Lucy Charles-Barclay waited approximately zero seconds before making her move at the 2023 Hawaii Ironman World Championship on October 14, 2023. Powering through the choppy waters of Kailua Bay with her characteristic snappy glide, the 30-year-old British triathlete gapped the field by nearly 350 meters—almost four football field lengths

Charles-Barclay lead off the front for the next 140.2 miles of swimming, biking, and running, breaking the tape in a record-setting 8:26:18 for her first world title.

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A four-time runner-up in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022—the victory was a long time coming.

“If there was any way I wanted to win this race, it would have been like that,” Charles-Barclay . “There were many times when I thought I would always be the bridesmaid in Kona. It’s nice to finally be the bride.”

Her win is just the start of jaw-dropping moments from the inaugural women’s-only Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (The inaugural men’s-only Ironman World Championship was held on September 9 in Nice, France.) From a run course record set by only fueling with protein to a series of historic firsts, here are our top 10 takeaways from one of the most important races in endurance sport.

1. Charles-Barclay Vanquishes Bridesmaid Curse

By earning the crown on Saturday afternoon, Charles-Barclay solidified her name on the list of Kona legends and broke a series of records—including the women’s course record previously held by Switzerland’s Daniella Ryf when she clocked 8:26:18 for the win in 2018.

No woman has led the wire-to-wire since Lyn Lemaire, the first woman to ever win the race in 1979. Charles-Barclay broke that 44-year streak after coming out of the water with a four-minute advantage. She also etched her name in history as only the second person ever to win the Hawaii Ironman World Championship after winning an amateur age group title here, which she claimed in the 18-to-24-year-old division in 2015.

Decked in a mermaid race kit that extended from the blue and grey scales painted on her Red Bull helmet to her , Charles-Barclay raced like someone who not only wanted to win, but even more so did not want to lose. She blitzed the 112-mile bike in 4:32:29, averaging over 24.7 miles per hour to further extend her lead over the competition.

In past years, Charles-Barclay’s blistering early pace has come back to haunt her on the run. Not on Saturday. She held on for respectable 2:57:38 marathon and a hefty three-minute lead. But it wasn’t until the finish chute loomed into sight on Ali’i Drive that Charles-Barclay allowed herself to comprehend what was happening.

“I really tried not to put not wanting to be second again in the back of my mind,” she said. “I was still looking over my shoulder when I turned onto Ali’i. I didn’t believe I would get the win until I broke the tape.”

As always, there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Charles-Barclay’s seemingly assured success obscures the obstacles she had to overcome this year just to get to the start line.

2. Charles-Barclay Breaks Foot and Breaks Records

In May, Charles-Barclay felt something in her foot while running into the water at the start of Ironman 70.3 Kraichgau in Germany. She thought little of it. She powered a slew of bike issues and mounting pain on the run to take second in that half-distance Ironman race. An X-ray the next day confirmed she’d snapped the third metatarsal in her foot, a zig-zag fracture all the way through the bone.

For better and for worse, she was no stranger to that type of news.

“It’s been a really tough couple of years,” Charles-Barclay said. “When I turned 28, I felt like my body didn’t want to do this anymore.”

Charles-Barclay retreated to her “pain cave” gym at her home in Chingford, Essex, where she cranked up the music, visualized the helicopters circling overhead in Kona, and nearly hit the 2024 Great Britain Olympic qualification mark on the indoor rower while wearing a “moon boot” cast.

Out on the Queen K Highway on Saturday, Charles-Barclay channeled those endless hours of monotony in the pain-cave. She credits that mental toughness training as well as the efficiency of riding the bike trainer indoors (no coasting on the downhills!) to her success, as well as her satisfaction.

“All I ever wanted was to win this race,” Charles-Barclay said. “I don’t feel like I need anything else anymore. That is the biggest prize, and a credit to the work we’ve all put in as a team. And they’ve all put up with me these last few months as I’ve been very tired and very grumpy, and all my friends and family putting up with that, and that means so much to me during this crazy endeavor to win this race.”

3. Anne Haug’s No-Carb Fueling Leads to Fastest Run Split Ever

With one of the deepest pro fields ever—particularly on the running front—we knew that if the conditions aligned, we could witness a run for the ages. Sure enough, as soon as she hopped off the bike and slipped into her Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% super shoes, Germany’s Anne Haug was on a mission. The runner-assassin started the marathon in seventh place overall, 12 minutes back from the lead. But Haug remained composed and got to doing what she does best: passing people on the Queen K.

Haug clicked into her characteristically high cadence, butter-smooth stride, ticking sub-6:20 miles early in the marathon to reel in the field. At mile 18, deep in the heart of the lifeless Energy Lab, Haug decisively passed American dark-horse rookie Taylor Knibb to move into second.

The lead Charles-Barley carved on the swim and the run proved too large to surmount, with Haug ultimately running out of real estate to claim another world title. But in that attempt, she smashed Miranda Carfrae’s run course record of 2:50:38 set 2013 when the Australian won the race. Haug clocked in at 2:48:33, averaging 6:25 per mile through the oppressively thick, still air and road temperatures soaring above 100 degrees.

“The run always means a lot to me, and I always aim for a fast run,” said Haug, who owns a 2:36:13 open marathon personal best. “I’m absolutely happy. I couldn’t have done any better. Lucy was unbeatable today.”

The 40-year-old’s performance is even more remarkable this year in the face of the health and nutrition obstacles she’sovercome. Over the past several years, her body has grown intolerant to absorbing carbohydrates while racing. Rigorous testing and experimentation with her team in Germany led to the realization that she could only fuel adequately with the right types of proteins and amino acids.

Haug overhauled her entire nutrition strategy, saying she was careful to consume enough on the bike and fueled almost exclusively on protein during the run—a feat nearly unheard of in elite marathoning.

4. Rookie Taylor Knibb Shows America’s Future is Bright

Leading up to Saturday, all eyes were on U.S. Olympian Taylor Knibb. The 25-year-old based in Boulder, Colorado, has been on fire this year, winning the hotly contested PTO U.S. Open to the tune of $100,000 in prize money, defending her Ironman 70.3 world title in Lahti, Finland, and earning bragging rights as one of the world’s best short course, draft-legal and long-course triathletes. That range puts Michael Phelps to shame.

But Kona hits different, and despite watching her mom race here five times previously, Knibb had never toed the line herself. In fact, she’d never run above 19 miles. Ever. Would she be able to hang in the heat and humidity over the 140.3 distance?

“What challenges arise and how I overcome them will be the measure of success for me,” Knibb said in the days before the race.

That attitude proved prescient.

Knibb swam strong with the front chase pack, but she lost three nutrition bottles on the bike—the third caught by race officials and resulting in a one-minute penalty. Yet Knibb remained composed, chatting and laughing with the motorcycle film crew, thanking volunteers at aid stations, and taking her time at the turn-around aid to dismount from her bike, riffle through her special needs bag, and grab more fuel for the road. Even with the penalty, Knibb had the second-fastest bike split of the day in 4:34:00.

Ultimately, Knibb cracked under the run distance, slowing to a walk intermittently over the final seven kilometers. Her 3:05:13 marathon wound up as the 10th fastest among the pro women in the race. But her final time of 8:35:56 was good enough for an astonishing fourth place—just one minute off the podium and a time that would have been fast enough for the win in all but three other years.

Knibb will return her attention to short-course racing for a bit (the Paris Olympics loom just 10 months away), but watch out the next time the women race here in 2025. She’ll be armed with experience and a kind, quippy vengeance—Taylor’s version.

5. Americans Shine with Five in Top 10

Germany crowded the podium, with Haug taking second and her compatriot Laura Philip racing tenaciously for third. After those three first steps, the show belonged to the United States.

Along Knibb in fourth, the U.S. took five of the top 10 spots. Last year’s champion Chelsea Sodaro recovered from a disappointing first two-thirds of the race, in which 19 women out-biked her, to run a solid 2:53:02 marathon that moved her up to sixth. Compatriot Skye Moench finished just a minute later in 8:43:34.

Full-time graduate student Sarah True spent much of the week leading up to the race working on a research paper. She ended up asking for an extension on Friday—a choice which seemed to pay off with her best-ever eighth-place finish in 8:47:06 as she “played triathlete” for the day. An exceptionally strong bike from Jocelyn McCauley was enough for her to hang on during the run for 10th in 8:50:39—the fifth American and third American mom in the race, along with Sodaro and True.

6. Sixteen Women Break Elusive Nine-Hour Mark

It wasn’t until 2009 that four–time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington of Great Britain broke the nine-hour mark on this notoriously hot, humid, and all-around hellish course. Until 2018, you didn’t always have to crack nine hours to earn a podium spot. We have officially said goodbye to those days.

Forget the podium, or even the top 10, with a nine-hour time. An unprecedented 16 women dipped under that elusive nine-hour mark this year. Women at the top of the race attribute the fast times to a combination of technology improvements—aerodynamic helmets, bikes, and race kits; wind-tunnel testing; supershoes—and steel sharpening steel.

