Bahrain Aim To Be Victorious Once Again But Face Selection Dilemmas

Want to know the goal for Bahrain Victorious Scorpions in the 2023 Championship Series? There’s a pretty big hint in the middle of their Team name.

The Scorpions are indeed about victory. They have built a brand on being the best of the best, a big-budget team recruiting star athletes and in turn helping them to reach even greater heights. Their move from long course specialists to the future of the sport in Super League Triathlon shows their commitment to evolving with the times.

Bahrain were Team champions in 2022 with their star athlete, Georgia Taylor-Brown, taking the Individual title for the women. The men’s 2022 individual champion, Hayden Wilde, has since been signed up.

Manager Chris McCormack and his assistant, Michael Gilliam, are outspoken, often controversial, and demanding of their athletes, but they have been able to drive success. And in an environment where winning is the priority, they will be asking for the same again in a year when they will have a target on their back.

In the week before the athlete rosters are revealed for each Team, we take a deeper look at the 2023 Bahrain Victorious Scorpions. 

Meet The Manager

Chris McCormack

Chris regularly features in every debate of the greatest triathletes of all time after a glittering professional racing career that saw him win the Ironman World Championship twice, as well as numerous short course titles, including the ITU World Cup Series. Since retiring from racing, Chris has forged a successful business career including founding Super League Triathlon.

Manager Insights

“We expect nothing less than to defend all our titles in 2023. The focus is to clean sweep all the title offerings at SLT, including the male and female overall and of course the team title. We are called Bahrain Victorious for a reason, and we won’t be happy with anything less than a complete defence of our place on top of SLT in 2023.”

The Owners: In Their Own Words

Bahrain Victorious 13 is the most successful endurance sports team on the planet. The vision of His Highness Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, BV13 exists to promote a culture of health and wellness across the Gulf region and beyond. Members are selected for their unparalleled achievements, class and character, and work together as a tight team under the guidance and framework created by team manager Chris McCormack. 

The model has delivered success after success since its launch in 2015, capturing every major title in the sport, and spearheading the team dynamic within the sport of triathlon. In Super League Triathlon, Bahrain Victorious features members of the broader BV13 team, alongside short course stars that uphold our winning culture and are carefully selected to support the broader focus of continued success.

Team manager Chris McCormack said: “Since its inception, Bahrain Victorious 13 has remained a unique and powerful force in endurance sport, and under His Highness’s stewardship, the members of the team have adopted the team dynamic and worked closely together to build a powerful team culture that has brought success at both a team and individual level. We are stronger together. It’s a true honour to lead this team and continue to innovate and push further success.”

Alongside continued long course achievement, Bahrain Victorious has dominated short course racing in recent years, with the newly crowned super sprint world champions, Hayden Wilde and Cassandre Beaugrand, continuing a streak of titles that includes both the male and female world championships crowns and an incredible five Olympic medals in Tokyo alone. That success extended to Super League Triathlon in 2022, with Georgia Taylor-Brown crowned overall champion and leading Bahrain Victorious to the teams title.

Who Might Race For Them?

Surely they have signed their Bahrain Victorious 13 athletes…? Hayden Wilde, the current men’s champion, is on their roster, as is defending female champion Georgia Taylor-Brown.

They also have Cassandre Beaugrand, Vincent Luis – the two-time SLT winner who is making a Championship Series injury comeback – and Henri Schoeman.

Assuming they have secured all five of those, it’s only half a team.

So the big question is who else have they got? While those big guns will likely secure a bunch of points, Luis and Schoeman are unknown quantities given their recent injury battles, and you will not win it based on the stars alone.

You will need athletes willing to work for the team, to chase Short Chutes and Discipline points, sometimes ahead of their individual racing displays, and that unity is key.

Who will join the team while not being a full Bahrain member, and how will they fit in? It’s an unknown quantity and really intriguing question ahead of the athlete roster reveals.