Vincent Luis wins Kona at his first attempt, and says he will not go through it again
The 37-year-old Frenchman had said before 10 October that the Ironman World Championship would be the last race of his career. After winning it, he said the 12-week build had taken too much to repeat.
Vincent Luis expects the Ironman World Championship he won in Kona on 10 October to be the last race of his career. The Frenchman, 37, had announced before the race that his first appearance on the Big Island would also be his final one, and after crossing the line he said he could not commit to another build like it.
“It’s a really hard commitment,” Luis told Triathlete at the finish. “That’s why I’m thinking it’s my last race. I don’t think I can do it again. The last 12 weeks were really, really hard. I committed to the sleeping, the training, the nutrition. That’s many, many nights when you’re going to bed hungry.”
“I went through some dark places,” he added. “It was 100% worth it. But I won’t do it again.”
Luis won in 7 hours 47 minutes 27 seconds, ahead of Norway’s Gustav Iden (7:49:03) and Matthew Marquardt of the United States (7:49:59). He is the first Frenchman to win the championship in Kona, Triathlete noted; his compatriot Sam Laidlow won the 2023 title when the race was held in Nice. The men’s and women’s winners each received $125,000, Big Island Now reported.
Leaving on top
Before the race Luis had left himself some room. Slowtwitch reported that he said a win might make him reconsider, and Triathlete wrote that he had joked he would keep going if he won.
At the post-race press conference he was asked exactly that. “What do you want to be remembered like,” he said, according to Triathlon Magazine, “as the guy that won the world champs and dropped the mic or the guy that tried to cash in some cheques and get injured and just survive races?” He added: “I want to leave standing on my feet, not on my knees.”
One remark at the finish was less final. “I have a few nights out to decide what I do with my life now,” he told Big Island Now. None of the reports we have read quote him saying he will race again.
How he won
Luis was never far from the front. He swam in a large lead group, came out of the water in 48:31 and started the marathon alongside Kristian Blummenfelt, about six minutes behind Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev, according to Slowtwitch.
He and Blummenfelt ran together until about halfway, when they moved into second and third. Luis then pulled clear of the Norwegian, and caught Ditlev, who was by then walking repeatedly, at an aid station with just under five miles to go. Iden, who had served a three-minute drafting penalty, closed to within about 40 seconds before fading in the last two miles.
Luis said he had skipped the 70.3 World Championship in Nice in September to concentrate on heat preparation, Triathlon Magazine reported. He had finished fourth at Ironman Texas in April in 7:25:29 to secure his place, and fourth on his debut at Challenge Roth in 2025, according to Big Island Now.
“I’ve always wanted to have life my way, and pick the people I want to work with,” he told Triathlete. “I feel like the last few years I was the jester. Now that I have the Kona title, the joke’s done, and I can look back at my career and be at peace.”
A short-course career, then one long race
Luis spent most of his career over the Olympic distance. He won the world title in 2019 and 2020, raced at three Olympic Games and won bronze in the mixed relay in Tokyo. Missing selection for Paris 2024 had remained “a wound”, the French outlet Sportmag wrote (our translation).
Triathlon Magazine pointed to a precedent of sorts in Chrissie Wellington, who won on her debut in 2007 and later retired after her fourth title, in 2011, though she did not announce it formally until some time afterwards.