“We push each other, and we always try to get better,” said four-time Ironman World Champion Ryf, who took fifth on Saturday. “The technology has also helped. We’ve gotten more aero, and materials play a role. But so does pushing each other. I’ve learned so much from my competitors like Miranda Carfrae.”

7. Forget Bikes. It’s All About Shoes.

Don’t get us wrong, at 112 miles long and taking up about 50 percent of the race, the bike leg remains indisputably paramount. But the impact of rapid fast shoe technology advancement over the past several years cannot be discounted here—both for racing and recovery at the Ironman distance.

All of the top 10 women elected to wear carbon-plated supershoes, including two prototypes on the feet of Ryf (sponsored by Hoka) and Sodaro (who runs for On).

Charles-Barclay held on for her best Kona run ever in the ASICS Metaspeed Sky+. She attributes the advent of supershoes to helping her whittle down her race times, as well as bounce back from injury.

“I guess obviously when I first started racing in Kona, we weren’t running in carbon-plated shoes,” she said. “But over the years that technology has developed, and I’m super happy in the shoe that I run in. They’ve helped me through the injuries that I’ve had, and yeah, I guess hopefully, like Anne has shown, we are just gonna keep running faster and the technology will help us to do that.”

8. All-Women’s Field Yields Historic Finisher Rate

Despite Ironman moving to an all-women’s field and giving out more entry spots this year, we already knew that the caliber of the field was as competitive as ever. On Saturday, the women proved they are also grittier than ever. Every single athlete who entered the swim completed the 2.4 miles straight out and back into the Kailua Bay chop. It’s potentially a first in the history of the event.

Of the 2,097 starters, 2,039 crossed the finish line in under the 17-hour cutoff. That’s an astonishing 97.23 percent finishing rate at one of the most physically and psychologically grueling race courses on Earth—up from the typical 93 to 97 percent finish rate here.

9. Autistic Athletes Make History

By each completing the race in twelve hours and change, Lisa Cloutier, Marylne Stutzman, and Adrienne Bunn, of the U.S., became the first three openly autistic athletes to cross the finish line at the Hawaii Ironman World Championship.

At 18 years old, the minimum age for entering the race, Bunn also earned the title of youngest finisher this year. Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age four, Bunn started running in school to occupy her thoughts and calm her mind. She started racing triathlons two years ago through a Special Olympics pilot program and earlier this year finished her first Ironman 70.3 race to earn her spot in Kona.

“Running totally transformed her,” Bunn’s mother, June, said. “It just calmed her—it took away her anxiousness.”

On the road to the finish line, Bunn balanced up to 20 hours of training a week with her studies as a high school senior.

“Adrienne got a lot of no’s—no way, it’s not going to happen,” June said. “We never put a ceiling on her. You say it’s not going to happen, she’s going to prove you wrong.”

10. ‘We Never Give Up’

Athletes represented 73 countries at the Ironman World Championships this year, including twelve finishers from wartorn Israel and four from Ukraine.

In addition to the psychological stress these athletes faced, many surmounted logistical nightmares to just make it to the Kailua Pier. Ukraine athlete Yuliya Azzopardi drove 1,000 miles from her home in Kyiv to the border of Poland while abiding by country’s midnight-to-5 P.M. curfew, passed through two border controls, and took two flights to make it to the Big Island. As athletes checked into their return flights after the race on Sunday, several major airlines informed passengers that flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, were suspended in the face of the ongoing conflict with Palestine so alternative flight paths had to be arranged.

Somehow, athletes from these countries channeled their stress into strength.

“I raced especially for Israel,” Sharon Zupnik, who crossed the line in 11:17:46, said. “I wanted to show that we are so strong and we can be here.”

“It means we can keep fighting,” Ukraine’s Kateryna Fedorova said moments after she finished in 11:44:57. “It means we are brave. That we stand for all the rights for freedom. And I want to show the example to everyone that we never give up.”

(Bonus) 11. More People Tuned into the Women’s Race

Not everyone was happy when Ironman decided to split the men’s and women’s world championships into separate venues this year. (The men’s Ironman World Championship was held September 9 in Nice, France.) And while the aloha magic, unrivaled history, and unique brutality of the Kailua-Kona course cannot be replicated, one thing is for certain—a women’s-only race leads to an unparalleled level of inspired racing.

In Ironman races with both men’s and women’s fields, elite and amateur women contend with men interfering with their race, whether that’s getting kicked on the swim, or inadvertently earning a penalty for drafting on the bike.Ìę (And of course, these same nuisances apply to men when women are in their races.) A two-gender race also means that each gender receives less TV coverage, with the women historically receiving less than half of airtime as they battle for contention behind the men.

Giving the women a day of unfettered, fully-celebrated racing allowed the day to play out on its own terms.

“It was very nice to not have men interfering with the race,” Knibb said. “And it was nice to know they weren’t. It was one less worry, one less thing to think about. There’s a lot of things to think about out there.”

And guess what? People tuned in—a lot of people. Over 769,000 fans tuned into the 2023 women’s race, up from the 599,000 who watched the men’s race in Nice last month, enjoying an interrupted view as the race unfolded.

“Cameras were everywhere this year,” Haug said. “Usually they’re just on the first women. We put on a show today and we showed it’s worth covering the whole race.”

A field of 2,000-plus women also imbibed the day with a special type of comradery and grit.

“All of the pro women were cheering me on,” Charles-Barclay said. “And to have their support even when we’re all out there suffering just shows how amazing this sport is.”

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On Saturday, over 2,000 world-class women will shoulder the monumental 140.6-mile challenge of the 2023 Hawaii Ironman World Championship. That’s right, women. Just women.

For the first time ever, only women will compete in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, as Ironman split the fields and moved the men’s race to Nice, France, held four weeks ago on September 12.

We’ve come a long way since 1978, when 15 men (yes, just men) paid $3 for a spot on the start line of the first-ever Hawaii Ironman based on a bet over who was the better athlete—swimmers or runners. This year, the women’s and men’s races will dole out equal prize purses of $375,000 each, rolling down 15 places with $125,000 going to the winner.

Why is a women’s-only Ironman World Championship significant? We’ll tell you, below. Then sit back and watch some serious suffering on when the gun goes off at 6:25 A.M. Hawaii-Aleutian Time (12:25 P.M. ET) on Saturday, October 14. For a closer look at the course, athletes, and in-depth storytelling around the race, .

What is the Ironman World Championship?

, and a ridiculous challenge combining three endurance events into one, has grown into one of the most prestigious—and rigorous—athletic events in the world. Fifty-five pros and 2,000-plus amateur age-group athletes from 73 countries will race a 2.4-mile (3.8K) swim, 112-mile (180.2K) bike ride, and a 26.2-mile (42.2K) marathon run past the dramatic lava fields on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Why It’s an Iconic Challenge

Racing the 140.6-mile Ironman presents a daunting challenge, requiring extreme versatility, discipline, and stamina just to get to the start—much less the finish. But to put it bluntly, .

In fact, the nearly impossible mystique of this race not only catapulted the popularity of Ironman, but also the sport of triathlon as a whole. The Ironman World Championship grew into a globally televised event on ABC, and the International Olympic Committee eventually added triathlon as a mainstay to the Summer Olympic Games in 2000.

An Endless 2.4-Mile Swim

The challenge starts with the swim, an out-and-back from the shallows of “Dig Me Beach” straight into the abyss beyond: Facing down 1.2 miles into the open ocean looks overwhelming, but then add in rolling seas, choppy, salty waves, and the churn of your competition. Top female pros complete the swim in just over 50 minutes, with the back of the age-group pack getting two hours and 20 minutes to climb out of the water before getting cut off. The swim is arguably the easiest part of the day, taking up less than 15 percent of the race time-wise.

An Unforgiving 112-Mile Ride

After surviving the swim, competitors jump onto specialized triathlon bikes and pedal up and away from the ocean to the rolling climbs and straightaways of the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, renowned and reviled for its fierce crosswinds threatening to topple bikes over sideways and exposed lava fields that leave competitors with nowhere to hide from the sun. Imagine pedaling on Mars. Top riders complete the 112 miles in just over four-and-a-half hours for an average pace of 24-plus miles per hour. And if you don’t finish the bike in 10 hours, you’ll be pulled from the course.

A Soul-Sucking Marathon

Back in the transition zone, riders throw their bikes to handlers (one small luxury of long-course triathlon) and cinch up their running shoes before heading out onto the run course at the peak of the day’s heat, where temperatures typically climb to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius), with road temps escalating up to a shoe-melting 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius). Much of the run sends runners back out onto the Queen K, where they slog through the majority of the marathon on the shoulder of the highway, heat rising from the pavement and the unshaded sun glaring down from on high.

