IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow gives worrying health update with his 2025 triathlon season in doubt

2023 IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow has delivered a worrying update on his health status ahead of the upcoming campaign.

The Frenchman rose to stardom in Nice 18 months ago when romping to victory in the South of France – a year on from finishing second at the Kona World Championship in 2022.

The 26-year-old seemed on course to repeat his 2023 success in Hawaii last October when he exited the water in the lead group before setting a record-breaking sub-four hour bike split.

However, his body shut down on the run, relinquishing a 5:53 lead as Patrick Lange roared through to take the crown for a third time on the Big Island. Laidlow ended up finishing 18th following a 3:12:49 run.

Since that blow-up in Hawaii, Laidlow has been suffering from an undiagnosed health issue, which he spoke about in more detail in his latest YouTube video (watch in full at the bottom of this page).

Sam Laidlow at the finish of the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona (Photo – Mark Allen).

Laidlow on Kona collapse

Laidlow insisted he was in the best shape of his life heading into that IRONMAN World Championship defence in October, and blames a fuelling mishap for his blow-up.

“I haven’t spoke about it publicly, but I believe, and still believe, I was extremely fit heading into Hawaii but for whatever reason the body gave in. I had a severe electrolyte imbalance when I finished the race. We presume I took too much sodium on in one go after I missed the first aid station on the bike.

“So my stomach started swelling and swelling and swelling, and I’ve always had this weakness of the hydration part, something in my body is not quite as sturdy as other peoples – it explains why my body has shut down in some races.

“It’s not a sugar bonk like other athletes have, it’s that one of my organs just gives in – in Hawaii I pushed my kidneys too far because since then I’ve been suffering with an electrolyte imbalance in my body.”

Sam Laidlow is still battling health issues early in 2025 (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images for IRONMAN)

‘It’s like someone pulled the plug’

Following Hawaii, Laidlow had planned to complete his season at the T100 Grand Final in Dubai. However, a torn hamstring ended his campaign.

In December, the Professional Triathlon Organisation’s (PTO) world number nine returned to training for the 2025 season, and things started to derail.

“Through Christmas I had three pretty good weeks of training, especially my running. Then what started happening was I’d have some days where I was just extremely tired, I’d often train for about 10-20 minutes and then it’s as if some one pulls the plug out and I’m just completely exhausted.

“Initially this cycle, the bad day, was happening around one in five, then slowly the good days got smaller and smaller and smaller and I just knew something wasn’t right.

“I’ve always been someone who listens to my body, I’m not definitely not the most consistent triathlete in both racing and training. Slowly that cycle got smaller, then got to the point where I literally was failing every single session, every single day.

“For two to three weeks I’d go to training every day, try to train and after 10 minutes my body would stop. I’d have the odd random day or two where I felt okay, then I’d be tired again for three or four days.

“The exact feeling I’ve been having in the sessions is feeling okay, not amazing, but I feel confident I can finish the session which lasts for anywhere between five minutes to an hour, depending on the number of days rest I’ve had before, then I feel dead, as if someone has pulled the plug out and I am empty, I can’t get oxygen to my limbs.

“Literally everything in my body is telling me to stop.”

The podium at T100 London [Photo credit: @mwmedia.co]

Sam still searching for answers

The search for answers has begun, with Laidlow’s 2025 season on hold until he can pinpoint the issue.

“I’ve tried to get onto a solution with my medical team. I went onto a Photon Capsule for therapy and we noticed I didn’t sweat at all which is very weird for me – something in my body was kind of blocked. After a couple of sessions there was a day where I sweat loads and I lost like five or six litres – so we clearly stimulated something then.

“We checked my bloods and I had a virus, which pushed things back a bit as we were unable to analyse what we needed to. We think the electrolyte imbalance is to do with my kidneys, but we couldn’t analyse properly as, with having the virus, it would not have provided accurate data.

“I took a week completely off, and that brings us pretty much to today. The infection is now gone, so we are back to where we can anaylse what’s wrong. We don’t know how long this will take. Yesterday we took a urine sample and they were calcium crystals in there – so at least we have found something now.”

Achilles heel for Laidlow

Although the onset of symptoms has been recent, Laidlow admitted there is also a longer term issue with his health that he needs to figure out too.

“I’ve always felt that there is an Achilles heel somewhere, like an organ, whether it’s my liver or my kidneys, which stops me from racing to my full potential, because I’ve done 15 Ironmans in my career, two of them I haven’t completely shut down, or finished in the medical tent. One of them I finished second in Kona and the other I won the World Championships in Nice.

“I didn’t do anything differently in those two races compared to the ones where my body did shut down.”

Laidlow and his team continue to search for answers, with the hope that his 2025 season will get under way sooner rather than later. He had planned to race at IRONMAN South Africa, but hopes of him appearing on the start line now appear slim.

“This year for me is getting to the bottom of this. I don’t know where this season will go because it may take one, two, three, four months to find what the problem is and cure it, and hopefully taking this step back will allow us to take a few forward in the future.

“Right now, there are days where I just feel like giving up and doing something completely different.”