Ashleigh Gentle

Fast Facts

Sport: Triathlon
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Year Born: 1991
State Born: QLD

About Ashleigh

A strong runner during her school days, a family friend convinced Ashleigh Gentle to try triathlon. After having a go at the swimming and cycling legs, she was hooked.

Ashleigh had a brilliant junior career with two Silver medals at the Junior World Championships in 2007 and 2008. In 2010, she was crowned Junior World Champion in Budapest and decided she wanted to take up the sport as a profession.

After recording more than ten top 10 finishes in the World Triathlon Series in 2012 and 2013, Gentle was selected in the 2014 Commonwealth Games Team to represent Australia in Glasgow.

The Gold Coast girl confirmed she had her sights set on Rio when she claimed a Silver medal at the 2015 Yokohama World Triathlon Series race. In what was the last race before selection, Gentle again finished in second place on the same course in 2016. 

After a number of stellar performances over the 2015/2016 season, Ashleigh Gentle secured her position to make her Olympic debut in the women’s triathlon at Rio, where she finished in 26th position. 

Following the Olympics, Ashleigh won gold at the 2017 Mixed Relay World Championships and individual gold at the ITU World Triathlon Montreal race the same year. She also had Silver medals in Hamburg and the Gold Coast.

In 2018, she won gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in the mixed relay in April. In September at the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final – also on the Gold Coast – Ashleigh beat Britain’s Vicky Holland and USA’s Katie Zaferes to the gold medal.

She went on to win silver in the World Triathlon’s Edmonton race, and another silver in the ITU Hamburg World Championships mixed relay, putting her at No.6 in the world. 

Her strong performances saw Ashleigh take out Triathlon Australia’s Individual Performer of the Year award for two years running, in 2017 and 2018.

In 2019 she finished third at the ITU World Triathlon in Edmonton and won the ITU World Cup in Mooloolaba in her home state of Queensland.

Gentle made her second Olympics, at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games competing in both the women's triathlon and mixed relay triathlon. Individually after completing the swimming leg in 20:07, Ashleigh was lapped in the final stretch of the cycling leg, ultimately knocking her out of medal contention. 

Ashley also competed as part of the Australian relay team, alongside; Matthew Hauser, Emma Jeffcoat and Jacob Birtwhistle. The squad completed the triathlon with a time of 1:26:27 earning them an overall 9th placing at the games.