Top female pros will run under three hours, perhaps a full ten minutes faster than that, to average around 6:30 minutes per mile. For the women at the back of the race, they have 17 hours to cross the finish line, as the announcer blares into the PA system, “You are an Ironman.”

The Race Is Steeped in Lore

Kona doesn’t just exude viscous crosswinds, endless straightaways, and suffocating humidity. Ghosts of its history haunt the course. It’s where just 15 feet before the finish line in 1982, race leader and Kona rookie Julie Moss infamously collapsed from dehydration as ABC’s cameras looked on. The 23-year-old exercise physiology student used her hands to crawl her way towards the finish—only to get passed by Kathleen McCartney with feet to go in one of the most monumental moments in televised sports history, forever altering the trajectory of Ironman as an internationally acclaimed event.

It’s also where the “Queen of Kona” Paula Newby-Fraser of South Africa won an unprecedented eight world championships from 1989 to 1996, earning her a spot on Sports Illustrated’s top 60 athletes of the 20th century.

The Significance of a Historic Women’s-Only Event

While no women competed during that inaugural race in 1978, women have played an instrumental role from the start. The notion of stringing a swim, bike, and run together was itself conceived by Judy Collins and her husband Jim, who cofounded the humble race that has escalated into one of the biggest endurance spectacles in the world.

Only one woman, Lyn Lemaire, completed the race the following year in 12:55:38, placing fifth overall against the men. Two women crossed the line in 1980, and this year more than 2,000 women from 73 countries will embark on their Kona journey. Splitting up the men’s and women’s races gave breathing room for Ironman to allow more athletes on the starting line. In fact, the median finishing time of qualifiers this year is 11:53—15 minutes faster than last year’s 12:08.

“It’s as strong a field as perhaps has ever been assembled,” Ironman CEO Andrew Messick says.

The Pro Field Is Wide Open

One of the deepest, most well-rounded fields ever will vie for the title at this historic women’s-only event. It’s anyone’s race, and it could be one for the ages. Three previous champions will contend for another lei crown, including Marin County, California’s Chelsea Sodaro who returns to defend her title. The 34-year-old mother broke onto the scene last year after switching athletic careers from running to triathlon in 2017.

A Kona rookie, Sodaro raced the 2022 championship as her second-ever Ironman. She returns with experience, but also the weight of success. Her 2022 win skyrocketed Sodaro into international fame, but sent her spirits plummeting. , and she scratched from her first race of the season before dropping out of her first two races of 2023. Will she be able to harness her previous success, or will it hold her back?

Sodaro will also face an esteemed list of previous winners, including six-time champion Daniela Ryf and 2019 winner Anne Haug, of Switzerland and Germany respectively. Four-time Kona bridesmaid Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay will be out for blood to finally land on that top wrung, although a metatarsal stress fracture this summer may dampen her plans.

Veterans will have to look out for , who toes the line as the youngest pro in the field at age 25. Already on Team USA for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Knibb remains committed to short-course draft-legal triathlon racing. But she’s quickly established herself as a top contender at longer distances, winning the 2022 and 2023 Ironman 70.3 world championships and the PTO U.S. Open in Milwaukee this summer, where she took home $100,000 and established herself as a dominant force at every leg of the race. Knibb may have never raced Kona, but she comes armed with the experience of her mother, who has raced here five times. Both Knibbs will compete on Saturday.

“It’s incredibly special to race with my mom. She’s very nervous for me,” Knibb says. “She claims it’s her last Ironman, and this is my first Ironman. So it’s like a passing of the torch.”

We May Witness the Fastest Hawaii Ironman Run Split Ever

In 2014, Mirinda Carfrae set the run course record of 2:50:26, en route to her second world championship title—a time that has stood for nine years through eons of shoe technology advancement. That time may pale in comparison to the women’s marathon world record just set in September by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa to 2:11:53. But holding 6:30 per minute miles while running through a convection oven after covering 114.4 miles by sea and two wheels—most of it crouched over on a time trial bike—is far more impressive than it may sound.

RELATED: The Science Says a Sub-Seven-Hour Ironman Is (Sort of) Possible

Thanks to the likes of running superstars Kat Matthews, Laura Phillip, Haug, and Sodaro, if the stars align that elusive 2:50 mark may finally be broken.

“I know a lot of runners here have the potential to run sub 2:50,” Haug says. “But it all depends on how the race evolves. If you jump off the bike a little bit fresher than normal, it’s possible.”

Everyone Here Has a Story

The professional race is just the tip of the sweltering iceberg here. The beauty of many endurance sports is that both pros and participants race alongside each other on the same course. Those include Sara Whittingham, a 2002 Ironman World Championship finisher from the U.S., a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force who served in Afghanistan and Korea. Three years ago at age 47, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Motion is lotion as they say, and Whittingham channeled her energy into her joy for triathlons to maximize life and slow the progression of the disease.

“I have been racing since I was six years old. The Ironman World Championship will likely be the most meaningful finish line I will ever cross,” Whittingham says. “When I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, I didn’t see any more running in my future. I have always been one to dream big, and the finish line at Kona for me is as big as it gets.”

Hailing from Kyiv, Ukraine, it took 35-year-old Juliya Azzopardi four days to drive 1,000 miles across the border, abide by a countryside curfew, go through two border controls, and catch two flights to the Big Island. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself—much less the training required to qualify while in a war-torn country.

“Outdoor training could be the most challenging,” Azzopardi says of getting here. “You might be riding your bike and then the air raid sirens go on. So then you have to get into the shelter, wherever you are. Find a way to hide, wait for it to finish. But it’s not the physical part that’s difficult. It’s the mental part. If you’re away from your family during an attack, you worry about them. The obstacles here are nothing compared to the training.”

Even still, Azzopardi says the challenge of racing Kona is nothing compared to what those at home face on a daily basis. The bravery and strength of soldiers and civilians at home gives her strength and motivation.

“My goal is to show that life goes on,” Azzopardi says. “For me, life is day-by-day. Living in a war zone, you never know when it’s your last day. I want to represent resistance and the will to live, the will to fight. The right to live free and for peace. I think that’s important now, not just in Ukraine unfortunately. In the race, I think about the soldiers who are suffering. And I understand that in an Ironman I am not suffering. I have no right to give up.”

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This article was originally published on Ìę

What does it take for an athlete to be considered The GOAT—the Greatest of All Time?

Sporting fans will spend hours debating over their choice of favorite, making claims about the talent level, achievements, and longevity of their favorite superstars. But what if there was someone who had the dominance of Michael Phelps, the tenacity of Serena Williams, and the longevity of Tom Brady? Meet 42-year-old Jan Frodeno, who has dominated over the past 23 years.

The German was the first triathlete to win Olympic gold and the Ironman World Championship (for the uninitiated, an Ironman is a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run, performed consecutively. Frodeno’s best time for this feat is a mind-boggling 7 hours, 27 minutes, and 53 seconds). He’s also a three-time winner of the Ironman World Championship—in 2015, 2016, and 2019—and a two-time winner of the 70.3 World Championship (half the distance of an Ironman) in 2015 and 2018.

During the course of his career in triathlon that spans more than 20 years, Frodeno has had four undefeated seasons during which he was unbeaten at both the 70.3 and full distances (2015, 2018, 2019, and 2021). Perhaps the most notable year was 2015, when he won the 70.3 World Championship in Zell am See-Kaprun, Austria, just one month before winning the Ironman World Championship in Kona.

RELATED: This Triathlon World Champion Is Nominated for an Oscar

—and if everything goes to plan, he’ll become the oldest person to wear the crown. It will also be his final race as a professional triathlete; a win would be a fitting swan song for someone who has consistently raced his way to the top.

If you’re feeling inspired to this weekend, you’re not alone. Frodeno has attracted many a fan to the sport, thanks to his irresistible combination of success, candor, and humility. Ahead of the race, we look back at the making of a legend.

The Wins Begin

All superheroes have origin stories, and before Frodeno started racking up Ironman wins and perfect seasons, he was just a teenager swimming in South Africa. After his first triathlon in 2000, the legend goes that he sold his bike to pay for a plane ticket to Europe, to race in the German League. His first International Triathlon Union (ITU, now World Triathlon) race was the 2001 Club Mykonos Triathlon African Cup, where he placed 21st. He quickly made the jump to the under-23 circuit and qualified for the German national team in 2002.

Frodeno raced in ITU competition from 2001 to 2013, recording 67 starts, 20 podiums, and three wins, but in 2008, everything changed when a relatively unknown Frodeno won Olympic gold, beating the 2000 Olympic champion, Simon Whitfield, in a sprint finish, as well as reigning world champion Javier Gomez.

“It was indeed my first ever big win and naturally a surprise going in ranked 27th,” Frodeno says, whose most notable early career finishes included placing second at the U-23 Worlds in 2004 and being part of the winning Men’s Relay Team at the European Championship in 2007.

