Lehair To The Throne: Will 2025 Be Jeanne Lehair's Year?
Runner up in the 2023 and 2024 Supertri League, will 2025 be the year where Podium Racing athlete Jeanne Lehair steps up to the top of the podium?
Born and bred as a French athlete, Lehair switched allegiance to Luxembourg in 2022 and has gone on to represent her new nation at international races at the highest level including the Paris Olympic Games last year.
Supertri has provided the 29-year-old with a proving ground and opportunity to race against the best in the world, an opportunity she has taken with both hands to become a key contender every time she steps onto the race course no matter the format.
In 2022, she ended the Supertri season in seventh having broken onto the scene with a fourth-place finish in Munich, before finishing fifth, sixth and ninth respectively.
With her first Supertri season under her belt, 2023 saw Lehair make her World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) debut and earn her maiden top-five WTCS finish, before becoming European Champion and returning to the Supertri circuit ready to make her mark.
Having taken the win in London and a third-place finish in Malibu, a disqualification for a helmet infringement in Toulouse would see an emotional Lehair miss out on vital points as Great Britain’s Kate Waugh took victory and a surge up the rankings heading into the final race in Neom.
That DQ resulted in Lehair picking up zero points from Toulouse meaning she needed a special race and a bit of luck to propel her to the overall victory. However, despite pulling out all the stops to cross the line third it was not enough, with Waugh’s second place seeing her take the series win.
Another year stronger and more experienced, and with the disappointment of a DNF at the Paris Olympic Games to contend with, Lehair returned to Supertri in 2024 to seek the top spot as part of Podium Racing.
The first race of the year saw the athletes head State-side for a US doubleheader, first to Boston and then to Chicago.
Never mind Red Sox, gold was the only colour on Lehair’s mind as she took the race win in Boston before being blown into fifth in the Windy City, Chicago. Having lost out to Waugh in 2023, it was another Brit in the form of Georgia Taylor-Brown who would be Lehair’s big challenge in 2024.
Taylor-Brown, series winner in 2021 and 2022, took the race win in Chicago before backing that up with wins in the next two races in London and Toulouse. Lehair meanwhile raced to third behind Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand in London, before Toulouse cemented itself as her bogey race with a puncture in 2024 following 2023’s DQ.
Heading to the finale in Neom, Lehair was once again a contender for the overall series but would fall agonisingly short despite finishing second to Beaugrand. Fourth place for Taylor-Brown proved enough to see her top the series podium for the second consecutive year and earn fourth series title in total, with Lehair ending the season a mere two points behind the Brit.
With two races complete and two races to come in 2025, Lehair sits atop the podium in the women’s series but with the dominant Supertri force of Taylor-Brown breathing down her neck.
Lehair has edged the Brit out in both races so far however. Crossing the line fifth to her sixth in Toronto and taking the race win ahead of Taylor-Brown in Chicago. The racing now shifts to Jersey next on 21 September before the finale in Toulouse in October.
Will 2025 be the year where Lehair goes from heir to the throne to being crowned champion, or will Taylor-Brown spoil her party once again?
The penultimate stage of the 2025 Supertri League will take place in Jersey on Sunday 21 September, marking Supertri’s return to the Channel Island, the place where the reimagined future of elite triathlon was lived out in full for the first time back in 2017.
International viewing is available through Warner Bros. Discovery including on TNT+ in the UK and Ireland, HBO Max in the USA, and Eurosport across Europe. The racing will also be available to stream on discovery+.
