Triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's
| Women's triathlon at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
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Nicola Spirig, gold medallist
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| Venue |
Hyde Park 54.8 km (34.1 mi) |
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| Date | 4 August 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 55 from 31 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:59:48 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Nicola Spirig |
 Switzerland
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Lisa Nordén |
 Sweden
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Erin Densham |
 Australia
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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" (also called "Olympic distance") and consisted of 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) swimming, 43 kilometres (27 mi) road cycling, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) 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 (1,600 yd) 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. Jenkins (Great Britain) was dropped with two kilometres to go before Groff (United States) was dropped, also on the last lap. In the ensuing sprint finish Spirig (Switzerland) beat Nordén (Sweden) by 15 centimetres in a photo finish with both athletes recording the same time. Densham (Australia) finished two seconds behind Spirig to win the bronze medal with Groff fourth and Jenkins fifth. Switzerland became the first country to win the women's triathlon twice at the Olympics, with Spirig joining Brigitte McMahon (Sydney 2000) as an Olympic champion.
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