“The mental highs and lows in pro sport have been epic, but for the big races I seem to be able to get myself into the right headspace,” he says. “I first managed that in Beijing, and it took me a while to be able to reproduce.”

Frodeno won his first ITU World Triathlon Series race in 2009 at Yokohama and returned to the 2012 London Olympics with a sixth-place finish. He retired from short-course triathlon in 2013, then placed second at that year’s 70.3 European Championship. It was only a taste of what was to come for the talented young triathlete.

The Art of Hurting

Epic careers aren’t made overnight. There’s often a standout performance that cements an athlete’s position as the one to watch, one that has a significant impact on the trajectory of their place in sport history. For Frodeno, you might think his most memorable win would be the Olympics, or even one of his Kona titles, but you’d be wrong.

“The Olympics was memorable, but life-changing for me was beating Javier Gomez in a French Grand Prix the year before. It showed me that it could be done,” he says. “It was the same at the St. George 70.3 in 2015 where I got dropped on the bike, started the run minutes down, and won it with 1K to go. It showed me how deep I have to go to win, even when I thought it’s all over. Nothing will ever take the joy of Beijing, and my first and last Kona, but those races shaped me more than any other.”

Going Long

When talking about legendary triathletes, names like six-time world champion Dave Scott, six-time world champion Mark Allen, and eight-time world champion Paula Newby-Fraser come to mind. What sets Frodeno apart is his decades of dominance over different race distances and his ability to set standards for excellence in the arguably more competitive post-Olympics triathlon era.

“Being the best triathlete in the world at any distance is a huge undertaking that requires hard work, tremendous dedication, and single-minded commitment,” says fellow pro and Ironman commentator, Dede Griesbauer. “Then, to be able to redirect that focus to a new distance with different skills, that would be overwhelming for most. Who has the energy for that? And who has the talent for it?”

Challenge Roth (an iron-distance race not affiliated with Ironman) in 2016 was the moment that Frodeno illustrated true long-course mastery by breaking the world’s best iron-distance time by more than five minutes with a 7:35:39 finish. He followed that up by winning his second World Championship in Kona that same October.

But 2019 was perhaps his most impressive Ironman World Championship win, when he captured his third title, set a new Kona course record, and ran the fastest marathon of the day—all at the age of 38.

“To come to the top is much easier than staying there,” says Frodeno’s coach, Dan Lorang. “In the past, everybody put him in the favorite role, and he even put himself in that spot. Dealing with that pressure isn’t always easy, but for Jan it was a big motivation for his training.”

RELATED: The Science Says a Sub-Seven-Hour Ironman Is (Sort of) Possible

2021 was another undefeated season for Frodeno with wins at Challenge Miami, Challenge Gran Canaria, and the Collins Cup. The highlight was breaking his own record for the world’s best time in the full iron distance during the Zwift Tri Battle Royale exhibition with a time of 7:27:53.

Finally, just a few weeks ago, Frodeno showed who rightly sits on the throne after a masterful performance to win the PTO U.S. Open, just weeks before his 42nd birthday over an incredibly strong field. To put it in perspective, the five athletes behind him at the U.S. Open were all at least 12 years younger than the “elder” German. Longevity and consistency with success achieved over an extended period of time is what makes a GOAT, and this is where Frodeno has truly made his mark.

“He’s for sure an exception in his sport with the success he’s had; his passion, and the professionalism he introduced to triathlon,” Lorang says. “He’s been here for nearly 20 years, and that’s something really special.”

A Humble GOAT

While Frodeno feels honored to be included in the conversation with some of the greatest triathletes of all time, “GOAT” is never a term he would use to describe himself. “It’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot more than it ever did,” he says.

When asked what athletes he’s looked up to over the years, Frodeno includes two-time Olympic gold medalist, Alistair Brownlee. “Alistair is at the top of my list because I saw firsthand just how good he was and only heard about the earlier generations,” Frodeno says.

Another athlete Frodeno holds great respect for is Kristian Blummenfelt, the only other athlete to win an Ironman World Championship and Olympic gold, which leads some to suggest he might be one to challenge for the GOAT title over the next 10 to 15 years. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Kristian has had the greatest season of any individual ever, and I have a huge amount of respect for that,” Frodeno says.

Frodeno’s ability to compete, and win, against different generations of opponents is something that no other athlete has done in quite the same way. Fifteen years ago, he competed against Simon Whitfield and Javier Gomez, then later Patrick Lange and Sebastian Kienle, and now younger athletes like Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt.

“Jan is unique in that his work ethic is simply unmatched, and he’s also a once-in-a-generation type of talent,” Griesbauer says.

Lasting Legacy

The thing about being the GOAT is that time marches on, while the human body doesn’t always follow. There will always be up-and-coming young athletes looking to follow in Frodeno’s footsteps to greatness (newly-crowned 70.3 world champ Rico Bogen has already begun to draw comparisons), and he has a bit of advice for them.

“Do what you do with intent,” he says. “Don’t just go to a race and see what might happen. You’ll sell yourself short, not because the bar is set too high, but because it’s so low that the danger is tripping over it.”

It’s sad to think that the Ironman World Championship in Nice will be Frodeno’s last dance. For Frodeno, the athlete, his accomplishments stand alone, but perhaps more telling is how Frodeno, the man, is viewed by his peers.

“It’s absolutely the end of an era,” Griesbauer says. “We will see other great athletes follow in his footsteps, but it will be a long time before we see another athlete with his degree of total professionalism. He has a remarkable presence, both on and off the racecourse, without ever having had to shout it from the rooftops. He just simply is.”

The post Michael Phelps Only Did One Sport. Triathlon GOAT Jan Frodeno Did Three. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

that American pro triathlete Collin Chartier tested positive for EPO from an out-of-competition test performed on February 10, 2023. Upon receipt of the positive test, Chartier admitted to the use of the banned substance to the agency, and as a result received a reduced ban of three years, down from four according to the ITA.

Erythropoietin, known as EPO, is prohibited under World Anti-Doping Agency regulations because it stimulates erythropoiesis (red blood cell production) and can modify the body’s capacity to transport oxygen, increasing stamina, and performance.

In a social media post released on Monday morning, Chartier went on to further admit his use of a “PED in November after feeling like I have lost my way in the sport,” due to “intense pressure and expectations to win the biggest races in 2024.” His post went on to say that he had no plans to return to the sport after the three-year ban was lifted.

Despite having a relatively inauspicious short course career, Chartier was an up-and-coming triathlete in the long-course scene.

Coached by Mikal Iden, the brother of reigning Ironman world champion Gustav, he was a shock winner of last year’s inaugural PTO U.S. Open in Dallas in September where he won $100,000 topping a highly competitive field including Magnus Ditlev and Sam Long.

Related:

Training alongside two-time Ironman world championship runner-up Lionel Sanders, the victory came three weeks after his first full-distance Ironman victory in Mont-Tremblant. Chartier then had a disappointing debut in Hawaii in the Ironman World Championship in October when he finished 35th.

Prior to those results, Chartier’s highest competitive finish was a win at Challenge Salou in October 2021 and a third-place finish at 70.3 Boulder in August of the same year.

Fellow pros posting in response to Chartier’s Instagram message gave mixed comments, with 2014 Ironman world champion Sebastian Kienle saying: “Let me guess, you bought it on the internet and also learned how to use it – all from the internet. Nobody helped you, nobody knew.”

Former triathlete-turned-elite-runner Lauren Goss commented: “Dude brave of you . No one sees the mental health side. Walk through the fire.”

Despite being PTO-ranked No 14 and an automatic qualifier, Chartier was not on the start-list for May’s big money PTO European Open in Ibiza. He had originally planned to race Saturday’s Ironman Texas and had been training at altitude in California, Ecuador, and Girona in Spain.

The International Testing Agency (ITA), the testing body who administered and discovered the adverse finding is a Switzerland-based, not-for-profit that claims no connection to “sporting or political powers” on its website. The ITA conducts testing for the Ironman organization from a pool of Ìęas of this writing—which includes Chartier.

Coincidentally, Ironman said that 2023 is the first year the brand has delegated results management and prosecution of doping cases to the ITA. “Testing plans are based on a variety of factors and differ from individual athlete to individual athlete, with review of specific performances, intelligence, and the testing plans of National Anti-Doping agencies to maximize resources,” Ironman said in a statement.

“Ironman does acknowledge the significance of the decision made by Collin in promptly accepting responsibility for his actions.”

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One: Bus #108

Bus #108 parallels the Las Vegas Strip along ordinary streets. Locals hop on and off, returning home from work or heading downtown to find some action, mainly service and security workers buried in their phones.

Two convention center staff women shuffle on, lanyards dangling from their necks. Vegas loves lanyards. “Well shiiit, another convention in the books,” one says, looking satisfied with the honest day’s work and ready for a drink.

