Anchorage triathlete Sam Skold at last month’s Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. Photo by FinisherPix
They say the view never changes unless you’re the lead dog, but Anchorage triathlete Sam Skold would disagree.
Skold never came close to leading but her view changed plenty during nearly 140 miles and nine hours of racing in Sunday’s Ironman Arizona in Tempe.
She’d see someone biking or running ahead of her and, bam, she’d put them in her rearview mirror. Then another, and another.
The race marked Skold’s professional Ironman debut, and she made sure it was a good one.
Once she finished the swim, she passed more than 200 people to claim seventh place in the women’s division and 56th place overall.
Skold, a 31-year-old Air Force captain at JBER, flew through the race’s 111.3-mile bike and 26.2-mile run to earn a spot on the women’s podium.
She ranked 274 in a field of nearly 2,000 after a 2.4-mile swim in Tempe Town Lake. That put her 55th among women and 22nd in the women’s pro division.
She passed 174 people in the bike to move to 100th place overall and 12th among women.
In the marathon-length run, she reeled in 44 more people to wind up 56th overall and seventh among women.
Skold finished in 8 hours, 58 minutes, 23 seconds (1:08:23 in the swim, 4:43:05 in the bike, 3:01:11 in the run). She was 21 minutes behind women’s winner Simone Mitchell of Great Britain (8:37:17) and a little more than two minutes out of fifth place.
Menno Koolhaas of the Netherlands won the overall title in 7:28:52.
An Air Force Academy graduate who grew up in Colorado, Skold had a brilliant 2025 season that included a triumphant debut in the Alaska Gold Nugget Triathlon, the biggest all-female triathlon in the country. On the world stage, she raced in four Ironmans and enjoyed a huge rise in the ranks.
“I told (coach Brad Williams) three Ironman(s) in one season seemed crazy and yet he convinced me to do four!” Skold wrote on Instagram after Sunday’s race. “I am so thankful for you Brad, as a coach and a mentor. Looking back at this season and seeing the progress we have made is incredible.”
Incredible is an apt description. Skold started the year at Ironman Texas with a fourth-place showing in the 30-34 age group. At Ironman Lake Placid, she won her age group.
Then came last month’s Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, where Skold didn’t just win her age group, she finished as the top amateur. Six weeks later, she was in Arizona making her pro debut.
“Fired up for 2026!” she said on Instagram.
