Cassandre Beaugrand wins a second world triathlon crown

Unbeatable. Cassandre Beaugrand won a second world triathlon crown on Saturday at the end of a perfect year where the Paris Olympic champion also broke two French athletics records.

“2026 was the best of all my years and it will be hard to do better next year,” reacted the 29-year-old Frenchwoman on Saturday in Pontevedra, Galicia, where the world triathlon finals (WTCS) took place. “It's difficult to compare with an Olympic title but I think that in terms of performance, I really did flawlessly. It’s still incredible to stay on top throughout the season,” she commented in a message sent to AFP.

After 2024, where she won Olympic gold and the world title, the Ile-de-France native was forced to retire during the 2025 world finals in Australia. This post-Olympic year was “very hard” because of the “enormous pressure” she had on her shoulders, she confided.

In 2026, it has straightened out and set the bar even higher. she won the four stages of the WTCS world circuit in which she participated (Alghero, Quiberon, London and Weihai), arriving as a huge favorite at the final in Pontevedra, at the top of the world ranking with 4,000 points, ahead of the Briton Beth Potter and the Swede Tilda Mansson. A place on the podium was enough for her to pocket the world title but the Frenchwoman signed her fifth success of the year and her fourteenth career.

In a very closed circle

On the Galician lands of the five-time Spanish world champion Javier Gomez, the Frenchwoman, after an excellent start, preserved her place in the leading peloton during the swim (1.5 km) and the 40 km bike ride before flying over the 10 km run, her strong point. She relegated her pursuers, the British Georgia Taylor-Brown and Kate Waughs, to more than a minute.

Beaugrand thus joins the very closed circle of triathletes who have been crowned world champions at least twice, behind the Bermudian athlete Flora Duffy and her four titles and the Australian Emma Snowsill (three titles). She is also getting closer to Flora Duffy's victory record (15).

This running specialist also devoted part of 2026 to athletics events, with two French records to show for it, the 5,000 m in Nice and the 10 km on the road in Lille. His participation in the Monaco Diamond League in July, a dream come true, had even hinted at participation in the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham. But the triathlete decided to focus on the triathlon for the end of the season. A (more than) profitable choice.