48 Fun Facts About Triathlon

Under USA Triathlon rules, what must athletes put on and fasten before taking their bike off the rack?

Their helmet: the chin strap has to stay buckled from the moment the bike leaves the rack until it is racked again, so athletes clip it shut before they touch the handlebars.

The first modern triathlon was held in 1974 at Mission Bay in which city?

San Diego: members of the city's track club met at 5:45 on a weekday evening for a race that opened with a run and finished with a swim, the reverse of the order used today.

Which American cyclist raced triathlons as a teenager in Texas before switching to road racing?

Lance Armstrong: after retiring from cycling in 2011 he went back to triathlon, until the doping ban that cost him his seven Tour de France titles shut him out of that sport as well.

Why was the men's triathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics postponed by a day?

Pollution in the Seine: heavy rain had washed sewage into the river and the water failed an overnight safety test, so the men raced the next morning, straight after the women.

Which bike-leg tactic is allowed in the Olympic triathlon but banned in an Ironman?

Drafting behind a rival: with slipstreaming outlawed, an Ironman ride becomes a solo time trial, while Olympic fields bunch into packs, which shifts the emphasis onto the run.

Which cyclist's record oxygen uptake led Ironman founder John Collins to argue cyclists might be the fittest athletes?

Eddy Merckx: to settle whether swimmers, runners or cyclists were the toughest, the founders strung three existing endurance races into a single day, and fifteen men turned up to try it.

The full Ironman distance is a 2.4-mile swim, a marathon run and a bike ride of how many miles?

112 miles: the handout for the first race in 1978 closed with a handwritten dare to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112, run 26.2 and 'brag for the rest of your life'.

The original Ironman combined the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, the Honolulu Marathon and what?

The Around-Oahu Bike Race: club cyclists had taken two days over that lap of the island, but Ironman entrants had to ride it in one go, straight after the swim and with a marathon still to come.

Who was the first person to earn the title Ironman, finishing the 1978 race in 11 hours 46 minutes?

Gordon Haller: he swapped the lead with former Navy SEAL John Dunbar on the run until Dunbar's support crew, short of water, handed him beer, and Haller pulled clear over the closing miles.

In 1981 the Ironman left Oahu for a new home on which island?

The island of Hawaii, the Big Island: organiser Valerie Silk moved the fast-growing race away from Waikiki to the quieter Kona coast, where the bike course crosses barren lava fields.

What happened to 1982 Ironman leader Julie Moss within sight of the finish?

Collapsed and was passed: Moss crawled the last yards to finish second behind Kathleen McCartney, and the television footage of it inspired many viewers to take up triathlon.

Which magazine's 1979 feature on the Ironman brought the tiny race a flood of would-be entrants?

Sports Illustrated: writer Barry McDermott was on the island to cover a golf tournament, stumbled on the race and gave it ten pages, and the next field grew from 15 starters to 108.

Which American became the first six-time winner of the Ironman with his victory in 1987?

Dave Scott: seven years after that sixth win, and five years after he had last raced in Kona, he came back at the age of 40 and finished second, just short of a seventh title.

Which TV programme first filmed the Ironman in 1980, two years after the race began?

Wide World of Sports: its coverage brought the race worldwide recognition, and within two years the field had grown from 108 starters to 580.

Which Zimbabwe-born triathlete won eight Ironman world titles between 1986 and 1996?

Paula Newby-Fraser: in 1995 she started the run more than ten minutes clear but was passed a few hundred yards from the line, then returned a year later to take her eighth and last title.

Which British triathlete retired unbeaten after 13 Ironman-distance races?

Chrissie Wellington: she was a virtual unknown who had turned professional only that February when she won the 2007 world title in Kona, and she never lost at the distance afterwards.

Daniela Ryf, who won her first Ironman world title in 2015, raced for which country?

Switzerland: Ryf raced the shorter Olympic distance at two Games before moving up, and she took that first Ironman world title by more than 12 minutes.

Which German became the first triathlete to win both Olympic gold and the Ironman world title?

Jan Frodeno: he won Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008, then seven years later pulled away on the bike in scorching heat in Kona to complete the double.

In June 2022, who became the first person to complete an Ironman-distance triathlon in under seven hours?

Kristian Blummenfelt: the Norwegian clocked 6:44:25 on a German motor-racing circuit, riding behind a line of pacemaking cyclists, which is why the time does not count as an official record.

Triathlon made its Olympic debut at which Games?

2000 Sydney: the IOC's president had been pushing since 1988 to bring the fast-growing sport into the Games, and its world federation was founded a year later with that as its chief goal.

The Olympic triathlon is a 1.5 km swim, a 10 km run and a cycle leg of how many kilometres?

40 km: the 1.5 km swim, 40 km ride and 10 km run were fixed as the championship format when the sport's world federation was founded in 1989, and they have not changed since.

Which Canadian won the first men's Olympic triathlon by running down the leader in the final 300 metres?

Simon Whitfield: well down the field when he got off the bike, he ran the fastest 10 km of the day and swept past Germany's Stephan Vuckovic just before the line.

How was the women's triathlon at the London 2012 Olympics decided after nearly two hours of racing?

By a photo finish: Nicola Spirig and Sweden's Lisa Nordén crossed the line shoulder to shoulder and were given the same time, so the finish-line camera had to separate them for the gold.

At the 2016 World Triathlon Series final, Alistair Brownlee gave up his chance of victory to do what?

