page_title: Triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's
section_title: Preview
hierarchical_section_title: Triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's / Preview
caption_attribution_description: English: Lisa (Elina Elisabeth) Norden (Nordén) at the Triathlon Sprint World Championships in Lausanne.
context_page_description: The women's triathlon was one of the triathlon events at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. It took place on 4 August 2012, featuring 55 women from 31 countries. It was the fourth appearance of an Olympic women's triathlon event since the first at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The race was around Hyde Park, a 1.42 km² park in central London. The race was held over the "international distance" and consisted of 1.5 kilometres swimming, 43 kilometres road cycling, and 10 kilometres road running.
  A sub-twenty degree Celsius Serpentine River met the athletes in the swimming discipline. A group of seven finished the 1,500 metres swim leg in a lead group. A couple of athletes crashed on the bike leg, including one of the pre-race favourites, Emma Moffatt of Australia. However, a large lead group of 22 athletes were together at the end of the cycling leg with an over a minute and a half over the rest of the field. A group of five athletes formed on the running leg; Nicola Spirig, Lisa Nordén, Erin Densham, Sarah Groff and Helen Jenkins and held together for most of the run.
context_section_description: Before the race, there were no clear favourites for the gold medal. In a preview written on the ITU website, Merryn Sherwood identified Jenkins, Moffatt, Densham, Spirig and Andrea Hewitt (New Zealand) as favourites. She wrote that she expected Lucy Hall (Great Britain), Hewitt and Densham to be strong on the swim leg along with a few other athletes. Sherwood thought that if that there was a large group of athletes together on the run then many of the competitors would fancy their chances at winning. Sherwood wrote, "Most importantly every athlete will be going into the race knowing they have a chance." Sherwood's thoughts were similar to those of New Zealander Kate McIlroy who said, "It’s funny, the women’s race seems at the moment there is probably 25 girls that could win it on the day." On the website Triathlete Courtney Baird said that the race favourites were Paula Findlay (Canada), Jenkins, Hewitt and Densham.
  Moffatt was the only athlete competing in the women's triathlon at the 2012 Olympics that had previously won an Olympic medal. She had won a bronze medal in the 2008 race in Beijing, China. Anja Dittmer was competing in her fourth Olympic triathlon, the only woman in the race doing so. The ITU World Triathlon Series champions of the four previous years in Jenkins (2008 & 2011) and Moffatt (2009 & 2010) were competing. Three countries had athletes competing for the first time in an Olympic triathlon. They were Ecuador (Elizabeth Bravo), Slovenia (Mateja Šimic) and Mauritius (Fabienne St Louis).
  Densham won the last ITU World Triathlon Series race before the 2012 Olympics in Hamburg, Germany. She beat Moffatt and Groff to win her second race of the 2012 Series. Hewitt was leading the World Series going into the Olympics.
caption: Lisa Nordén, one of the pre-race favourites and eventual silver medallist
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