Action-Packed Weekend of Elite Racing as Para Series Heads to Montreal and Hamburg Hosts WTCS and Mixed Relay

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Seven U.S. elite triathletes will race in the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Hamburg and Mixed Relay events this Saturday and Sunday and 15 U.S. elite paratriathletes will compete in the 2022 World Triathlon Para Series Montreal on Friday, kicking off an exciting three days of elite triathlon racing.  
 
The fourth stop in 2022 of the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series, the iconic World Triathlon Championship Series Hamburg will see the individual men’s and women’s races on Saturday, July 9, featuring a sprint-distance course. On Sunday, July 10, the elite racing continues as countries will compete in the Mixed Relay event. 
 
In Montreal, elite paratriathletes will begin the action-packed race weekend on Friday, July 8 at the second top of the 2022 World Triathlon Para Series.  

Tune In 
All races in Hamburg will be broadcast live at TriathlonLIVE.tv with subscriptions available for purchase. 

The elite women will compete first, with athletes lining up for a 7:30 a.m. ET (1:30 p.m. local time) start. The men will follow at 9:30 a.m. ET (3:30 p.m. local time).  

Sunday’s team Mixed Relay event will take place at 9 a.m. ET (3 p.m. local time).

World Triathlon Championship Series Hamburg & Mixed Relay
Hamburg is one of the longest standing events on the WTCS calendar, with over 20 years of race history. This year brings a unique aspect as it will be the first time that athletes compete in the German city twice in the same WTCS year. The 2022 WTCS season officially kicked off in Hamburg last September. 

Seven U.S. elites will toe the start line on the 750-meter swim, 21-kilometer bike, 5-kilometer run sprint course. 

On the women’s side, Taylor Spivey (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Summer Rappaport (Thornton, Colo.) and Erika Ackerlund (Helena, Mont.) will compete.  

Spivey enters as the highest ranked USA athlete, sitting at fourth overall in the Series. She will race Hamburg for the first time since 2020 when she finished fourth, her best result at the event.  

Both Rappaport and Ackerlund raced in Hamburg last fall to open the 2022 Series. Rappaport earned the bronze, returning to the Hamburg podium for the first time since her bronze in 2019. Ackerlund had her first top-10 WTCS showing in Hamburg last year in only her second WTCS appearance of her career.  

Racing for the men will be Kevin McDowell (Geneva, Ill.), Seth Rider (Germantown, Tenn.), Chase McQueen (Columbus, Ind.) and Marc Dubrick (Glen Ellyn, Ill.).  

McQueen is the only man for the U.S. returning to Hamburg after racing there at the season start, where he finished 29th.  

On Sunday, four U.S. elite triathletes will team up to race in the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Hamburg Mixed Relay. Last month, the U.S. took home the bronze at the Mixed Relay World Championships in Montreal. The podium result adds to the list of strong accolades in this format for the U.S., including silver at the 2020 Mixed Relay World Championships, bronze in 2018, silver in 2017 and the world title in 2016. 
 
Last September, McQueen, Rappaport and Ackerlund were three members of the USA Mixed Relay team that raced in Hamburg, where they placed fifth. In 2020, McDowell and Spivey raced for the U.S. in the Mixed Relay in Hamburg, where they earned the silver. 
 
The four-person Mixed Relay rosters for all teams will be unveiled on race morning.

2022 World Triathlon Para Series Montreal 
Montreal hosts the second stop of the 2022 World Triathlon Para Series season. After Yokohama kicked of the Series in May, the elite paratriathletes return to continue in the quest for the world title. 
 
Fifteen elite paratriathletes will represent the U.S. on Friday, with a mix of experienced and new athletes stepping up to the charge.  

In the women’s events, Tokyo 2020 Paralympians Hailey Danz (Wauwatosa, Wis.) in PTS2, Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Ill.) in PTWC,  Grace Norman (Jamestown, Ohio) in PTS5 and Kelly Elmlinger (San Antonio, Texas) in PTS4 are set to compete. Danz is racing in her first WTPS event of the year, although she competed in the Americas Para Championship in Sarasota-Bradenton in March and earned the gold.  

This will be Gretsch’s first triathlon race since her gold medal win in Tokyo. A dual athlete, Gretsch took time off to train to compete in the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics where she won a gold in the middle-distance sitting biathlon, silver in the individual-sitting biathlon and a bronze in the sprint-distance biathlon. 
 
Norman is having an undefeated 2022 so far, winning gold in Yokohama and two Para World Cup events in Besacon and A Coruna.  

Also racing for the women is Deborah Chucoski (Corning, N.Y.), who will make her WTPS debut in PTVI.

On the men’s side, Howie Sanborn will race in the PTWC event, Mohamed Lahna (Elk Grove, Calif.) and Adam Popp (Golden, Colo.) will race in the PTS2 category and Chris Marston (Mechanicsville, Va.) will race in PTS3. In addition, in the PTS4 event, Eric Mcelvenny (Pittsburg, Pa.) and Carson Clough will represent the U.S.  

Chris Hammer (Gilbert, Ariz.) is opening up his WTPS season this weekend in the PTS5 division. Earlier this year, he became the first paratriathlete to compete in the professional field at an IRONMAN 70.3 event.  

In the PTVI race, Yokohama gold medalist Kyle Coon (Colorado Springs, Colo.) will race, along with Owens Cravens (Algonquin, Ill.) and Adriel Fernandez (Central Islip, Ill.).