One of my favorite days of the year is watching the Ironman World Championship because its a race that never disappoints.

So much drama in the racing, a ton of excitement, a lot of back and forth, great storylines, and the lead is never safe.

And nobody writes a retirement script like this.

Vincent Luis, 37, showed up to his first Ironman World Championship and told everyone it would be his final race. Then he won the thing.

Somewhere around mile 21 of the marathon, Luis ran past a collapsing Magnus Ditlev, who btw is our favorite, at an aid station and took the lead, and he never gave it back.

He crossed the line in 7:47:27, about a minute and a half clear of Gustav Iden, and became the first Frenchman to win the Ironman World Championship in Kona.

Not bad for a guy who was supposed to be saying goodbye. Instead, he’s celebrating his ass off an now needs to rethink that retirement.

How a Patient “Rookie” won Kona

The day started gray and wet. Downpours in the AM led to heat and humdity by early morning.

The pros went off at 6:20 a.m. in the rain, and for the first time since 2019 the men and women raced on the same day.

Luis stayed out of trouble early and came out of the swim in 48:31 as part of a 20-deep lead pack, then rode the bike like a man with a plan.

While Jonas Schomburg, Matthew Marquardt and Ditlev traded the lead and the officials handed out blue cards (Marquardt and Iden both served drafting penalties), Luis sat a few minutes back and kept his legs. He rolled into T2 in sixth, about six minutes down and two seconds behind Kristian Blummenfelt.

Ditlev, fresh off a season derailed by shingles, then led by roughly four minutes for about two-thirds of the marathon. It looked like his day.

Luis had said before the race he wasn’t scared of letting it go and running people down, and at halfway he and Blummenfelt started doing just that. Luis shed Blummenfelt soon after, and when Ditlev came apart out of the Energy Lab, walking and stopping for ice, the gap vanished fast.

The pass happened at the mile 21 aid station, with roughly five miles to go. Iden, the fastest man on the course after his own penalty, went through right behind him and got within about 40 seconds with 5K left. Luis answered, stretched it back out on the downhill finish, and won by about a minute and a half. Marquardt took third, only the third podium for an American man in Kona in the last decade.

As always, big names pushed hard and crashed out harder. Patrick Lange’s farewell Kona ended on the bike, Trevor Foley crashed on a turnaround, and Sam Laidlow dropped out early in the run with a blood-flow problem in his left leg.

Luis, meanwhile, was met at the finish by his partner, Georgia Taylor-Brown, with tears flowing. It was one of those finish-line scenes that just makes you really happy for these people.

Now Look at his Feet

And it wasn’t just Luis who won, but Nike wins big here too.

Luis ran down a field of former world champions in the back half of an Ironman marathon, and he did it in the Nike Apex, the shoe Nike unveiled on September 30 and won’t put in stores until January 2027.

A winning debut for the athlete and the shoe, in the same race. You legit cannot buy that kind of exposure.

We’ve been skeptical of super shoe marketing for years, so here’s why the Apex promise actually met the reality.

In the announcement, Nike claimed up to 40% more energy return than the Alphafly 3, at more than 10% less weight in a men’s size 10. How huge was that for Luis on the run?

It’s the first racing shoe with two double-stacked Air Zoom units, four pods in each shoe, packed into the forefoot.

It also gets a new race-specific foam called ZoomX LT, a redesigned carbon Flyplate, and a Flyknit X upper with no sockliner. The wildest choice is the geometry: a zero-drop, 40mm stack from heel to toe, which is the World Athletics ceiling.

Lastly, Nike says the Air keeps its performance the whole way, so mile 26 should feel like mile 1. One race isn’t a lab test, and we’re not crediting the shoes for Luis’s legs. But the guy who passed the leader at mile 21 of the hardest marathon in the sport didn’t look like he was fighting for his life. He just remained strong throughout.

Is he Retiring?

Maybe. Post race, he cracked jokes with Jan Frodeno that he’d need a few days, a few beers, and some fun before he made a decision.

But damn man, Luis at 37 just took the world title – I say go out on top.

Congrats and thanks for another great day of Kona racing.