Olivia Mathias

Mathias is establishing herself as one of the leading women in British triathlon, a consistent top 10 performer who is gaining experience at the highest level.

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Despite being just 24 years old, the Loughborough-based athlete’s first taste of international competition was almost a decade ago and she has plenty of weapons to prove a real threat to the established order.

Mathias was winning junior European Cups as far back as 2015 and claimed the British national sprint championship a year later as a teenager.

Moving through the junior and Under-23 ranks, she has always been at the sharp end of racing. A sixth-place in the junior worlds in Rotterdam in 2017 and second in the Under-23 worlds in Lausanne two years later were both indicators of her talent.

There have been standout results at senior level too, including three continental cup wins in Europe and the mixed team relay European title in Kitzbuhel in 2021 alongside Sian Rainsley, Sam Dickinson and Gordon Benson.

Last year, Mathias stepped up a level again with three top five finishes in World Cups and was part of the Team Wales squad for an emotional silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. It was Mathias’ second appearance at the Games, having been the youngest athlete on the Welsh team for the 2018 event on Australia’s Gold Coast.

It won’t be Mathias’ first taste of SLT Championship racing either. In 2019, she put in a stunning display in the Poznan qualifier to earn her slot at races in Malta and Jersey, where she placed eighth.

At this year’s Arena Games Triathlon Powered by Zwift series Mathias also finished an impressive fifth place overall, having placed second at her first ever Arena Games Triathlon race in Sursee (narrowly ahead of Hungarian protégé Fanni Szalai), and seventh at the series final in London after progressing through the heats.

Mathias is now returning to SLT, to race her first full Championship Season as part of Michelle Dillon’s Britpack Sharks alongside familiar GB team-mates such as Sophie Coldwell, Beth Potter, Kate Waugh and Jessica Fullagar.

Mathias lives and trains in the East Midlands alongside boyfriend and 2021 SLT Championship Series winner, Alex Yee.