Marc Duelsen

Marc Duelsen has a solo IRONMAN victory at the 2016 IRONMAN Champion Wales event on his resume – unsurprisingly the favourite event of his career - but has also earned gold in the shorter format at the Breisgau Triathlon in 2017 and at the Wolfgangsee Challenge Olympic-distance event in 2019.

The German’s first noteworthy result came at the IRONMAN World Championships Hawaii in 2011 where he finished third in the 25-29 age group.

Marc’s favourite discipline is the bike because “it’s the fastest and furthest you go” during a race and states the swim is his least favourite. His personal best over the IRONMAN distance is 8:02:54 which he set in 2018 at IRONMAN UK – although the bike stage of that event was shortened by 27 miles, 8:07:25 at Ironman Texas in 2017 is his full distance best.

In his early days, Marc was solely a runner, but his training group involved several multi-discipline athletes and they persuaded him to join the local triathlon club – safe to say he hasn’t looked back since.

The German says the one thing he is unable to live without is coffee, and his biggest fear is having no coffee beans in the house. Marc describes his most embarrassing moment as competing in 180km back

ride with his helmet on backwards – that will do nothing for the aerodynamics.

Marc trains with fellow triathletes Nils Frommhold, Maurice Clavel and Andi Böcherer, and the most painful experience of his career to date was during IRONMAN World Championships in 2018 when

stomach cramps during the bike ride forced him to retire from the race.

The best advice Marc has been given in the sport is “go out of your comfort zone” and “Swim faster, then you don’t have to ride a bike as fast!”