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 or treis (three) and ἆθλος or athlos (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.
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.
Andrew Robert Potts is a triathlete from the United States. He competed in triathlon at the 2004 Summer Olympics and is the 2007 Ironman 70.3 World Champion. Prior to triathlon, Potts was a swimmer where he won the bronze medal in the men's 400m individual medley at the 1995 Summer Universiade and earned a spot on the USA Swimming national team where he would place fourth at the 1996 Olympic Trials in the 400 IM.
Tyler Barbour Butterfield is an athlete from Bermuda. He competes in road bicycle racing and triathlon events. He became Bermuda's first ever professional triathlete in 2002. He was voted Bermuda's male athlete of the year in 2006 and 2013. Butterfield was the youngest male competitor at the second Olympic triathlon at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He placed thirty-fifth with a total time of 1:58:26.99.
Luc Van Lierde is a former athlete from Belgium, who has been competing in triathlon since 1990 and who has been a professional triathlon coach since 2009.
Faris al-Sultan is a former German triathlete who is now active as a coach. In 2005, he was the third German to win the Ironman Hawaii. He is listed in the best list of German triathletes on the Ironman distance.
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 former triathlete who 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 had set the world record for the long distance in Roth, Germany in 2016 with 7:35:39 hours. In 2021, he broke his own world record during the Tributtle in Allgäu, Germany against Lionel Sanders, with a time of 07:27:53, setting a new world best for the long-distance triathlon.
The 2011 Ironman World Championship was held on October 8, 2011, in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and won by Craig Alexander of Australia and Chrissie Wellington of England. It was the 35th such Ironman Triathlon World Championships, which has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978, with an additional race in 1982. The championship is organised by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC).
The 2012 Ironman World Championship was a long distance triathlon competition held on October 13, 2012 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The championship won by Pete Jacobs of Australia and Leanda Cave of England. It was the 36th such Ironman Triathlon World Championship, which has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978, with an additional race in 1982. The championship is organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC).
Magali Tisseyre is a Canadian triathlete from Montreal who races primarily in long distance, non-drafting triathlon events. She took third place at both the 2009 and 2010 Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
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.
The 2013 Ironman World Championship was a long distance triathlon competition that was held on October 12, 2013 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The event was won by Belgium's Frederik Van Lierde and Australia's Mirinda Carfrae. It was the 37th edition of the Ironman World Championship, which has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978. The championship is organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC).
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.
Christopher Walker is a Gibraltarian triathlete and cyclist.
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.
Lucy Charles-Barclay is an English professional triathlete specialising in the Ironman and 70.3 ("half-Ironman") distances. She is the 2023 World Ironman champion and the 2021 World Champion in the 70.3 discipline, both under the authority of the World Triathlon Corporation. In between, she won the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships in 2022. In 2023, she broke the course record for the iconic Kona Ironman course.
