The 7 Most Notable Pieces of Tri Gear at the 2026 Ironman World Championship - Triathlete

As is our tradition here at Slowtwitch, we begin our post-Kona gear articles with the swim. In case you’re wondering why women’s swim leader Lucy Charles-Barclay doesn’t appear on the list, athletes need to finish to be included. This year’s swim was a choppy affair, to the point where even experienced pros like Laura Philipp complained of getting seasick. Thanks to those conditions, the times were considerably slower than in years past, with Charles-Barclay (51:28) running up to the pier over three minutes slower than her best time (48:14) set in 2018. On the men’s side, swim-leader Marten Van Riel (48:17) went 2:34 slower than Aussie age-grouper Sam Askey-Doran’s (45:43) swim course record set in 2024.

Israeli settlers have attacked European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group. The attack comes a day after settlers assaulted a US journalist north of Ramallah. In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. “A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further European Union sanctions. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency that the violence suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said the settlers surrounded the diplomats’ vehicles, pelted them with stones and smashed their windows.