Emma Lombardi

A world under-23 champion from Edmonton in her first Olympic distance race in the late summer of 2021, more recently Lombardi has achieved six consecutive top 10 finishes in World Triathlon Championship Series races through to Sunderland on the last weekend of July.

Three of those contests have ended with runners-up finishes, twice in Cagliari in Sicily – both times to Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown – and over the sprint distance in north east England to countrywoman Cassandre Beuagrand.

With a third place from last year’s European Championship to her name, on that occasion finishing top French woman ahead of Beugrand, Lombardi has Olympic selection in her sights and it seems only a matter of time before she is standing on top of a senior podium at the highest level.

Lombardi is helped by coming from a swimming background, and although she was crowned national junior triathlon champion at 17 with victory in Grignon in the Alps, the full focus on triathlon came a year later.

She has continued to race regularly and develop her skills with Vallons de La Tour on the French Grand Prix circuit, including a recent success in Bordeaux and has already had a taste of Super League action too, being part of the junior racing in Jersey in 2019.

But it’s since international racing resumed following the pandemic that Lombardi has come into her own. Showing she was in form by clocking a 33min 11sec split for a first 10km in Cannes, a first European Cup podium came in Caorle, Italy in May 2021 before a sixth place finish in her first World Cup in Arzachena, where she was one of only three in the 57-strong field to be born this millennium.

Following the world under-23 success in Edmonton, where she was at the front out of the swim and broke away on the bike before cruising to the win, her performances have gone up another level.

And as well as the solo success there have been three mixed relay wins in four races with France, including last year being crowned world and European champions in Montreal and Munich respectively.

It’s a background that puts Lombardi in prime position for her first crack at senior Super League Triathlon, where she won’t lack support as she lines up for Tim Don’s Santara Tech Eagles alongside compatriot and reigning short course world champion Leo Bergere.

Outside of triathlon Lombardi completed a course in sports studies at Creps de Boulouris in Saint-Raphaël and studied for an economics degree at the University of Grenoble Alpes.