[1][2] Over the course of the swimming and cycling legs, a select group of seven leading competitors had formed, including Bermudian Flora Duffy, Briton Georgia Taylor-Brown, and American Katie Zaferes.

A lead group quickly formed in the water, with Learmonth followed closely by Americans Zaferes and Summer Rappaport, Vittoria Lopes of Brazil, Laura Lindemann of Germany, and Taylor-Brown.

At the end of the swimming leg, the lead group of seven had built up an advantage of at least 30 seconds on the rest of the field, which was led out of the water by Emma Jeffcoat of Australia.

At the end of the first cycling lap, the leaders' advantage had grown to over a minute ahead of a chase group of 14 that included Spirig, Holland, and the Dutch duo of Maya Kingma and Rachel Klamer.

Taylor-Brown and Zaferes both finished over a minute behind Duffy but held on for the silver and bronze medals, respectively, while Lindemann and Learmonth were caught and passed by the faster runners of the chase group.