Heat training in the bathroom, the Norwegian method and an unintentional bike attack: the story behind Solveig Løvseth’s triumphant Kona debut

Solveig Løvseth is in demand. She’s been back in her hometown of Trondheim, Norway, for the last two days, just four days after winning her first Ironman world title in only her third-ever full-distance race. 

She hasn’t stopped talking to the world’s media, and here we are taking up more of what should now be rest time but is in fact training prep for her next, and final, fling for 2025 – the 70.3 Ironman Worlds at the start of November. 

The 26-year-old former Olympic-distance athlete and Paris Olympian is trying to get used to this new-found attention, with mixed results. 

“My whole swim club was at the airport to greet me,” Løvseth explains in our video call, “and my family and some newspapers. I just really didn’t expect it, but I was so tired, so I really didn’t show any appreciation. I was just so overwhelmed. I basically didn’t smile because it was just a bit too much.” 

Under the radar

Heading into Hawaii, Løvseth had been able to stay relatively under the radar as the spotlight was very much focussed on the four athletes who many believed would duke it out for the podium spots – three-time 70.3 world champion Taylor Knibb (USA), 2023 Ironman world champion Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR), the reigning Ironman world champion Laura Philipp (GER), and the 2024 Ironman Pro Series winner Kat Matthews (GBR). 

And so it proved… until it didn’t. First Charles-Barclay called it a day (collapsing into her husband Reece’s arms in one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever witnessed in professional sport); then Knibb took a seat on the side of the Queen K. By this point Solveig had been in second place, with Matthews closing in and Philipp in third. 

But with only 3km left to race, Matthews simply ran out of road. 

“If it’d been a 44K run, [Kat] definitely would’ve caught me,” admits Løvseth, “maybe even 43K. But I just knew exactly how far it was left. I talked to Taylor after the race as well, and she said that 39K for her would have been perfect!” 

And up until Knibb and Charles-Barclay bowed out, Løsveth had been very happy sitting in third place, a pre-race dream scenario. 

“My mindset wasn’t really aggressive,” she admits. “I wasn’t really thinking that much about the win. I was thinking more about not getting caught from behind. It was more about defending that! 

“I think I had an eight-minute lead [at the start of the run over Philipp], which was way more than I had expected, but in Hamburg, Laura ran eight minutes faster than me, so it’s not like an impossible gap to close, and especially in conditions like this where you’re even more likely to blow up than in Hamburg.” 

But once in the lead, the main threat was Matthews, who was showing no signs of slowing down. 

“The broadcast people were making it feel exciting that Kat was catching me, but in my head I felt really relaxed because when I got in the lead there was only two or 3ks left, and at that point I had two or three minutes [over Matthews],” says Løvseth. 

“I didn’t really think about winning with a margin, I just wanted to be first. My biggest fear was tripping up or something or getting an unexpected cramp. I was just looking a lot at my watch and thinking ‘okay, maybe she runs 3:45 then I need to run no slower than 4:30’. 

“So I was calculating in my head and just thinking ‘how slow can I run?’. It wasn’t as exciting in my head as I think people made it out to be!”

Solveig Løvseth’s career highlights to date 

She only raced her first 70.3 at the end of 2023 and her first Ironman in June this year, but Løvseth is already becoming very comfortable on a podium… 

2025 Ironman world champion  

1st, Ironman Lake Placid, 2025 

3rd, 2025 European Ironman Championship  

3 x Ironman 70.3 winner

Long-term approach

Snatching the tape in a time of 8:28:27, Løvseth walked over the slight crest at the finish line to become the first female Norwegian Ironman world champion. 

Just four weeks earlier, her compatriots had swept the podium in Nice, with Casper Stornes also taking his first world title on debut. 

Mounting the second step on the podium that day was Gustav Iden, the 2022 Ironman world champion; and behind him Big Blu – Kristian Blummenfelt, the 2021 Ironman world champion (held in St George, Utah). 

The Bergen Boys (all three hail from the same town) may have put Norway on the tri map, but Losveth’s result now legitimatises it as a true player in the pantheon of tri nation greats. 

“It’s really long-term,” says Løvseth of Norway’s approach to the sport. “I got into the team when I was 15 and I was a swimmer before that. Now I feel I can start to actually have good results, but it’s taken 10 years. 