Help his collapsing brother finish: Alistair propped up the heat-struck Jonathan and pushed him over the line in second place, which left Jonathan four points short of the world title.

Jonathan Brownlee received a 15-second penalty at the London 2012 Olympics for what?

Mounting his bike too early: he spotted his number on a penalty board during the ride, sat out his 15 seconds in the penalty box late in the run and still held on for the bronze medal.

As of 2024, who is the most decorated Olympic triathlete, with two golds, a silver and a bronze?

Alex Yee: in Paris he trailed New Zealand's Hayden Wilde by 14 seconds at the bell, then ran him down inside the final kilometres to take the individual gold.

Flora Duffy's triathlon gold in Tokyo was the first Olympic gold ever for which country?

Bermuda: Duffy went clear as soon as the run began and won by more than a minute, giving a territory of about 64,000 people only its second Olympic medal of any colour.

What was Gwen Jorgensen's job before USA Triathlon recruited her?

Tax accountant: she was working at Ernst & Young when the federation's recruiters pitched her the sport, and six years later, in Rio, she won the Olympic title by 40 seconds.

Which nation won the first Olympic mixed relay triathlon when the event was added at the Tokyo Games?

Great Britain: the win gave Jonathan Brownlee the one medal he lacked, a gold to go with his individual bronze from 2012 and silver from 2016.

In 2014 triathlon's world governing body moved its headquarters from Vancouver to which European city?

Lausanne: after 25 years in Vancouver the federation moved to the city that houses the International Olympic Committee, joining the many other sports bodies based there.

What now stops any Ironman finisher from matching the 26 hours 20 minutes Walt Stack, 73, took in 1981?

A time limit: Stack's finish remains the slowest in the race's history, because within two years the organisers had brought in the 17-hour cut-off.

The 'triathlon' held at the 1904 Olympics combined the long jump, the shot put and which third athletics event?

A 100-yard dash: the event sat on the gymnastics programme and was entered by gymnasts, seventy years before a swimming, cycling and running race borrowed the name.

In triathlon timing, what do T1 and T2 refer to?

The two transitions between disciplines: T1 is the switch from swim to bike and T2 from bike to run, and because both count towards the finishing time, a fumbled change can cost places.

Under USA Triathlon rules, what do amateurs give up if they wear a wetsuit in water warmer than 78°F?

Eligibility for awards: a wetsuit's buoyancy makes swimmers faster, so above 78°F one may be worn for comfort but not for prizes, and from 84°F it is banned outright.

Under USA Triathlon rules, male athletes over 100 kg may compete in which weight division?

Clydesdale: the class starts at 220 pounds for men and 165 for women, and anyone who enters it cannot also chase prizes in the ordinary categories at the same race.

Amateur triathletes, who make up the vast majority of the field, are commonly known as what?

Age groupers: amateurs are ranked against others of the same sex in five- or ten-year bands, so a 60-year-old can win her category and even a world title of her own.

A back-to-back training session in two disciplines, usually cycling then running, is known as what?

A brick: riding and then running with no rest teaches the legs to cope with the leaden feeling that hits when an athlete jumps off the bike and has to run.

The 70.3 in Ironman 70.3 refers to what?

The total race distance in miles: the 70.3 series was launched in 2005 to give athletes a recognised step between the Olympic distance and a full Ironman.

The Norseman Xtreme Triathlon in Norway finishes where?

On top of a mountain: athletes leap off a car ferry into a fjord at five in the morning and finish on Mount Gausta, after more than 5,000 metres of climbing.

Which standard triathlon format is roughly half the length of the Olympic distance?

Sprint: halving each Olympic leg gives a 750-metre swim and a 5 km run either side of the ride, so the professionals finish in about an hour where the Olympic distance takes them nearer two.

The Professional Triathletes Organisation, launched in 2016, is unusual because it is owned by whom?

Its own competitors: the professionals are co-owners of the business, which pays women and men equal prize money and brought in a maternity-leave policy for its athletes in 2020.

The word triathlon joins the Greek for 'three' with 'athlon', which means what?

Contest: the word was modelled on decathlon and was first attached to quite different mixes of three sports before swim, bike and run claimed it.

Which watchmaker launched the Ironman Triathlon digital watch in 1986 under licence from the race?

Timex: the watch became the company's best-selling line, to the point where, in its makers' own words, Ironman became the brand rather than the name on the dial.

Who won the Nice long-distance triathlon on all ten occasions he entered it, between 1982 and 1993?

Mark Allen: unbeaten in ten starts on the Riviera, he found the Ironman far harder, losing there six times before he finally won it in 1989.

The Escape from Alcatraz triathlon run includes a notorious 400-step climb known as what?

The Sand Ladder: it climbs the cliff above Baker Beach late in a race that starts with a leap off a ferry beside Alcatraz and a 1.5-mile swim through cold, fast currents to the city.

Which Midwest grocery chain started a 2007 triathlon with the richest prize purse in the sport?

Hy-Vee: by 2010 the Iowa grocer had raised the purse to $1 million, the largest ever offered for a single day's racing, which drew many of the world's top professionals to Des Moines.

The XTERRA series is the best-known example of which off-road multisport variant?

Cross triathlon: it swaps the road bike and tarmac run for mountain biking and trails, and the worldwide XTERRA series grew out of a single race held on Maui in 1996.

What forced a restart of the men's triathlon at the Tokyo Olympics moments after the starting horn?

A media boat blocking the swimmers: the horn sounded while a camera boat still sat in front of the pontoon, so part of the field dived in and had to swim back for a second start.