Flying into Las Vegas at 8:45 P.M. on a Friday night is a lot to process, but throw in 27,000 runners arriving from all 50 states and over 60 countries for the and this translates to overpriced Lyfts and Ubers clogging Harry Reid International Airport. I choose the public bus instead, which should drop me within walking distance of the race’s expo at the Hilton at Resorts World. Let’s see.

A man seated near me keeps going bottoms-up with a mini bottle of Fireball, even though it’s clearly long gone. Six Turkish exchange students pile on and poke fun at each other next to two bearded men playing “Welcome to the Jungle” from a Bluetooth speaker shaped like a bowling ball. And just as the Strip comes into view, everyone in Bus #108 begins singing along, including me.

Welcome to the Jungle.

Two: Missing Leg

The casino hotel elevator smells like a cross between formaldehyde and strawberry Pedialyte.

Inside, a one-legged man glugs a Coors tallboy behind silver aviators—it’s 10 A.M. In the time it takes us to reach the 56th floor, I learn that his name is Yasir, that he is from Saudi Arabia, and that his other leg is a Nike carbon blade picked up days earlier in Houston, just for this race.

“Come,” he says, “I show you.”

In his hotel room, the stranger makes me feel the difference between his old prosthetic and this new treasure. He hands over his blade with flattened palms, as if it were a samurai sword. In a way, it is.

I perform a bicep curl with the new blade, then with the old leg. Far superior. He giggles, slams the rest of his breakfast beer, and begins to thumb-flick through photos on his iPhone to a video of a man holding a rifle, sulking behind bushes in a desert. After five seconds, a shot fires and the man drops to the ground. This surveillance footage is of Yasir, the moment he lost his leg, the moment his life changed forever, the moment that would eventually bring him here, 8,000 miles from Jeddah to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon.

Several years ago, the man had been a military officer on patrol in Yemen when a Houthi rebel sniper shot him. The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen reaches back to 2004, when Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war after the Houthi ousted Yemen’s president. A coalition of Gulf States formed to regain order, and Yasir was a military officer on patrol when he was popped.

“Were you even a runner before you got shot?” I ask.

“No, no. Only walking,” he says.

“So you’re telling me that losing your leg made you start running?”

“That is what I am telling you.”

Three: Teeth Whitening

Shuffling along casino carpets patterned in asynchronous honeycomb fractals, camouflage for cocktail spills and vomit, I pass slot machines with names like Attack from the Planet Moolah, All Aboard!, and Three Eyed God, en route to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Health & Fitness Expo.

Every registrant must enter through a tunnel swiveling in neon lights—imagine TSA on LSD—and a paparazzi-style wall of ivy (it was fake; I nibbled some), which funnels into the tented expo. DJ Cable spins records, mixing “It’s Getting Hot in Here” with “Getting Jiggy Wit It.”

Nicole Christenson is the race director for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series Las Vegas. Having grown up here, she knows the ever-evolving Vegas entertainment scene as well as anyone. Her vision for the race, alongside an enormous team of staff and volunteers, is to orchestrate an event that’s more than a footrace, but something of an alternate reality.

“We’re excited to once again welcome participants from all around the world to Las Vegas for the world’s largest running party,” she told me earlier. “The Las Vegas weekend is our marquee event providing people a totally immersive experience that fits the energy of running the strip at night.”

In this, they are succeeding, with a well-oiled #StripatNight theme that mimics Vegas’ 24/7 atmosphere—just swap out free vodka tonics and quarter slots for Lululemon activations and giveaway Ironman lip balm.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Series, which started in San Diego in 1998. Its mission was to infuse running events with fun and live music, to create a race that doubled as a block party for more casual runners, while maintaining a competitive edge for elites. The concept spread to cities around the country and world, and now there have been 47 Rock ‘n’ Roll race venues in 12 countries. Ironman—perhaps you’ve heard of them?—now owns the Series, adding yet another notch to their dynastic portfolio. This race weekend alone will inject Las Vegas with an additional $165 million in economic activity.

When I ask two expo security guards in yellow vests what they know about the security detail for the race, all they say is:

“It’s deeper than you could ever believe.”

And yet, there’s also something refreshingly inclusive about this race, encouraged by its accessible location and shorter race offerings—5K, 10K, and half marathon. Rock ‘n’ Roll events appeal to everyone, no matter how much you run, even that lone elder in the corner wearing a prom satin sash that says: “I Eat Tacos,” even the several runners I watch reclining in a horseshoe of La-Z-Boys at the expo’s Teeth Whitening Station, zapping their teeth with proprietary blue light. The booth’s associate approaches me, holding a rack of fake teeth in declining states of decay and, with her Russian accent, demands that I open my mouth.

“You’re a four,” she says with a blinding smile. “Stain scale goes to ten.” Her teeth? A solid two.

Four: Local Legend

Jayden is a six-foot-two, 19-year-old, self-proclaimed military brat with bleached hair, soaking wet and wrapped in a tin foil blanket. He, alongside several thousand others, just completed the Rock ‘n’ Roll 5K, and it rained the entire race. The course finished at the Fremont Experience, north of the Strip, and I’d tucked into a casino to find a most unusual scene: hundreds of runners wrapped in foil like baked potatoes and taking refuge at slot machine stools.

“I’ve been on this crazy weight loss journey,” Jayden says. “Lost 120 pounds in the last nine months. Running was a big part of that, kept me in that mindset, and that’s why I’m here.”

Despite over half a million residents calling Las Vegas home, 94 percent of this weekend’s race participants arrived from outside the city. But this doesn’t surprise Jayden. “Not many people can say they’ve run in the rain in downtown Fremont or the Strip,” he says. “That’s why running Rock ‘n’ Roll is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

RELATED: Run Your First—or Best—Half Marathon with This Comprehensive Training Guide

Jayden studies hospitality management at the University of Las Vegas (“He lost so much weight because he don’t live with his Mexican momma no more,” his mother tells me, who stands next to him), and he dreams of one day becoming an entrepreneur. “What’s the word—franchise. I want to own me some franchises!”

Five: Peppermill Ambrosia

One major perk of running the world’s largest night race is that you can brunch hard on race day. And Vegas? Vegas brunches hard.

I love breakfast here, as a cultural experience, my friend Brendan Leonard texted, referring to the Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge, the city’s cultish greasy spoon that’s served mobsters, conventioneers, and now, runners, since 1972. Leonard had completed Vegas’ esteemed , so I trusted his tip.

Approaching the cafe’s blacked-out windows, I’m immediately hit with an overflow of wait lines and saucer plates serving 64-ounce Scorpion cherry brandy cocktails and tables clustered under a neon grove of fake trees and plates of breakfast ham the size of printer paper and Bloody Mary’s a foot tall. Two Indian tech entrepreneurs from Toronto sit at the diner bar just as I do, and Josie, in her white sneakers and royal blue skirt, pours three coffees, no-look, not even asking if we want coffee—of course we do—and she will forever know the three of us as best friends coming to dine at the Peppermill together, until the check needs to be split.

The Indians wonder why I would ever come to Las Vegas to run, or to do anything healthy. Fair question, especially as they sop up their hungover guts with Denver omelets and hash browns topped in shakes of Tabasco before picking up a Jeep rental for a trip to the Grand Canyon. “Four-hour drive, easy. America,” they say.

After Josie’s eight refills of over-creamed coffee and whatever a French Toast Ambrosia is, I slap my new friends on the back, wish them well, and exit properly carb-loaded, prepared for the evening’s foot race.

Six: Honeymoon Double

Sarah and Christopher Sevick traveled to the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Race from Norwich, Connecticut, an unlikely pairing at first glance but a fitting example for why this race matters to so many. Sarah, 52, short and tightly-wired, had already completed the 5K and was preparing for the half marathon. No one I speak with all weekend will be more thrilled about running the half than Sarah. That is, with the exception of her husband, Chris, who stands beside her smoking a Camel Light, with drooping earlobes and a black T-shirt that says:

Runner’s Husband
Yes, She’s Running
No, I Don’t Know When She’ll Be Home
Yes, We are Still Married
No, She’s Not Imaginary

Chris isn’t a runner, but he loves more than anything to support his wife’s running goals, especially when it takes them to Vegas. “This race is really emotional for us because we got married here years ago,” he says. In Connecticut, Sarah is a craps dealer at the Mohegan Sun Casino, so she loves coming here to see how the pros do it. Through an East Coast accent, Sarah can’t contain her enthusiasm. “It’s an opportunity to run the Strip at night for one time in my life!” she says.

I ask if they intend to party afterward, to celebrate the double and their marriage. Sarah smirks, looks around as if to whisper her darkest, most diabolical fetish, and says: “Well, I do like beer.”

Seven: Volcano

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon course is shaped like a bowtie:

Starting at Planet Hollywood, in the middle of the Strip, it sends everyone south to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign before a 180-degree turn to follow the length of the Strip north, to the Fremont Experience, before curling back to the middle of the action, the base of The Mirage volcano.

