties. Yet as she emerged the next morning, she had transformed herself. One glance and everyone knew—the race was over. The sickness, the doubt, all gone. In its place a steely, resolved confidence. Her body’s physical reality had been bent to her Zen-like will. The killer robot armour was back on before the triathlon public realised it had even come off. She wore it for another five years.
If we have underestimated the insecurities she dealt with throughout her career, it may be because of the outrageous confidence she often displayed during her racing. The Bahrain course that year had turned into a Bike-Run because of severe wind. Pro men and women, battered by gusts, would spend the morning swerving across the desert highway trying to hold their lines. Not Daniela, who with so much at stake, rode the winds like a SuperG skier, leaning at a 45-degree angle over the bike while using her body as a sail to navigate the blasts. She would eventually win the series (and million dollars) by an overall margin longer than a TV episode.
This was a period where Daniela was untouchable, winning eight out of ten possible Ironman 70.3 or World Championship events over five years. Daniela in her prime shared characteristics with the Big Three in tennis. The physical presence of Nadal, able to intimidate with raw power and a preparedness to out grind all comers. The steely intensity and durability of Djokovic, with a relentless mental drive to improve and dominate. And the flair of a Federer. Like the Swiss master, for most of her career Daniela made winning look easy, often toying with opponents, in complete control of when, where, and how she would win. Mountains or lava fields, half or full, you couldn’t design a course that wouldn’t suit her. An all-course weapon who could do anything on a triathlon course.
By the end of 2019, the shift was in. Injuries and subtle vulnerabilities had inevitably crept into the game. Then came COVID, and with it, a permanent one. Daniela was still a force, but the aura of invincibility had faded. The swim wasn’t quite what it used to be, and a new crop of athletes had levelled up, being able to hold on the bike longer than ever before. But even then, she could still pull out a superhuman performance when it mattered most. Another Ironman World Championship in 2022, a Collins Cup win, and a World Record at Roth in 2023—she ticked every box in likely the most decorated long-distance career we will see for a generation.
Of course, as fans, we’re greedy. We always want more. And with Daniela, like all great athletes, the what-ifs that will always linger. Such hypotheticals aren’t helpful, but they’re fun, and they keep the legend rolling after the physical competition has finished. Here are three to get us started.
A run showdown. We never got to see Daniela pushed to her limits on the marathon because she was always so far ahead. Hence the what if? What if in prime form she’d come off the bike with a mechanical and entered T2 behind a Mirinda Carfrae or an Anne Haug? Arguably the more accomplished short course runner, we never got to see the Angry Bird crank out the sub 2:45 she was well capable of and shown the world just how deep the well went.
A cycling world record. After the hectic 2015 season, there was talk of a change in focus—her chasing the one-hour cycling world record at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, a world famous track a ten-minute drive from her hometown in Solothurn. The logistics never worked out, but speeds at training, expert opinion, and the subsequent hour WR progression suggest she would have smashed the then 46.273km record into a thousand pieces—with then what pressure to pursue a different athletic course completely?
A goodbye World Championship in Nice 24’. That would have been the cherry on top. An opportunity to showcase again the consummate climbing and descending skills that gave her the 70.3 Championship in 2019 and to imprint her greatness into the memories of the new generation of athletes and likely to dominate for the next decade. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Athletes rarely get to choose the timing of their departure, and the great ones almost never get it right. The very traits that make them so dominant—determination, resilience, an inability to give in—are the same ones that keep them chasing the dragon for that last big Win. Daniela, whose body was so durable and so strong for so long, finally called time. An 8th place finish at Ironman South Africa a brutal, unjust end for the most dominant female athlete of our time.
But that’s sport. And as Daniela Ryf steps away, she leaves behind a legacy that looms as large as any in the history of endurance sports.
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