Who is Challenge Roth winner Alanis Siffert? Here’s her background, career highlights and quotes…
Alanis Siffert is an exciting triathlete who continues to surprise us with her race results. Here’s everything you need to know about the 24-year-old Swiss star…
Only making the transition from swimming to triathlon five years ago, Alanis Siffert has no doubt made her mark on the sport, taking a number of podium finishes in some of the biggest middle- and long-distance races.
A former competitive swimmer, the 24-year-old remains one of the strongest athletes in the water, but it is on the bike where she has taken a major leap in recent seasons. Her racing style has come to be defined by long solo efforts off the front, turning races into controlled, front-running performances.
Still early in her career, Siffert is rapidly evolving into one of triathlon’s most exciting prospects, attacking races of all distances and terrains, and with her trajectory pointing sharply upwards, there is a sense that the biggest results are yet to come.
Who is Alanis Siffert?
Born in Fribourg, Switzerland, into a sporty family, Alanis Siffert grew up as a competitive swimmer, spending almost a decade in the pool and training for up to 22 hours a week from a young age. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced swimming pools to close, she turned her attention to mountain biking and running, eventually discovering triathlon.
While training in St. Moritz, Siffert caught the eye of coach Brett Sutton, who invited her to join his professional team alongside Olympic champion and silver medallist Nicola Spirig and five-time Ironman World Champion Daniela Ryf.
Siffert joined Sutton’s team in September 2021 and claimed her first professional victory nine months later. Her rise has since been rapid, establishing her as one of triathlon’s brightest young talents.
Specialising in middle- and full-distance racing, Siffert’s biggest strengths are her elite swim, honed through years of competitive swimming, and her increasingly formidable bike leg. She has developed a reputation for riding aggressively at the front of races and sustaining high power outputs over long distances, regardless of the terrain. More recently, she has also become a serious contender on the T100 Triathlon World Tour, where she currently sits fourth in the standings (correct as of July 2026).
Only 24, Siffert has already amassed 12 professional victories, including prestigious wins at Challenge Roth, Embrunman, Alpe d’Huez Triathlon and Ironman 70.3 Shanghai. Her dominant victory at Challenge Roth in 2026, where she ran away from a world-class field to claim the biggest title of her career, cemented her status as one of the sport’s most exciting athletes.
How old is Alanis Siffert?
Alanis Siffert was born on 21 November 2001, making her 24 years old.
Alanis Siffert’s career highlights
September 2023: Siffert’s first podium position at Gerardmer XL
In just her fourth professional race, Siffert claimed the first podium of her career with a second-place finish at Gerardmer XL. She crossed the line 10 minutes and one second behind fellow Swiss athlete Julie Derron, but the result offered an early glimpse of the potential that would soon propel her towards the top step of the podium.
June 2024: First 70.3 podium
Siffert continued her rapid rise with a second-place finish at Ironman 70.3 Switzerland. It was her first podium over the 70.3 distance and further evidence that she could compete with some of the world’s best middle-distance athletes.
July 2024: First pro win at Alpe D’Huez
Siffert didn’t have to wait long for her first professional victory. On the iconic slopes of Alpe d’Huez, she dominated from start to finish, leading across all three disciplines to claim victory in 6:20:31.
September 2024: Moving up to top spot at Gerardmer XL
Returning to Gerardmer XL one year after her breakthrough podium, Siffert went one better by taking victory in 4:45:48. She also set a new bike course record of 2:53:04, breaking the mark that had stood since 2015.
October 2024: A head-to-head race in Mallorca
Siffert added another major title to her growing palmares at Challenge Peguera Mallorca. Locked in a close battle with Sweden’s Lisa Norden throughout the bike and run, she made her decisive move on the final lap to claim victory and set a new course record.
November 2024: Gold in her second home
Having spent much of the winter training in China, Siffert raced on familiar surroundings for the inaugural Challenge Xiamen. She produced another commanding performance to take victory, securing her fourth professional win of the season and rounding off a breakthrough year in style.
