WOW! What a finish! I had picked Harrop for the win and after she started gaining on the americans I really thought she had it in the bag! I knew Kate Allen could run, but not like that, incredible! A very exciting race to watch. And Vanessa got 8th place as the youngest competitor today. That girl is going places… but that’s hardly news 
I’m amazed by how close the field was. That is very unusual in my experience. It seems like everybody brought their best game today. I was hoping for live coverage in my area, but I’ll have to settle for the highlights on primetime, which will probably be about three minutes of cycling. 
Man, watched the whole thing live on Eurosport . . . got to work a little late but it was worth it. Loretta showed some amazing triathlon fitness there, clearly the best all-round short course triathlete on the day. But that run by Allen (34:16), man, it was something to behold. She may not be a swimmer or biker, but she made up for that in spades.
Interesting to hear the microphone picking up the audience in the background. Here is an example of something NOT to say to someone. On the final lap, with Taormina still in striking range, some American guy tells her “Loretta’s fading. You can still do it. Loretta’s fading too.” What’s with the “too” part?! How to knock the wind out of someone in one fell swoop.
Then there was the Austrian or German guy cheering Allen not much later: “Es ist noch nichts vorbei. Du schaffts es noch!” It ain’t over until it’s over. Talk about squeezing the last few drops out. Awesome display.
The men’s race will be shown live on MSNBC at 4:00am thursday.
Mark
That 34:16 includes transition. It’s from the moment they dismounted from the bike. Her actual run split was 33:48, which is even more impressive.
Kate Allen not a swimmer or biker? She won IM Austria last year
- Kate Allen (AUT) 8:54:01 - 49:14/5:03:28/2:57:12 - 36th place overall
I think the close finish was an awesome way to showcase our sport, very exciting. I just hope none of the people on this forum bash the race because it was not what they consider a “real” triathlon. I hope the coverage tonight can do some justice to how tough our great sport is.
I think the winner in the men’s race will have to run a 29min 10km…we’ll see in 18hrs anyway.
Dre
OK, here are some additional details from the triathlon Canada website (arguably somewhat Canada centric): Austria’s Kate Allen Wins Olympic Gold!
2004-08-25 – Athens, Greece
In an incredible finish Austria’s Kate Allen overcame a 2 minute 30 second deficit following the bike and claimed Olympic Gold. Allen caught Australia’s Loretta Harrop, who led most of the race, in the final 100 meters of the run. Harrop, the pre-race favourite, took the silver and American Susan Williams the bronze.
The swim started with clear, calm water conditions, and the strong American swimmers Barb Lindquist and Sheila Taormina led for much of the 1500 meter swim. At the swim finish the Americans were joined by Australians Loretta Harrop and Rina Hill while Canada’s Jill Savege exited the water close behind in fifth position. Vancouver’s Carol Montgomery finished the swim in 32nd position while Montreal’s Samantha McGlone, who qualified for the Olympic Games just over a month ago, was about three minutes back from the leaders.
Harrop and Taormina broke away early into the bike and established a commanding lead;
they were chased by Lindquist and her American teammate Susan Williams. Penticton’s Savege struggled in the early stages of the bike –crashing on the first lap of the extremely difficult and hilly course. Savege was able to get back up on her bike and joined the second large chase pack – where Montgomery was also riding. The first large pack, comprised of about 15 athletes, had difficulty becoming organized. Belgium’s Kathleen Smet, a fantastic rider on hills, broke away from this pack early in the bike and rode on her own in fifth position for the duration of the bike, trying valiantly to catch the Americans. McGlone, a strong cyclist, also caught up to her Canadian teammates early into the bike.
On the final lap of the bike Harrop broke away from Taormina, in a gutsy move, and started the run about 20 seconds ahead of the three Americans who were closely followed by Smet. McGlone continued to ride well in about 32nd position with Montgomery close behind. Savege, having sustained an injury in her bike crash, rode into the bike to run transition in about 45th position.
Onto the hot bike course, Harrop continued to dominate the run and Williams surged ahead of her American teammates to run in second place about 30 seconds back. On the final lap Smet overtook Taormina and Lindquist while Austria’s Kate Allen, having an amazing run continued to close her gap. With a kilometer left Allen passed Smet and with only 100 meters before the finish she caught Harrop and claimed the gold medal.
Samantha McGlone was the top Canadian, finishing 27th overall, Carol Montgomery finished 35th and Jill Savege in 39th position.