“We just started training and believing that you can be the best one day. And it’s been easier for me to believe that because I’ve always had the boys, who do really similar training as me, show that it is possible. 

“I have learned a lot from them and also the rest of the national team and the culture in that team. It’s sort of what has gotten me where I am today – the coaches we had there and the whole training philosophy. 

“We’ve always been a really small national team, too. It really is like 10 athletes. So it’s incredible to see how well we are doing really. And since we are so few athletes, we all know each other really well, and we just have a lot of fun with it. It’s nothing fancy.” 

While their paths naturally crossed on the national squad and they still sometimes overlap at training camps, Løvseth no longer trains full-time with the Bergen crew. 

But she is coached by Gustav’s brother, Mikal. What was his response to her Kona result? 

“Well he says that I’m not the most aggressive racer. I’m probably not the person you expect to break away really. So he was quite surprised that I did that [on the bike} but it wasn’t actually intentional! 

“I took a turn, probably after like 40, 50 minutes, and I stayed at the front for quite a bit, and hit a downhill. I think it was there I got the gap, but it took quite a bit of time before I realised I was on my own! Which was nice because it meant I must have been riding quite well.” 

It’s never really over

Because Knibb DNF’d her bike split of 4:31 flat was scrubbed from the records, so Losveth’s 4:31:53 stands as the race’s fastest time. 

So what else, other than learning that she can actually ride quite well, did she take from the race? 

“That it’s true what they say – it’s never really over until it’s over! I was 14 minutes down when the run started, so I definitely didn’t expect to win the race. I also learned that it’s all about pacing the whole day and that it’s hard to run in the heat!” 

Yet in racing conditions that KO’d two highly experienced athletes, a newbie from Norway overcame temperatures of 30°C+ and 70% humidity. And in her first-ever hot Ironman no less. 

“I was in Font-Romeu, France, and in the last one or two weeks before I left for Kona I had, around every other day, just an hour of heat training on my indoor trainer. 

“I just put it in the bathroom and 10 minutes before I started the session I’d turn on the shower to really hot and when I got back 10 minutes later it would be really humid in there. 

“And with extra added clothes as well it got really warm riding for about an hour, quite easy, every second day. And then I went to Kona two weeks before the race, so I got some sessions in the actual climate there.”

The Olympic Door

Blummenfelt famously – and very successfully – straddled short- and long-distance racing, winning the Tokyo Olympic, World Triathlon and Ironman world titles within 10 months of each other. 

Løvseth’s sole Olympic outing was in Paris last year, where she finished a disappointing 48th. Just over three weeks later, she would take third at the 70.3 European Champs in Estonia. 

In 2025 she’s never been off the podium, taking third in her first-ever full Ironman at the European Champs in Hamburg – behind Matthews in second and Philipp in first – and winning Lake Placid. 

Yet despite clearly finding her happy spot, she’s not closed the Olympic door just yet. 

“I think right now, most likely, I will just continue where I am, with longer distances. If you want to qualify for Los Angeles, a lot of racing is required. 

“So if I’m going to go to another one, it’ll be because I think I can do much better there than I did last time. If I think I have a chance of taking a medal. We’ll see.” 

But for right now, the newly-crowned world Ironman champion is gearing up for one last race of the year – the 70.3 Worlds and the Ironman Pro Series deciding race. 

When we speak, just three weeks before the race, she’s realistic about her chances in the latter given Matthews’ lead in the standings – and is relishing the fact that the pressure is off. 

“I feel very comfortable sitting in second place. I will still try to race my best, but it’s almost hard to find that, I guess, hunger to do well there.” 

And then it’s rest time for the young Norwegian following a year that’s yielded a huge amount of success, recognition and growth. 

But she won’t be blowing her winnings on a fancy holiday. 

“When you travel so much the rest of the year, I’m that sort of person who, if I can get just three weeks at home, where I can do whatever I want and just catch up with people. I just really enjoy that.” 

Løvseth, along with all pro triathletes racing today, deserves some time out. 

But we can’t help but dangle the prospect of next year’s champs in front of her, when the men and women will both be back in Kona and racing the same day… and where there’ll be two women in particular who are going to be very hungry to snatch away that title. 

“I talked to Casper and he said he was already starting to feel a bit of pressure for next year. It will be weird to come back there and be the defending champion. That actually sounds really weird to me.”