Marten Van Riel will line up for his first Ironman World Championship on September 14th in Nice. The Belgian star, a three-time Olympian and reigning T100 World Champion, is currently ranked third in the PTO standings and arrives with strong debut results on the long-course stage.
Van Riel’s 2025 season has highlighted his range. He claimed victory at 70.3 Nice, finished second at the T100 Vancouver, and secured the runner-up spot at Ironman South Africa, finishing behind only Magnus Ditlev despite being ill in the lead-up to the race. These performances confirm what he has long believed: that he’s built for longer distances. “I’m not a short-distance athlete turned long-distance – I’m a long-distance athlete who kind of got stuck in short-distance,” he said in a recent interview with Bob Babbitt.
In early July, Van Riel suffered an ankle injury that left him unable to run for five to six weeks. “It was the worst timing for this particular injury, leading up to Nice,” he admitted.
However, before the injury, he shared that he hadn’t been in the best place mentally. The ankle injury, Van Riel explained, almost felt like a gauntlet was thrown. The challenge became getting to Nice as fit as possible, and working “very very very hard for that.” The setback shifted his perspective and gave him new clarity.
Looking ahead to his first Ironman World Championship, Van Riel said: “I feel free. I feel proud already of having made it back…to the start line. [Anything] that can best that is a bonus.”
Van Riel is eager to test himself on a course that he describes as championship-worthy. “I am going to feel like a kid in the playground on the bike,” he said. “And it’s mostly going to be about not getting too excited and not getting too carried away!”
He brings to the start line the trademark playfulness and humour that has made him one of the most sport’s popular figures. Case in point: just days before the race, he joked on Instagram that his biggest win was petting Kristian the turtle.
However, what lies ahead this weekend may be bigger than petting Kristian the turtle. Van Riel could very well be reaching for the biggest prize of his career: the Ironman World Championship title.
At the very least, he says, he intends to “entertain the race.”
Watch the full Bob Babbitt interview below!
The post Marten Van Riel Arrives in Nice as a Top Contender in His Ironman World Championship Debut appeared first on Triathlon Magazine Canada.