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 Van Lierde at the Knokke triathlon, 2 September 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 14 April 1969 Bruges, Belgium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country | Belgium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Luc Van Lierde (born 14 April 1969 in Bruges) is a former athlete from Belgium, who has been competing in triathlon since 1990 and who has been a professional triathlon coach since 2009.
Van Lierde's international career started in 1990 when he came fourth in the World Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships. In the full-length Ironman triathlon, which involves swimming 3.8 km, cycling 180 km and running a 42.2 km marathon, he was ranked among the first ten in the European Championships three times between 1990 and 1995. 1995 was a decisive year for Luc Van Lierde, when he took second place at the ITU World Championships, and came second in the European Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships.
In 1996 he won the European Championships and came second in the World Championships in the Olympic Distance Triathlon. He won the Nice Triathlon and became World Long Course Triathlon Champion. Luc Van Lierde became the first European ever to win the Ironman World Championship, beating the existing record by three minutes.
Luc Van Lierde went on to clock the fastest Ironman Triathlon ever in 1997, doing 7:50:27 (0:44, 4:28, 2:36, plus transition) in Ironman Europe. Absent from the Ironman 1998, after undergoing an operation, he nevertheless won the Flemish Sports Personality of the Year trophy. In 1999, he once again won the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, outrunning the second placed competitor by six minutes. During that same year, he received the Giant of Flanders trophy awarded by the two Flanders section of the Association of Professional Journalists.
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In 2009, after more than 20 years as a professional triathlete, Van Lierde began a career as a triathlon coach. Frederik Van Lierde (not related) approached Van Lierde with the request to coach him. One year later he managed to coach Frederik Van Lierde to a third place at the 2012 Ironman World Championship. In 2013, he coached Frederik to the 2013 Ironman World Championship. By doing so Van Lierde became the first male to win the Ironman World Championship as an athlete and as a coach.
Van Lierde has successfully coached several other professional athletes, including Marino Vanhoenacker, Iván Raña, Will Clarke, Michelle Vesterby, and Saleta Castro.
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 (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.20 km) run, raced in that order. It is widely considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world.
Katherine Jessie Jean "Kate" Allen is an Australian-Austrian triathlete. She won the gold medal in the women's triathlon at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Chris McCormack, also known as Macca, is an Australian triathlete. McCormack is a two-time winner of the Ironman World Championship, winning the titles in 2007 and 2010. He is also the winner of the 1997 International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup Series, the 1997 Triathlon World Championships, and the 2012 Long Distance World Championships.
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.
Vassilis Krommidas is a triathlete and coach from Greece best known for competing at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.
Samantha Warriner is a retired elite triathlete who represented New Zealand in triathlons ranging from sprint distance up to the Ironman distance. She was born in Alton, Hampshire, England. Samantha first turned professional at the end of 2005 after competing on the international stage for 3 years whilst also teaching full-time at Whangarei Girls High School.
Spencer Smith is a British triathlete who won ITU Triathlon World Championships in 1993 and 1994.
Erika Csomor is a Hungarian triathlete and duathlete. In 1998 she ran the marathon race at the European Championships, ending up in 36th place with a total time of 2:48:37.
Alistair Edward Brownlee, MBE is a British triathlete. He is the only athlete to hold two Olympic titles in the triathlon event, winning gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and the only man to have won Olympic Gold whilst going into the event as favourite for the title. He is also a two-time Triathlon World Champion, a two-time World Team Champion, a four-time European Champion, and the 2014 Commonwealth champion.
Rutger Beke is a retired Belgian triathlete living in Leuven. Beke competed for the Uplace Pro Triathlon Team until he announced his retirement from professional triathlon on 31 May 2011.
Francisco Javier Gómez Noya is a Spanish triathlete. He is the winner of five ITU Triathlon World Championships, he holds three ITU Triathlon World Cup titles, and won the Silver medal for Spain at the 2012 Summer Olympics in men's triathlon. He has also won world titles for Ironman 70.3 and XTERRA Triathlon.
Jan Frodeno is a German triathlete. He is the gold medal winner in men's triathlon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, 3-time winner of the Ironman World Championship in 2015, 2016, and 2019, and 2-time winner of the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in 2015 and 2018. He is the world record holder for the long distance, set in Roth, Germany in 2016 with 7:35:39 hours.
Scott Neyedli was a full-time professional Ironman triathlete (2007-2011), winning British and multiple Scottish Triathlon Championships. He is a 2 x Ironman Champion winning Ironman UK in 2007 in a marathon and course record time and Ironman Wales in 2013 with the fastest bike and marathon run splits of the day. More remarkable Scott won Ironman Wales whilst working full-time after resuming his oil and gas engineering career full-time at the start of 2012 due to sponsorship pitfalls. Scott has represented Great Britain at Elite level ITU Championships, placing Top Briton and 9th place at the ITU World Long Distance Triathlon championships in 2011 along with Top Briton placings at the World Ironman Championships in Kona Hawaii. Scott also won European Team Silver at the European Championships in 2007. Scott is still ranked one of the fastest British Ironman athletes and at the top of GB's best medal tally at Ironman Competition and still holding the current WTC Scottish Ironman record at 8hrs 17 mins 47 sec.
Paul Martin is an American amputee athlete, Paralympian, speaker, and author. Paul is considered one of the foremost amputee triathletes in history and holds or has held several records in various events.
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.
Marino Vanhoenacker is a Belgian triathlete. On 3 July 2011, he set a world best time for Ironman full distance triathlon at the Ironman Triathlon at Klagenfurt in Austria, finishing after 7 hours, 45 minutes and 58 seconds, beating Luc Van Lierde's 1997 time of 7h50m27s. His time was subsequently beaten by Lionel Sanders at Ironman Arizona in 2016; the current world best time is held by Tim Don in a time of 7 hours, 40 minutes and 23 seconds at Ironman Brazil in May 2017.
Charlotte McShane is a Scottish born Australian professional triathlete and the 2013 U23 ITU World Triathlon Champion as well as the 2008 Xterra U20 World Champion.
Frederik Van Lierde is a Belgian professional triathlete and 2013 Ironman triathlon world champion.
Mario Huys is a former professional triathlete from Belgium who is currently living in Austria. He is the head coach and managing director of Mario Huys Coaching. Huys holds a master's degree in sports science. He is a former coach of the Oakley Transition Ironman Team and founding member of Triangel Institut, Ironman Nice and Ironman 70.3 Monaco.
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.