After a long wait in the corrals, the Rock ‘n’ Roll production outdoes itself with a full lineup of stretching exercises by trainers, dancing acts, a DJ throwing beats, even a muscle man in black suspenders performing headstands on a tower of cafeteria trays propped up by tumbler glasses.

Finally, the race starts and things are moving. Crowds spread and we’re all in this great heaving motion together. Deployed at every intersection are hundreds of police officers beside school buses and limos to block a potential breach. Helicopters and drones hum nonstop above. The first turn of the bowtie comes at the city’s southern edge, where there’s more sand and more browns and more desolation, like a high that’s wearing off.

The sun is going down and, as we turn, all of Las Vegas appears front and center. Into a slight downhill now as the Strip comes rushing towards everyone and quickly I am back in the middle of this psychedelic neon bath with spectators screaming along a traffic-free Las Vegas Boulevard. (The only other time the Strip closes down is for New Year’s Eve.) Here, each runner ingests infinite light and 200-foot ads for strip clubs and the Blue Man Group and Katy Perry dressed up as a mushroom and posters for shows like “Menopause the Musical.” I lock eyes with an old lady in the crowd sipping an electric green daiquiri as she watches this snake of runners pass, punching the air with our balled fists.

Peppered every few miles are live bands and DJs which add to the collective fervor, one of my favorite parts of the race. Mariachi. Tupac remix. Fall Out Boy covers. Shania Twain. I reach the north end as night falls and see now that this place never sleeps, that everything feels so much more authentic at night here. It’s . . . beautiful?

Ten miles in, a firework display crackles, reminding me of Yasir the Saudi getting shot by a Yemeni rebel sniper, and I wonder how his blade is holding up, just as I find myself hissing at a man after he shoves me at a water station because I’d cut him off. (I never hiss.) Perhaps he’s anxious about making the final turn of the bowtie, which we are doing now, to square up with the Strip again, eye-to-eye with this ephedra-gobbling fire god, this raging slot machine canyon of Eiffel towers and pyramids and Venetian canals and volcanoes pulling us all back to its source. Here we are, asking everything from our tendons and limbs and goals, to be fast, to remain visible, to reach toward something for no practical reason other than it makes us feel alive, makes us feel real, and maybe that’s enough, and as I cross the finish line at the base of an erupting synthetic volcano, I can feel the heat from the finishing chute’s horned flames burn across my face, and I think to myself: Goddamn. Now I love this place, too.ÌęÌę

Nicholas Triolo is the Senior Editor forÌęșÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű RunÌęandÌęTrail Runner. He has been a competitive ultrarunner since 2008.Ìę

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Fans of endurance sports had plenty of action to follow this past weekend, as Ironman triathlon and gravel cycling held their respective world championshipÌęevents.

Here’s what went down at the races:

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Gianni Versmeersch Win Inaugural Gravel World Championships

Gravel cycling has steadily gained popularity in North America over the last decade, with races like Kansas’ Unbound Gravel, SBT GRVL in Colorado, and the Belgian Waffle Ride in California attracting thousands of amateur participants and a growing number of professional cyclists. Cycling’s international governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, has taken note of the growth, and this year launched its inaugural world championships for gravel in Veneto, Italy on October 8 and 9.

The UCI world championships had a few key differences from North American races. Most gravel races in North America are mass-start, with all genders, age groups, and categories beginning the race together. The UCI held separate world championship races for elite men, elite women, and age groups. In North America, all riders complete the same distance, regardless of gender or age. The UCI, by contrast, had elite women race 86 miles, while the elite men raced 121 miles. Finally, multiple North American races feature rocky surfaces and even mountain bike-like trails that require riders to use gravel bicycles that have clearance for wide tires. The UCI was held largely on paved and dirt paths, with many elite riders competing on traditional road bicycles.

The elite women’s race came down to a two-up battle between World Cup mountain-bike racers Pauline Ferrand-PrĂ©vot of France and Sina Frei of Switzerland. Ferrand-PrĂ©vot in the closing few yards to take the victory, and the win capped off a triumphant season. Earlier this year,ÌęFerrand-PrĂ©vot won world championship titles in three separate mountain biking disciplines: cross-country, short-track cross-country, and marathon.

Gravel
MTB XCO
MTB XCC
MTB Marathon

Four UCI World Titles in less than two months for

— UCI (@UCI_cycling)

In the men’s race, Belgium’s Gianni Vermeersch Daniel Oss of Italy in the final few miles to take a solo victory. Both Oss and Vermeersch are professional road cyclists, and compete in major European road events like the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix.

Rookies Win Ironman Hawaii

The faces and sights of a record-breaking 2022 Hawaii Ironman World Championship men's race in photos

Full gallery

— Triathlete Magazine (@TriathleteMag)

The Ironman world championships returned to Kona, Hawaii after the 2020 edition was called off due to the pandemic and the 2021 race was held in St. George, Utah. Two relative newcomers surged to victories, with American Chelsea Sodaro winning the women’s pro event on Friday, October 7, and Norway’s Gustav Iden claiming the men’s race on Saturday, October 8. For both Sodaro and Iden, the 2022 world championships were just their second attempts at the Ironman distance and their first attempts at Ironman Hawaii.

Sodaro, a former NCAA Division I cross-country runner, became the first American to win the Ironman world championships since 2002, when Tim DeBoom won it. The last time an American woman won the race was 1996, when Paula Newby Fraser won it (Newby-Fraser is from South Africa but became a U.S. citizen in 1996). Sodaro started racing triathlons in 2017 after her dreams of representing the U.S. at the Olympics were sidelined by injury. In Kona, she swam and biked with the front pack of triathletes before breaking away on the run. Sodaro jogged into the lead at mile eight of the 26.2-mile running leg, and recorded a marathon time of 2:51:45. Her finishing time was 8:33:46, nearly eight minutes faster than second-place finisher Lucy Charles-Barclay of Great Britain.

In the men’s race, Iden also saved his energy for the running portion of the race, and he chased down French athlete Sam Laidlow at mile 22 of the marathon. Iden set a new course record on the famed Kona Ironman route, completing the 140.6-mile journey in 7:40:24, beating the old course record, set in 2018 by German Jan Frodeno, by 11 minutes.

The post Here’s What Happened at the Ironman Triathlon and Gravel Cycling World Championships appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Like every other competitor in Thursday’s Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Chris Nikic had moments when he struggled mightily.

Completing a triathlon that includes a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run is no easy task for anyone. It’s especially difficult when mid-afternoon temperatures top 90 degrees, the humidity is a muggy 85 percent, and it feels like you’re breathing through a straw. But Nikic is a unique kind of athlete, fueled by an enormous amount of determination, purpose, and the belief that anything is possible.

Late last night, after battling fatigue, dehydration, heat, wind, and moments of self-doubt, the special needs athlete from Florida became the first individual with Down syndrome to finish the 140.6-mile world championship race in Hawaii.

With help of his volunteer guide, Dan Grieb, Nikic completed the race in 16 hours, 31 minutes and 27 seconds, finishing to a cascade of cheering fans, many of whom returned to the finish line long after in 8:33:46. Sodaro made sure to be there, too, alongside Ironman legend Mark Allen, a six-time winner of the race, to experience the heart-warming, tear-inducing moment.

 

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When Nikic crossed the finish line, he jumped into the arms of Grieb, who was at his side the entire way. They were tethered together on the open-water swim, in the choppy water of the Pacific Ocean. They rode side-by-side on the hot and windy bike course from Kona out to the remote town of Hawi and back along the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway. They jogged and walked stride-for-stride on the 26.2-mile out-and-back course, to the Natural Energy Laboratory and back, to the seaside finish, a stone’s throw from where it all began.

Amid the crowd’s roar and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” blaring on the sound system, Nikic marveled in the moment as he saw his finish time posed on a digital display board and then was greeted by his girlfriend Adrienne Bunn, his dad, Nik, and numerous other family members and supporters. All of this was an incredible way to celebrate his 23rd birthday, which Nikic did by not only finishing the grueling race, but by stunning the already weepy fans by presenting Bunn, a Special Olympics triathlete, with a promise ring.

A Heartful Highlight

It was an amazing finish to a challenging day that began at 6:27 a.m. local time and finished at 10:58 p.m. Given the harsh conditions, — 1:42 for the swim, 8:05 for the bike, and 6:29 for the run. He finished 2,265th place out of 2,314 competitors on the day, but at the finish line late Thursday night, he was No. 1 in everyone’s heart.

“This is something that changes perceptions for every parent worldwide with children with Down syndrome,” said longtime Ironman finish-line announcer, Mike Reilly. “Now they all know one thing for sure – anything is possible.”

Nikic’s resounding effort was one of the biggest highlights for the first Ironman World Championship, as it returned to Kona for the first time since 2019. The championship race was postponed in 2020 and again in 2021 because of COVID-19, and eventually the 2021 race was moved to St. George, Utah, last spring.

