Sam Laidlow (born December 23, 1998) is a French professional long course triathlete.
Sam won the 2023
Ironman World Championship
The Ironman World Championship is a triathlon held annually in Hawaii, United States from 1978 to 2022, with no race in 2020 and an additional race in 1982. It is owned and organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. It is the annual culminat ...
on 10 September 2023 in Nice, France. He became the first Ironman World Champion from France and the youngest man ever to win the title.
He placed second in the (second) 2022 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, breaking the bike course record. He showed promise finishing 8th at his first Ironman World Championships at the age of 23 (the youngest athlete in the professional field). Other results include a 2nd Place Finish at Ironman UK, and a win at the Spanish Irondistance race in the Girona Province (140.6INN)
In 2024 he won the London leg of the T100 Triathlon Series.
Triathlon career
In 2001, his parents decided to move from the UK to the South of France in order to set up a triathlon training business – Sancture Sportifs. At the age of 13 he decided to leave his home in
Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda
Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.
It is situated in the Tech valley, and combines the old and the new with a mix of narrow cobbled streets and modern accommodation. It has b ...
for the National Altitude Training Centre in Font Romeu. 3 years later Sam was selected to train alongside the French team in Montpellier. At the age of 17 he went back home to his family in
Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda
Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.
It is situated in the Tech valley, and combines the old and the new with a mix of narrow cobbled streets and modern accommodation. It has b ...
and started to being coached by his father Richard Laidlow.
He won the Bearman Xtreme Iron distance race in 2017 and the Lakesman in 2019, setting the fastest iron-distance time ever recorded in the United Kingdom. At the Cannes International Triathlon in 2018, he was leading Javier Gómez for most of the race when his rear derailleur broke. He ran 20 km with his bike and completed the race regardless. In 2019, he finished 7th at Ironman Barcelona in a time of 8:05h.
With his strengths being the first two disciplines of triathlon (swimming and cycling), Sam is often known for being at the front of the races assuming a more aggressive racing style. Sam also represented Team Europe at the 2nd edition of The Collins Cup in Samorin.
In 2022, Sam came second behind
Gustav Iden
Gustav Iden (born 1 May 1996) is a professional Norwegian triathlete. He is a 2022 Ironman World champion and he is a two-time winner of the Ironman 70.3 World Championship, winning in 2019 and 2021. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan ...
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionPatrick Lange, the second placed finisher that year.
Laidlow announced the launch of an investigation by the International Testing Agency on the 20th of October 2023. The investigation follows doping concerns raised to the ITA by private sources.
In 2024, Sam was one of the twenty contracted athletes set to compete in the PTO new race series the T100 World Tour, after a rocky start, he silenced critics with his first win in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, the fourth leg of the tour.
In late 2024, on the run up to the Ironman World Championships his training base in France suffered a fire, destroying some of his equipment. No one was harmed.
Personal life
Laidlow is of French and British descent and resides in
Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda
Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.
It is situated in the Tech valley, and combines the old and the new with a mix of narrow cobbled streets and modern accommodation. It has b ...
where his family home is.
Race history
Key: DNF = Did not finish
‡The 2021 World Championship was held in St. George, Utah on May 7, 2022. The delay and change from the original Kona, Hawaii venue were due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...