Swiss athlete Julie Derron lands silver in Olympics triathlon
Julie Derron was delighted with her second-place finish in Paris on Wednesday.
Keystone / Anthony Anex
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss athlete Julie Derron lands silver in Olympics triathlon
Switzerland has won a second medal at the Paris Games after Julie Derron finished runner-up in the women’s triathlon on Wednesday.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Derron caused something of a surprise with her Olympic podium finish. The 27-year-old from Zurich, who is more at home in the sprint format, has never made it onto the podium at a world championships.
Derron, whose victory in the European championships in 2021 in Valencia marks her greatest achievement to date, was edged out by six seconds in Paris by the favourite, Frenchwoman Cassandre Beaugrand. Beth Potter from Great Britain took bronze, nine seconds further back.
After having perfectly limited the damage in the swim part of the triathlon in the Seine, Derron quickly took the lead on the bike, before setting a strong pace in the run.
The leading pack, made up of nine athletes after the cycling part of the course, quickly dwindled under the Zurich women’s impetus. This left just four athletes in contention for the podium before the final 2.5km lap. Beaugrand managed to pull away with just over a kilometre to go, but Derron held on to secure a podium spot which was as deserved as it was unexpected.
“It’s quite incredible,” said the Swiss athlete shortly after the finish. Derron is only 10th in the world rankings, and 28th in the World Series.
It’s the fifth Olympic medal won by Swiss women in triathlon events. The previous winners were Brigitte McMahon (gold in 2000), Nicola Spirig (gold in 2012 and silver in 2016) and Magali Messmer (bronze in 2000).
Adapted from French by DeepL/dos
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
Swiss federal prosecutor bemoans shortage of investigators
This content was published on
The Swiss Office of the Attorney General complains of unresolved shortage of investigators that hinder its efforts to prosecute serious criminals.
ECHR condemns Swiss failure to protect woman from violence
This content was published on
Switzerland did not provide a woman with sufficient protection against her partner who had been violent in the past, rules the ECHR.
This content was published on
In Switzerland, 2.2 million people are affected by non-communicable diseases, partly because people are not eating a balanced diet.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.