Kirsten Kasper

Kirsten Kasper made a welcome and highly-anticipated return to supertri action after a five-year absence in 2023, and is back for more, including a home town race, this time out.

Kasper’s original supertri record boasted three outings in Jersey, Malta and Mallorca in 2018, where the US triathlete was never off the podium, with her consistent swim, bike and run talents proving perfectly suited to the no-let-up pace of racing.

2023’s return was tougher but still saw respectable results off the back of injuries and her form since that point has gotten ever better.

Previously a cross-country champion from Georgetown University in Washington DC, where she completed a Masters in Sports Industry Management, Kasper only started triathlon in 2014, but quickly took to the sport and showed the potential to compete at elite level.

Within two years she’d achieved four top 10 World Triathlon Series finishes and taken it up another level in 2017 with third place in WTS Yokohama before a fourth-place in the season-ending Grand Final in Rotterdam. 

Having established herself as a potent threat on the World Series, Kasper started 2018 in style with a first World Cup in New Plymouth, New Zealand before rounding out the season in style with a fifth place in the Grand Final on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Kasper also excelled in the team mixed relay, helping the USA win the 2016 world title, and following it up with silver in 2017 and bronze a year later.

The sport has been more challenging in recent years as the 31-year-old has battled injury and illness issues, but she has bounced back from the disappointment of missing the Tokyo Olympics with more top 10 performances on the World Series. 

Last year, a ninth place in Yokohama and sixth in Cagliari were among the highlights as Kasper finished 12th in the series rankings, and this year a return to Japan for eighth has been the standout result. 

There was another highlight off the racecourse in 2022, as she married Matthew Sharpe, an Olympic triathlete from Canada who also competed in supertri in 2018. The couple now train out of the popular location of Boulder, Colorado, with Sharpe focusing more on non-drafting long course events. 

Kasper’s full return to form was marked with a call-up for the US Olympic team for Paris, where she had the misfortune to crash on the wet surfaces and battled to finish in 49th, but straight off the back of that she will race in Boston, where she lived as a child.