Here it is!
I’ll start with predictions that I won’t defend at this time:
Yee will comeback to triathlon but will not medal in LA
The winner of the men’s race will be… Matt Hauser
Team USA will ONE medal.
Cassie wins again.
When does the window open for Olympic Points? Geez, is it May? Has it been confirmed that they are doing the same points approach as the past?
Way too early for predictions, but I’ll give it a go:
Gold: Wilde
Silver: Pearson
Bronze: Hauser
Gold: Waugh
Silver: Beaugrand
Bronze: Jorgenson 
I believe Alghero will be the first race to start accumulating Olympic points.
Do we need another gigantic thread that is impossible to follow for three years.
How about change title to “what do you think happens between now and LA 2028 as we sit in 2025”
And then the thread can die it’s natural death, and then in 2028 we can revive the zombie thread rather than adding endless banter into that thread from the same 5 people going in circles !!!
Sorry, not a fan of multi month,multi year, all encompassing threads as they kill engagement from outsiders and become a private club for a few people who stay on top of the content, but become useless for non frequent entrants!
Just replying to make it to 5 people in this thread
Gold: Yee and Beaugrand
Silver: Cantero and Tertsch
Bronze: Studer and Derron
Participation is optional. But thanks for adding to the count.
Just saw the British Triathlon’s funded athletes for next year. Interesting to see Dickinson there, but not Stapley. As always making the women’s team will still be a bloodbath.
I agree, a yearly ITU thread will do, to discuss whats happening that year ITU (is this going to cover ITU for three years?) Im all up for a sperate thread discussion on Olympic favourites, various nationalities qualifications etc.
Not a fan of a multitude of tangential threads either, but this is going in the other extreme. Agree 100% that this thread will quickly become a zombie thread if we try to cram all World Tri short course discussions in it over 3 years.
How about turning this into an ITU 2026 thread, we can discuss Olympics in here also (its a bit early for an Olympic specific thread anyway if you ask me)
Your LA Olympic medalists are as follows though…
Women’s..
yeah i would like to see how that is defended .
and to be poster no 9
i say lombardi,mansson ,tertch
and cantero hidalgo ,villaca
to add potter and bergere wont be on the podium and i add neither will derron.
to use nobody from the last oly podium. despite the fact that its likley that at least 3 will be on podium again.
Relay UK, Germany , France ,Italy
you are allowed to open any thread you want !!! one for continuity and as many as you want for for impulse.
i think if there is a race that takes your fancy just open a thread. but realisically its all eyes to la from know on as nobody really cares who wins the series. i think we very cleary see that people are interested in single day oly or world champs over series winners.
Can somebody please wake me up on July 14th 2028 .
I’m a fan of a single ‘short course’ (SC) thread which allows people to speculate to any time scale, to look forward to each WTCS/T50/T25 race in the run up, reflect on the results and implications for the series/the next race/rankings/OlyQ, and to remark on athletes’ comings and goings. If Dev wants to open a thread for any race he’s interested in: fine. but then any interaction/discussion it attracts is lost to the year/two year long ‘narrative’, which is a pity. Previous years’ “ITU” threads have been my ‘go to’ for all things SC,
The leading athletes aren’t just doing one race: they have a 8 month long racing calendar. Overarching ‘ITU’ threads like this is designed to be also offers season long continuity. I think the thread’s title might benefit from amendment.
‘Official March to LA 2028 and World Triathlon Thread’
Thank you to @ajthomas for starting it. Suggest the title needs to include “short course” and need not include “official” nor “Thread” and what is this “march” thing? How about:
‘World Triathlon Overarching Short Course 2026 to LA 2028’
yeah you can play the same job here as on the lionel thread … ie i dont care and be the one with the most posts lol.
personally i agree with you , but at the same time dev does have a point and as long as this thread ( as the other Itu threads in the past have) is the main thread i dont see an issue to have other threads
just as there is a t100 thread but most of the time a race week race x thread.
I phone won’t let me edit the entire title. The new update is buggy.
I’m up for changing the title.
I’m thinking: People will complain about anything and all things Olympic predictions thread?
A little bit of dreaming here 
I don’t think I can predict 3 years out. That’s a long time. Remember when Simon Lessing was winning everything 1995-1998 and then he got beaten by Dmitri Gaag at 1999 ITU worlds, Olivier Marceau at 2000 Worlds, Simom Whitfield who literally “came out of no where” to win Sydney 2000. Funny back story, i sold Whitfield his first disc wheel in 1992 when he was a teenager getting into triathlon. So we were tracking young Simon W. My point is that three years is a long time, and some young guy or girl toiling in juniors could emerge. Their coaches right now know who they are, somewhere in maybe Japan, or Finland, or South Africa, or Argentina, but most of us won’t know that kid.
I don’t know if Yee’s foray into marathoning hurts his triathlon performance. Let’s see
