Patrick Dirksmeier

Like many triathletes, Patrick Dirksmeier cut his competitive teeth in the world of swimming between 1995 to 2004, before deciding to concentrate on triathlon from 2009.

The man from Münster became so proficient at the sport that he turned professional in 2014 and that year he finished second in the 30-34 age group at the Paguera-Mallorca ETU Challenge Half Distance Triathlon European Championships.

He claimed his first podium at IRONMAN 70.3 Rügen in 2016 and was somehow managing to juggle the demands of elite professional sport with being a lawyer.

To prove the point, in 2017 he was crowned European middle-distance champion at the Herning ETU Challenge in Denmark. Patrick’s 70.3 World Championship debut in Chattanooga later in 2017 meanwhile resulted in 24th place.

2018 saw Dirksmeier take in a full IRONMAN event for the first time and he was seventh in Hamburg in his home country, before taking fifth place at Busselton in Western Australia.

2019 brought the Tri Finish Münster member a first podium finish over the 70.3 distance in Kraichgau in Germany, when he finished second.

His main aim now is to qualify for the World Championship at Kona in Hawaii, and with long-distance specialists generally hitting their best years after the age of 35, Patrick has high hopes of achieving that goal.

He has come close several times, none more so than at Frankfurt in Germany in 2019, when a time penalty of five minutes on the bike relegated him to seventh.

Patrick is also a three-time champion of the Sparda Münster Triathlon, an achievement which helped him become the German city’s athlete of the year on one occasion.