Anne Haug

profile

Born in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth in 1983, the 2019 IRONMAN World Champion Anne Haug is one of the finest triathletes that Germany has ever produced.

Haug, who only turned professional at the age of 27 in 2010, won individual as well as mixed relay ITU events and represented her country in two Olympic Games during her impressive short course career. It is over longer distances though that she has become a great of the sport.

Haug’s biggest wins include that famous IRONMAN World Championship success in Kona plus victories at Challenge Roth and IRONMAN Copenhagen.

Anne is currently coached by the highly successful Dan Lorang – the two met while studying sports science at the Technological University of Munich and the partnership blossomed from there.

As a child, Haug took up tennis after being inspired by fellow German and multiple Grand Slam winner Steffi Graf. She also took up judo, volleyball, badminton and was even a world champion in Indiaca growing up. She has spoken about how she got into triathlon ‘by accident’ as she learned to swim at the age 20.

Having taken up skiing in her youth, Anne has also competed in numerous winter triathlons, including European and World Championship events at Elite level.

Haug started competing at ITU events in 2007, with her first ever win at an ITU European Cup coming in 2011 when she finished over a minute quicker than her compatriot Rebecca Robisch in Quarteira, Portugal. The German then followed her maiden European Cup win with a first ever ITU World Cup podium, finishing third in Monterrey. A year later she won the World Triathlon Grand Final in Auckland.

Career record and results

Haug finished on the podium in more than 20 ITU and ETU triathlon events during her short-course career.

The German started to really announce herself on the world stage in early 2011 with performances such as those in Quarteira and Monterrey, but she struggled to get near the top-10 in the ITU World Championship Series in Madrid (24th), Kitzbuehel (42nd), Hamburg (33rd) and London (54th) in the same year. However, she would end 2011 with a sold seventh place at the ITU World Cup in Auckland. The Kiwi venue would prove to be a happy hunting ground in subsequent years.

In 2012, Anne started to put in solid performances on a consistent basis – finishing in the top 10 almost every time she raced, culminating with that Grand Final success in New Zealand.

A year later and Haug progressed again. She won at Mooloolaba, Auckland and Hamburg. She also won at the ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships for Germany and Sprint Triathlon National Championships.

Having now cemented her status as one of the world’s best, the German star would go on to produce more top-10 finishes during the next couple of years. These included fine performances at 2014 ITU World Triathlon Auckland (2nd), 2015 ITU World Triathlon Cape Town (8th), and 2016 Lisbon ETU Triathlon European Championships (5th).

At her second Olympics in 2016, Haug failed to improve on her London showing as she finished 36th in Rio.

Anne made her move into long-distance triathlon in 2017 and it was a smooth and successful transition to IRONMAN 70.3 and IRONMAN events. A maiden win on her IRONMAN 70.3 debut in Lanzarote (4:12:38) would be a sign of things to come from Haug as she began her long-distance career in style, before she ended 2017 with a second place in IRONMAN 70.3 Middle East Championship Bahrain.

Before competing in her first IRONMAN in 2018, Haug added two more IRONMAN 70.3 wins in Dubai and California. At the IRONMAN European Championship she would finish fourth on her full-distance debut.

Anne Haug at Kona

At her first IRONMAN World Championship in Kona in 2018, Haug proved she was now one of the best long-distance triathletes in the world. The German finished third behind winner Daniela Ryf and Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay. Haug recorded an overall time of 8:41:58, producing 54:21 on the swim, 4:47:45 on the bike and 2:55:20 run in an exceptional ‘Big Island’ debut.

In 2019, she would deliver on that promise in the grandest manner to rule in Kona. The German had come out of the water with the 10th fastest time (54:09) – over four minutes behind Charles-Barclay. After recording 4:50:17 on the bike, Anne began to make inroads on the run as she pursued the British star.

Haug would eventually pass Lucy in the Energy Lab and go on to secure her first ever Kona title, running 2:51:07 for an overall time of 8:40:10. Charles-Barclay was more than six minutes behind in second.

Because of the Covid pandemic she held that title for two-and-a-half years but finally relinquished it at the rescheduled IRONMAN World Championship in St George in May 2022, finishing third behind Ryf and Kat Matthews.