Triathlon’s choppy waters. Maybe it was the video.

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The triathlon race is fundamentally about strategy and pacing, and Aussie Emma Snowsill proved today that she is the champion of both.

Snowsill dominated the run portion of the race to a gold metal finish in 1:58:27.66, a whopping 1 minute 7 seconds faster than silver medalist Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal, with Emma Moffatt of Australia following behind for bronze.

Initially, trying to follow this race from streaming video in L.A. proved to be a choppy experience (either due to my connection or the millions of triathlon fans trying to access the site all at once). At least there were some great camera angles: right at water level that made you feel as if you were splashing right along with the swimmers.

In general, though, it was a somewhat surreal experience, as there were no commentators on the audio (just a bit of text chat to follow along), so all you heard during the swim was gentle rhythmic splashing as the mass of swimmers headed toward the dock and transition area.

As expected, the swim stayed in a relatively tight pack, with American Laura Bennett first out of the water into the first transition and then quickly onto the bike course.

Fairly quickly, the bike course began separating the group into two packs, or pelotons, of riders, as they rode six loops through some beautiful countryside in a venue that is usually a recreational park. The course also went by an unexpected display of flag twirling by a Chinese drill team.

With various competitors sharing the lead, a pack of 20 female cyclists remained together in the front, made up of all the expected front-runners, including all three Americans, Julie Swail Ertel, Sarah Haskins and Bennett. Ertel seemed to struggle up each hill at the back but managed to stay with the pack throughout the ride.

A bit over an hour into the bike portion of the race, there was an ugly crash involving Canadian Lauren Groves, Russian Irina Abysova and a few others, which knocked both women out of the race as the others moved toward their second transition to the run.

Almost as soon as the run began, the race was over. Snowsill quickly took off from the group, and by the beginning of her second of four laps, she already had almost a 40-second lead over Fernandes. Reports said humidity was a “low” 73%, which must still have felt pretty darn hot because all the athletes were dumping water on themselves at the water stations, with a small percentage actually going into their mouths.

There was an odd moment as Snowsill was misdirected on her last lap into the stadium area and had to hop over a barrier to get back on the course. Nonetheless, no one was in sight when she came down the home stretch toward the finish line, and she had plenty of time to grab an Australian flag along the way.

The U.S. team missed medaling, but Bennett came in fourth in a last-second sprint past Ide Juri of Japan, with Haskins finishing 11th and Ertel 19th.

Stay tuned for the men’s race tomorrow … same bat time (10 a.m. Beijing time, 7 p.m. PST), same bat channel.

-- Elisa Nye