A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the disciplines included. The word is of Greek origin, from τρεῖς, 'three', and ἆθλος, 'competition'.
An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), consisting of a 2.4-mile (3.9 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.2 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.2 km) run completed in that order, a total of 140.6 miles (226.3 km). It is widely considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world.
The World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) is a sports event promotion company owned by conglomerate Advance Publications, that produces the Ironman Triathlon, Ironman 70.3, the 5150 series of triathlon races, and other sports events.
Simon Christopher Lessing, MBE, is a British triathlete who won five International Triathlon Union (ITU) world titles. He also won races at 70.3, ITU long distance and Ironman-distance events. He set an Olympic-distance world record in 1996, and is noted for his 2004 Ironman Lake Placid win, where he set a course record of 8:23:12. In 2008 he retired from professional racing. Simon resides in Boulder, Colorado, United States, where he operates Boulder Coaching with Darren de Reuck.
Melissa Hauschildt is an Australian professional triathlete and former middle-distance runner. She is a 3-time World Champion, winning Gold at the 2011 and 2013 Ironman 70.3 World Championship as well as the 2013 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships. She also won Silver at the 2016 Ironman 70.3 World Championships. In April 2018, Hauschildt set a new Ironman brand record of 8:31:05, at the Ironman North American Championships, breaking the previous record of 8:33:56 set by Chrissie Wellington in 2011.
The Ironman World Championship is a triathlon held annually in Hawaii, United States from 1978 to 2022, with no race in 2020 and an additional race in 1982. It is owned and organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. It is the annual culmination of a series of Ironman triathlon qualification races held throughout the world. From 2023, the Men's and Women's Ironman World Championships were separated with one at Kona and the other hosted at another venue.
Dave Scott is a U.S. triathlete and the first six-time Ironman World Championship winner. A progenitor of the sport, in 1993, Scott was the first person ever inducted in the Ironman Hall of Fame. He is known by the nickname "The Man" for his intense training regimens and his unrelenting race performances that created a record number of wins.
Caroline Steffen is a professional triathlete from Switzerland. She is the winner of the 2010 and 2012 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships and took second at the 2010 and 2012 Ironman World Championship. Before competing as a professional triathlete she was a member of the Lifeforce Pro Cycling Team.
Sarah True is an American athlete who competes in triathlon. She represented the United States in triathlon in 2012, finishing in fourth place, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics. True is the winner of the 2007 ITU Aquathlon World Championships and finished in second place in the 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series.
Timothy Peter Van Berkel is an Australian professional triathlete who races primarily in long distance triathlon events.
Mary Beth Ellis is a retired American long-distance triathlete. She holds the record for the fastest iron-distance race by an American woman, set at Ironman Austria in 2011 with a time of 8:43:34. She is the 2015 ITU Long Distance Triathlon champion and has taken second place at both the 2008 and 2009 Ironman 70.3 World Championship. She has been named USA Triathlon's Non-Olympic/ITU Female Athlete of the Year for both 2011 and 2012.
Rachel Joyce is an English professional triathlete. She is the winner of the 2011 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships and the second-place finisher at the 2013 Ironman World Championship and 2015 Ironman World Championship. She races in primarily long-distance triathlon events, such as Ironman and Ironman 70.3 distances, and has won events such as Ironman Mont Tremblant in 2017 and Challenge Roth in 2012.
Annabel Luxford is an Australian triathlete. In International Triathlon Union (ITU) competition she is the 2005 ITU Triathlon World Cup series champion and the silver medalist at the 2005 ITU Triathlon World Championships. In 2004, she was the ITU under-23 World Champion and also finished second in the ITU Triathlon World Cup standings. In 2013, after changing to non-drafing long course racing, she finished third at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
Meredith Brooke Kessler is an American professional triathlete from Columbus, Ohio who races in long distance, non-drafting triathlon events. She took third place at the 2011 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships and has won numerous Ironman and half-Ironman distance races as both an amateur and a professional. She was named USA Triathlon's 2014 Non-Drafting Athlete of the Year.
Luke Jarrod McKenzie is an Australian professional triathlete who specializes in long distance, non-drafting triathlon events. In 2013 he took second place at the Ironman World Championship.
Andrew Starykowicz is an American professional long-distance triathlete from Chicago, Illinois. He holds the Ironman bike split record at 3:54:59 and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship bike split record from the 2009 race.
Britta Martin is a German born, New Zealand based professional triathlete and multiple winner of Ironman distance races all over the world.
Mitchell Paul Robins is an Australian professional triathlete who races primarily non-drafting Olympic distance and long-distance triathlons.
Kristian Blummenfelt is a Norwegian triathlete, Olympic and world champion, competing at short course, 70.3 (half-Ironman) and 140.6 (Ironman) distances. He won the gold medal in the men's triathlon at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. He is the 2021 Ironman World Champion at the first World Championship held at Saint George, Utah on May 7, 2022. On 5 June 2022, Blummenfelt became the first person to complete an Ironman-distance triathlon in under seven hours during the Pho3nix Sub-7 Sub-8 event at the Lausitzring race track in Germany. Blummenfelt set a new unofficial world record for the Ironman-distance triathlon, in a time of 6:44:25.
Ben Gathercole is an Australian high-performance triathlon coach, sports manager and author.