Great to see AUSTRALIANS go 1,2 even if one was wearing Austrian colors.
I was up at 3:00am this morning( Toronto time) to watch the race and it was very exciting. Some points:
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This is a very tough bike course. The one steep hill really did force people to work very hard.
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Going into the men’s race, it’s now known that a 2:30 lead at T2, for the less than the very top runners is not safe. This will not be a sit-in and run race, unless EVERYONE decides to do that. There are big-time break-away opportunities, but it will have to be for more than 2:30 to stick
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The heat did seem to catch up to Harrop and the American’s on the run.
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Kate Allan is in great form and had a brilliant race.
Did Kate Allen not take up Austrian citizenship (I believe she is married to an Austrian) knowing that it would be ‘tougher’ to make the Aussie Olympic team. Her Ironman Austria times have been incredible and I keep picking her to hammer people at Kona one of these years. Anyone know if she will be in Hawaii. An Olympic gold plus Kona double would be incredible and prove that there are still a few you can go both long and short and win.
Kate has the Austrian passport (about a year), lives in Austria since about 9 years, and startet triathlon in Austria. Definetly more Austrian than Australian (beside her language 
)
Rumours say, that she and the Winner tomorrow will/could get a Wildcard for Big Island ?!
They gave Van Lierde a Wildcard back in 1996 for winning the ITU LC World’s in Muncie Indiana. I think LVL was also second that year at ITU LC World’s in Cleveland, so there is somewhat of a precedent. Then again, if you can give a slot to Baywatch ladies, and Bachelor Studs, than certainly an Olympic Gold Medalist might qualify for ‘celebrity slot’
I watched it between being relieved of my job, a brief interuption that would have been far better had it occured over the phone, and Allen came out of nowhere, I think the commentators were as surprised as Harrop…where did she come from was their take, did Eurosport show her progression through the field or did they just show her hammering down that final hill as she hunted Harrop down?
She was trucking, a great run.
Whats more amazing is that Kate considers herself an Ironman Athlete and only did the Olympics because her federation asked her to do it. Wasnt there a thread earlier in which someone said that IM athletes where inferior to ITU athletes? I think this proves that theory wrong.
Anyone know what happened to Barb and Sheila?
Barb and Sheila really should learn to run, they’re terrible
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If you are going to make that comment, than most of the swimming and track events would be medals for the U.S. It’s widely commented upon that most athletes live, train and attend U.S. universities.
; )
Barb and Sheila really should learn to run, they’re terrible
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So in 1996, LVL was 2nd at SC ITU Worlds, 2nd at ITU LC Worlds (half Ironman), first at Nice (4/120/30) and then he won Hawaii. Talk about a stacked fall program.
You are entitled to your opinion of course . . . but the truth is that Sheila has learned how to run, and showed it with her 34:17 split to win at 2004 worlds. She had shin splints for a while this summer, but we eventually solved the riddle and she started to run well again. On August 1, she ran 16:05 in a 5K race near Orlando (probably a bit short, as the winning man did 15:10 and usually is around 15:30). And she also had some really good track workouts.
What happened today for her were cramps - severe, debilitating cramps. She and Loretta had blown the race wide open on the first lap of the bike, riding away from Barb and Jill Savege (among others) the first time up the big hill. At the end of the first lap, they already had a gap of 50 seconds - but then Sheila’s legs started to cramp. First the quads, then the calves, and finally the inner thighs. She felt great otherwise, with lots of energy, but it was just too painful to push hard, especially on that hill - and their lead stopped growing.
She had a particularly difficult time with the fifth (and last) time up the hill, and Loretta went on ahead. Sheila rode into T2 with Susan and Barb, about 20 seconds down to Loretta. Sheila stayed in second for the first 3K of the run, but the damage done by the cramps was too much for her and she slowed considerably. She was very happy for Susan (who held on for bronze), however, and fairly chipper overall. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”
Lew,
Of course I knew that you would be reading what I wrote and I definitely wrote it in a tongue-in-cheek tone, hence the smiley.
What I meant is that technically both Sheila and Barb have very unusual running styles. I had noticed it before but never for such a long time, it’s been 4 years since I last watched on tv a whole triathlon.
The fact that one is the current world champion and the other the world number one undoubtdely validate their styles and I didn’t mean to say that they lost today because of their running technique. But that aspect of their running really stuck with me this morning.
Anyway, congrats on a great job done with Sheila, most people don’t realize the huge amount of work necessary to produce a top-level athlete.
Paulo