Other age-group highlights included 78-year-old Cherie Gruenfeld of Cathedral City, California, winning her 14th Ironman age-group world title in 16:20:07, and the 17:58 finish of Team James —Ìę57-year-old Beth James, of Crested Butte, Colorado — who towed and pushed her 26-year-old daughter, Liza James, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2004 car accident that rendered her nonverbal and unable to walk.

Because of so many backlogged qualifiers, the race was split into two days this year, with professional women and age-group women racing on Thursday, along with physically challenged athletes, hand-cycle competitors, and competitors from several men’s age-group divisions. The men’s pro race and the remainder of the men’s age-group divisions will compete on October 8.

“I Want To Open Doors.”

Although he had been involved in a lot of sports growing up, Nikic’s triathlon journey started four years ago with a much shorter triathlon at the Special Olympics event in Florida. When that went well, he and his dad focused on something bigger, something they knew could change his life. He knew that if he could do big things, maybe one day he would be able to fulfill his ultimate dream of living independently, getting married, and having a family of his own.

Nikic has parlayed his triathlon success into as a platform to show what is truly possible, a foray into motivational speaking as a means to help others with Down syndrome. He and Grieb both competed in the race wearing bright orange 1% Better shirts.

“I want to be an example for other people with Down syndrome. I want to open doors,” Nikic said previously. “And I want to raise awareness. Anyone who sees people with Down syndrome: don’t look away or walk away.

In 2020, at age 21, he became the first person with Down syndrome to finish an Ironman triathlon. For this accomplishment, Nikic was awarded the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance as part of the 2021 ESPY Awards.

After that race, he was invited to participate in the 45th Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. To prepare, Nikic had been training three to four hours a day, six days a week, including strength training and yoga. It’s not an easy thing to do for anyone, but especially for Nikic, who suffers from reduced muscle tension (muscular hypotonia).

But Nikic has been overcoming obstacles his entire life. Nikic was born with several birth defects that affected his heart function, hearing, and balance, requiring several serious surgeries. , Down syndrome is a condition in which a baby is born with an extra copy of a chromosome. That changes how an infant’s body and brain develop, which can cause both chronic mental and physical challenges for the individual.

At 5 months old, Nikic endured open-heart surgery. He was so weak and had such poor balance that he did not walk on his own until he was 4. To keep him from choking, his family fed him baby food until he was 6. When he finally learned to run, it took him months to discover how to swing his arms at his side, instead of holding them straight above his head. It was a long journey from a challenging boyhood to the Ironman World Championship, but Nikic has always been up to the challenge.

“The second Nikic gets in the water for the start of the race, people all over the world with intellectual disabilities have won and become part of the larger endurance community,”.

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When the news broke in May 2021 that Ironman and UTMB were joining forces, the small corner of the internet that hosts the trail running community nearly lost its collective mind. Skeptics lamented the end of trail running’s eccentric, community-centric culture, while optimists celebrated the likelihood of better race organization, standardized rules, and real prize money. But nearly all of the hot takes missed the larger point entirely: Ironman, the largest operator of mass sporting events in the world, just went all-in on trail running? WHAT?!

Following his experience at Western States 100, David Roche made the argument that , especially in the long term. To paraphrase, trail running is evolving real-time as brands collectively invest millions of dollars each year. This added money is good for the sport, helping reach a wider audience and bringing in opportunities for everyone.

But IRONMAN’s bet on trail running wasn’t just a small, linear step forward. Much the opposite, actually. Already owning ultras in Australia and New Zealand, Ironman could have continued to invest incrementally, but instead opened up their pocketbook and bought the farm. This spring they rolled out an unprecedented suite of 25 races, spanning the globe from France to Thailand, China, Wales, Slovenia, Mexico, and Sweden. Crowned the UTMB World Series, it became, by far, the biggest race series in the sport’s history, almost overnight.

Which leaves aÌę Mont Blanc-sized question: what did they know that the rest of us didn’t? Catherine Poletti, UTMB President and Founder, and Andrew Messick, CEO of Ironman, presumably looked into their crystal ball and saw an opportunity too good to pass up. On the eve of the biggest race of the year in Chamonix, they opened up about the newly minted partnership and their bet on the future of the sport.

What The Data Says

“The data is pretty clear,” said Messick, “trail running has had double digit year-over-year growth in every continent for more than a decade.” The reason behind this? Trail running offers something everyone needs right now: freedom. In a world more and more crowded every day, Messick wants to capitalize on our collective need for an escape. “Trail running looks identical to triathlons 30 years ago. Lots of races and events created by small groups of very passionate people, but most of these people don’t want the risk or work of scaling up. The natural step is being acquired by a company like ours.”

World Athletics reports that trail running has grown , estimating that around 20 million people ran on trails this year. COVID is driving an even larger surge in the last couple years, which shows no signs of slowly down. There are roughly 3,600 organized races annually, most of which are run by small, local groups, with nearly 2 million race participants in total.

From a business perspective, the racing industry is built on fixed costs, says Messick. “There are clear prices for pulling permits, closing roads, and setting up aids, which we know well. Once you’ve paid these, the cost to add each additional athlete is low and the variable margin high.” IRONMAN mastered this math en route to becoming the largest race production company in the world.

Growth Requires Capital

When it comes to costs, racing is similar to retail. Opening a new store is capital intensive, so you need a plan to bring in customers quickly. That tenant is the heart of this partnership. “We work well together because we have different skill sets, but the same goals and values,” said Messick. “Our experience with triathlons gives us a framework for rolling out new events, and their connection to the community guarantees we reach large audiences and bring in a lot of participants.”

Heading into 2020, UTMB had 10,000 spots for 32,000 applicants at their flagship race series in Chamonix, France. This might sound like a problem, but for Poletti and Messick, it was a huge opportunity. UTMB knew it had the ability to create sky-high demand, and Ironman had the firepower to create ample supply. “COVID gave us time to think about what the future could be. UTMB was known around the world, but we had to find a way to export it to all the other continents,” said Poletti. “That’s when we started talking with Ironman.”

At the time, UTMB was still a small company without the resources to tackle such an ambitious goal. Ironman, on the other hand, was perhaps better equipped than any company in the world. “We were already working with Ironman through the Ultra Trail World Tour and knew we had the same vision of the future. We either could become partners or competitors, so it was an easy decision to work together,” said Poletti.

Simple Economics

“It’s simple economics,” said Messick, hinting at a threshold for profitability. “Ultra Trail Australia has over 8,000 runners across all races. Tarawera and Eiger each have 4,000. Lavaredo is closer to 6,000. Thousands of runners over multiple days is our sweet spot. We make sure all of our new races can scale to this.” In the future, Poletti said that there might be 50 races or more under the UTMB umbrella.

While many companies have aspirations to scale exponentially, few try to do it overnight. To many in the trail community, the announcement of the World Series this spring came as a shock. The small sport isn’t accustomed to quick, drastic changes from global players like Ironman. Behind the scenes, Messick and Poletti spent the winter purchasing races around the world, but to the general consumer, it happened all at once. This surprise rubbed many the wrong way, throwing a wrench in their summer racing plans.

But Ironman saw the change as necessary from a business perspective. “The idea was to establish a single qualification system to get to Chamonix” said Messick, “to do so we needed to move fast to provide a path. We risked losing customers to competitors if they didn’t have a local way to qualify. Rolling out the series in 5 or 10 years wasn’t an option for us, because it would ostracize too many people.”

However, Messick admits it’s a work in progress, with a lot of expansion left. “Right now we only have two races in the US and none in Canada. That’s two of the most important running markets in the world. And no races in Japan, India, or Korea, either. With the demand we’re already seeing, if we had 100 races in the series we’d probably fill them. It’s not so much about the future as it is about today.”

In those few words, Messick inadvertently showed his hand.Ìę Ironman big bet wasn’t predicated on the long term growth of trail running at all, but instead on a monopoly of the market today. With UTMB as a partner, they have the ability to drive both demand and supply. They don’t need a quantum leap in the market cap to see a return on their investment if they can capture what already sits in front of them.

In her parting words, Poletti confirmed the notion. “This is the next generation of the sport. It’s already happening today. We’re unifying all of trail running under the banner of the UTMB World Series.”

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Two seemingly disparate organizations are joining forces today, as UTMB Group and The IRONMAN Group announce a partnership, launching the “” an ultra-distance trail run circuit that culminates in the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, held in Chamonix, France.

The announcement states that this is an effort to “boost the sport’s international development” to “launch the world’s ultimate trail-running circuit: the UTMB World Series.” According to Michel Poletti, who, along with his wife, Catherine Poletti, helped start and then co-direct the UTMB since its beginning in 2002, the race is not being sold to IRONMAN, it is a partnership.

