Originally published at: Who is Solveig Løvseth? (And Why You Should Care) - Slowtwitch News
Solveig Lovseth of Norway competes during the Qatar Airways IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship. Photo: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images for IRONMAN
We’re usually pretty quick to forget who came in third–do you remember that Chelsea Sodaro was third at the Nice World Championships last year? But the third-place finisher at IRONMAN Hamburg earlier this month is a name you shouldn’t forget: Solveig Løvseth.
After competing at the Olympic Games last year, the 25-year-old Norwegian switched her focus to long distance racing. Only a month after Paris, she picked up a podium at the 70.3 European Championships, just a few minutes behind Caroline Pohle and Kat Matthews. She followed that up with a 13th at the 70.3 World Championships. But even before her world championship result, Løvseth displayed her potential as a world-class contender and, after setting the fastest IRONMAN debut in Hamburg, if you don’t know who Solveig Løvseth is, you need to.
The Initial Switch
Løvseth started swimming as a child in her home town of Trondheim, but at 14, not seeing much improvement, her coach suggested triathlon as an alternative. Although it was hard to hear at the time, she felt the same about her lack of potential and decided to switch. It was good timing too. The Norwegian national triathlon had just started a few years prior and, with such a small group of athletes, especially women, Løvseth got on the team handily. As she explained on a recent podcast:
“The National teams started back in 2010, so that was when Kristian, Gustav, Lotte and Casper started. So it had been some athletes for a couple years already, but it was still a really small team. When I first started in 2014-2015, I remember I was really uncertain if I wanted to do triathlon because it wasn’t really a famous sport at all. I didn’t know anyone who did it and it sort of felt like a sport for weird people…I was actually sort of embarrassed of saying I did triathlon so I just continued to say I was a swimmer.”
Løvseth admits if the team had been bigger, or if she was in a bigger triathlon nationally, things would have been different.
“If it had been a big team, I definitely wouldn’t have made the national team because I wasn’t really that good at the time,” she said. “But it was more like if you were willing to train well, and they saw some potential, you were part of the team because they didn’t have more athletes.”
Løvseth immediately started working with Arlid Tveiten, her coach from day one until the Olympics, and got herself on the World Triathlon circuit.
Short Course Struggles
Løvseth saw mixed results in short course racing. A few podiums, including her proudest victory at the European Games in 2023, were speckled amid mid-pack results.
“In short distance, I had some races I’m really happy with but, in general, I have struggled a bit, especially on the swim,” she said. “In short distance, if you are a bit off the front after a swim, it’s generally really hard to recover from.”
But, just as she felt swimming wasn’t her sport as a young girl, as a professional athlete, she always had the sense that she was more suited to long distance. After the Olympics, she made the switch and left the national team.
“ This year I am not on the national team because I’m only doing long distance this season,” she said. “The national team is funded by the ‘Olympic Federation.’ If you’re not doing short distance you can’t really be a part of the national team. It’s not a dramatic decision, but it felt sort of scary to go out of the team because I’ve been part of it for so long.”
She still trains and travels with the national team and even her new coach, Mikal Iden (Gustav Iden’s brother and coach to Rudy Von Berg and formerly Lionel Sanders), is a continuation from her time on the team. The difference now? She has to pay for things herself.
Record Breaking From the Start
Funding hopefully won’t be a problem since the prize money started to roll in as soon as she launched her long distance career.
Løvseth’s maiden 70.3 at Indian Wells in 2023 was also her first win. Coming out of the water in 13th, she out-biked the entire field by almost five minutes and won by almost two. But, the following year, seven weeks out from the Olympics where she would finish 48th, is when the world really should have started to take notice. Løvseth won 70.3 Warsaw and her time of 3:52:09 is still the fastest on record, beating out Taylor Knibb’s 3:53:03 set at the 2023 70.3 World Championships in Lahti.
When she kicked off her 2025 season with a win at the IRONMAN Pro Series event in Jesolo, the triathlon world did start to pay attention. Beating out a strong German pack of Anne Reischmann, Daniela Kleiser and Lena Meissner, her blistering fast bike split of 2:06:59 not only set the course record, but was faster than 13 of the pro men.
And that brings us to possibly the most memorable third place finish the triathlon world has seen in years.
Katrina Matthews of Great Britain (2nd place), Laura Philipp of Germany (1st place) and Solveig Lovseth of Norway (3rd place) after competing in the Qatar Airways IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship. Photo: Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images for IRONMAN
Fasted Debut IRONMAN in Hamburg
The thrilling battle between Laura Philipp and Kat Matthews at IRONMAN Hamburg might be the well-deserving headline after eight hours of world-record-breaking racing, but don’t forget that the swim and bike was a “three horse” race.
In her debut full distance, Løvseth was right behind Matthews and Philipp on the swim, and beat them both out of T1. While Philipp and Matthews played cat and mouse on the bike, Løvseth was the third wheel and took a big portion of the pace making. When her aerobar extension came loose, she rode with one hand on the base bar and continued to pull at the front. Even after stopping for mechanical assistance, she made up her one-minute deficit and continued working on the front.
While she fell back after Matthews attacked in the final 20 km of the bike and didn’t feature in the record-shattering run battle royale, her 2:46:40 marathon split is still downright impressive. If that’s not enough, her time of 8:12:28 would have been a world best a few months ago and is the fastest debut IRONMAN on record.
In a distance that can take a career to master, Løvseth has already proven she is a serious world-class contender and has just made the prospect of a Kona showdown a lot more exciting.
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as one of my athletes at the time basically biked the same time winning the overall AG amateur race.