July 2025: Back-to-back wins atop Alpe D’Huez
Returning to defend her title, Siffert claimed a second consecutive victory at the Alpe d’Huez. She finished ahead of teammate Nina Derron and Jeanne Collonge, but it was on the brutal 118km bike course, with more than 3,000 metres of climbing, that she stamped her authority on the race. Riding in her distinctive aero-climbing position, she built an unbeatable lead before backing it up with the fastest run split of the day to retain her crown.
August 2025: A win on debut at Embrunman
“My coach once told me: ‘You’ll only be a real triathlete when you’ve done Embrunman.’ Today, I can finally say that I am,” Siffert wrote on her blog after making her debut at one of the world’s toughest triathlons.
She couldn’t have asked for a more emphatic introduction. Exiting the swim with a four-minute advantage, Siffert led the entire race, riding and running solo to claim victory at the iconic French race and further establish herself as one of the sport’s rising stars.
September 2025: Defending her title in dominant fashion
Siffert’s third appearance at Gerardmer XL brought a second consecutive victory, successfully defending the title she had won the previous year. It proved to be her final win of the 2025 season, although she rounded off the year with solid performances across several races, finishing 10th at the Wollongong T100, fourth at Challenge Xiamen, and eighth at Ironman Western Australia.
May 2026: A first-time win at Ironman 70.3
After opening her 2026 campaign with 10th place at the T100 Gold Coast, Siffert headed to China for Ironman 70.3 Shanghai, where she claimed her first victory over the distance.
The Swiss athlete dominated from the outset, recording the fastest swim, bike, and run splits to build a commanding lead. By the second transition, she was more than seven minutes clear of second, leaving little doubt, in a limited pro field, over the outcome as she cruised to victory.
She carried that momentum into the Spain T100, producing her strongest performance in the series to date with a fifth-place finish.
July 2026: Stamping her authority at Challenge Roth
Siffert had already shown what she was capable of at Challenge Roth in 2025, producing the fastest swim in the women’s field and leading much of the bike leg before eventually being overtaken by eventual winner Laura Philipp. Returning a year later, she made her intentions clear: “I’m ready to take risks to stay in the fight for a top result.”
Against a very strong field, Siffert delivered on that promise. Although Lucy Charles-Barclay exited the water first, the Swiss athlete unleashed her trademark bike power, taking control of the race around 30km into the 180km ride. Backing up her bike performance with a remarkable 2:45 marathon, Siffert crossed the line in 8:09:09, winning the women’s race by seven minutes and 32 seconds over Charles-Barclay – becoming the youngest winner of the race since Paula Newby-Fraser in 1986.
Alanis Siffert in quotes
On winning Challenge Roth 2026 after a superb performance: “I underestimate what I could do. If you’d have told me I could win and do this time, I would have said: No way! I shut down the bike computer because it would have blown my mind.”
On her stacked racing calendar: “I feel racing helps you improve too, so I don’t taper a lot going into races, I train through it. Then I race and train after it too and then you can use the race as like gaining fitness.”
On why she uses the aero position, no matter the terrain: “It’s not because I think it’s more aero, it’s just I can push more. I feel much more power. I can push more on the pedals. With time, I just started to do it in training and now I’m doing it in races as well.”
On meeting her now-coach Brett Sutton: “I don’t want to say by accident, but our paths just crossed. I just stopped my swimming career. I wanted to do triathlon, but I didn’t really know where and how, and I went to St-Moritz on a training camp and then he was there with his squad, Nicola and Max for the Tokyo Olympics, and I was swimming at the same time and he just asked me if I wanted to join their pro squad and I straight away said yes, of course, and that’s how I started triathlon.”
What’s next for Alanis Siffert?
Her recent Challenge Roth victory against a stacked field confirmed she has the ability to win on the sport’s biggest stages. The next question is how often she can now replicate that level when the pressure is at its highest.
Siffert has identified the run as the area with the most room for development, even after a 2:45 marathon in Roth. As she continues to refine that discipline, it will likely become the deciding factor in how regularly she can convert front-pack performances into victories as the depth of women’s racing continues to rise.
Still only 24, the trajectory is already clear, but the next phase of her career will be defined less by breakthrough performances and more by how often she can deliver them.
indiapaine