The new series will mean the end of the current Ultra-Trail World Tour, effective 2022, when the UTMB World Series kicks into gear. Some of the UTWT events, however, will be part of the World Series. The partnership announcement also signals the end of what had been a key role of the International Trail Running Association, an organization started by and under the control of the Polettis: that of maintaining a point system that served as the gatekeeper for UTMB qualification and entry.

The World Series

Instead of the ITRA points system, next year will see the start of the UTMB World Series, bringing together many of the crown jewels of international ultra events that serve as exclusive access to the pinnacle event, UTMB Mont-Blanc. The World Series’ full calendar will be announced in the third quarter of 2021. Eight leading, international events are already confirmed across Europe, Asia and Oceania, including: UTMB Mont-Blanc (France, Italy, Switzerland), Val d’Aran by UTMB (Spain), Thailand by UTMB (Thailand), Panda Trail by UTMB (China), Gaoligong by UTMB (China), Tarawera Ultramarathon by UTMB (New Zealand), Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB (Australia), and mozart 100 by UTMB (Austria).

The UTMB World Series Finals will be held at UTMB Mont-Blanc and will serve as the official crowning of the UTMB World Series male and female champions. UTMB World Series titles will be awarded in each of the three key distances of the UTMB race week: the OCC (50K), CCC (100K) and UTMB (100M). Qualification can be achieved only by participating in one of the UTMB World Series Events or UTMB World Series Majors the and the point system – now called “Running Stones” – has not been fully developed, other than making clear that the gateway to the UTMB World Series will be the World Series Qualifiers, with thousands of races around the world that are open to all.

A Promise of Safe, Well-Organized Events

Andrew Messick, President and CEO for the IRONMAN Group, said that he respects the cultural differences between the different endurance sports his organizations serve, given it’s the world’s largest provider of road running (Rock ‘n Roll Marathon), mountain biking (Cape Epic, et al.), and triathlon (IRONMAN). In a phone interview yesterday, he said “We believe fundamentally that we have an ability to be able to deliver well organized, safe events, to serious endurance athletes, irrespective of whether it’s in mountain biking, it’s a long-distance triathlon or it’s in running. And, that’s what athletes are looking for. And there are fundamental differences, and they [are] super clear between trail runners and triathletes and road runners and cyclists. But I think that what all endurance athletes have in common is to have their ability for their big race, you know, their A events, to be safe and well-organized, and to be at a really high standard.”

Messick credits the Polettis with the ability to suss out quality events, to define the event experience and believes IRONMAN will be able to replicate it. When asked, he said it wouldn’t be too surprised to see an IRONMAN M-Dot calf tattoo paired with that of the UTMB logo, in either Chamonix or Kona, but attributed that to the type of endurance athlete, those “always looking to do something harder,” who are part of their “tribe.” While the Polettis put together a “gathering of friends” and unique, life changing and transformative events, IRONMAN is pragmatic and will serve the collective goal of well-run events. And Messick feels they’ve done just that with the Tarawera Ultramarathon in New Zealand, Ultra-Trail Australia, with more than 5,000 runners, and the mozart 100 in Austria, all of which will be part of the inaugural UTMB World Series.

Concerns and Cautions

Despite the potential of better coordination and organization that the merger promises, leaders in both the trail and tri communities expressed mixed emotions and harbored concerns. Although IRONMAN will not put its name on any UTMB events and UTMB retains all intellectual property rights under the partnership, there will be some questions about these two giants teaming up together.

Nancy Hobbs, Executive Director of the quipped, “The title of this narrative could be, ‘IRONMAN leaves Hawaii in its wake and moves to Chamonix with its new ami UTMB.'”

“I’m a bit conflicted,” commented Erin Beresini, former Editor-in-Chief of , when she heard of the UTMB-IRONMAN partnership. On the up side, she sees “the cash and streamlined organization” from the IRONMAN brand. On the down, she sees “the frustration of losing your local, homegrown feel — and that’s a little sad.”

Greg Vollet, Salomon’s Global Running & Community Marketing Manager, who put together the Golden Trail World Series, another international championship that draws the attention of ultra trail runners, observes that the “world of ultra running is getting more and more complicated” and that many event companies are interested in this new “mass market” model, but he fears “it will bring a lot of confusion, tension and in the end dilution of top athletes across many different series.” Vollet notes that “all the races are already full and there aren’t many elite athletes in ultra running, so what are they looking for beside business?”

Vollet hopes that entry prices will not be at the same level as the Ironman in triathlon, because triathlon has become a sport that isn’t accessible to all. “The essence of trail running is to be able to explore new places (through races and with the security and assurance of an organization), to share experiences and emotions with friends. I am afraid that we will enter in the sports business industry, which is moving away from this spirit, because only those who have the financial means will be able to register.”

Messick recognizes that the UTMB World Series will draw elite runners away from other races but sees choice for the athletes as a positive. Michel Poletti agreed, noting that cyclists have separate races, such as the Tour de France and World Championships from which they need to select.

Hobbs said that she’s seen some of these same questions come up with Spartan’s initial foray into trail running. “The positives of Spartan’s involvement resulted in new participants to trail running, additional press coverage, and more opportunities for individuals to engage with a known and proven brand with a model of success. Perhaps some of these factors will translate into the UTMB/Ironman marriage. But, will the end result lead to higher entry fees and more hurdles to qualification, as well as an increased spotlight on a little village in the French Alps, leaving smaller events in its ever-growing wake and trails in the Chamonix valley destroyed by too much traffic? Or, will this merger create a powerful engine that provides more awareness to our growing sport in the media resulting in a growing fan base as well as offering a platform for more brands eager to secure impressions on a global scale?”

Hobbs advises the new UTMB-IRONMAN partnership not to “bulldoze the smaller events.” And to keep entry fees reasonable so as not to turn off people thinking about trying the sport. “Remember the grassroots and authentic nature and spirit of trail running in all that you do,” she says. “Give back to the environment. Consider your carbon footprint, which will certainly grow. Provide education to newcomers into the sport: Respect the trail, public lands, and wildlife. Be a climate action champion, stay on marked trails, don’t litter, don’t cut switchbacks. Embrace and welcome diversity including LGBTQ and BIPOC. Share tips and techniques basic to trail runners to insure newcomers into the sport have a good experience.”

A Giant Force, For What?

The UTMB World Series and combined firepower of the Polettis and IRONMAN will certainly be an awesome force. But, like the recent failed European Super League, unless this joint effort serves the desires of a discerning audience, it will be for naught. US ultrarunners tend to want their with a lot of local flavor and that’s something that ITRA and ATRA fully support in providing services to help small race directors and community events for runners who don’t want to travel far to celebrate their sport with friends.

But, as Messick points out, when you really want to test yourself and put it all on the line, you want to be sure the course will be marked, the aid stations stocked, the distances measured, etc. Sometimes you want the bohemian café for real flavor and other times its consistency and dependability. For the latter, there are multiple options, be they Spartan, Sky, Golden, Xterra,and now UTMB, and for the former, there are still hundreds of choices. And, hopefully, with the growth of the sport, none of them will go away any time soon!

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For most people, completing a single Ironman-distance triathlon represents a major milestone. An athlete might train for years to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles—all within the official cutoff time of 17 hours.

But for Will Turner, one wasn’t enough. In December 2019, at age 61, Turner finished his 105th Ironman-distance triathlon in two years. To achieve this insane feat, heÌęspent 2018 and 2019 in an almost nonstop cycle of swimming, biking, and running,Ìęsometimes completing multiple “races” on consecutive days.Ìę

The quest started in 2018, when Turner decided to celebrate his 60th birthday by doing the same number of 140.6-mile triathlons in a single year. Because there aren’t enough organized Ironman events to accomplish this goal, TurnerÌęcreated his own courses around the U.S. and Canada. As theÌęowner of a sales-training company and an endurance-coaching business, he was able to set his own work scheduleÌęand steadily built upon his goal of 60 events. By the end of 2018, he’d surpassed the Guinness World Record for most 140.6-mile triathlon races completed in a year. (However, because he didn’t have two independent observers witness his accomplishment, according to the Guinness rule book, he doesn’t hold the official record.)Ìę

On New Year’s Day of 2019, while sitting at the kitchen table with Chris DeStefano, his partner, DeStefano encouraged himÌęto keep going until he reached 100. DeStefano felt like they had the potential to inspireÌęeven more people. Turner was in, but for the 2019 leg of his journey, he made it a priority to doÌęhis triathlons in as many national parks and public landsÌęas he could. DeStefano took photos and managed logistics, and TurnerÌęcreated , a website and social-media campaign providing inspiration and resources to others who wanted to chase big goals.Ìę

In December, Turner finishedÌęhis 99th and 100th Ironmans in Death Valley National Park, which straddles the California-Nevada border. Then he added five more in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, takingÌęthe totalÌęto 105. Turner recentlyÌęrecounted some of his favorite highlights from the adventureÌęwith șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű.Ìę

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