Triathlon & IM History

Macanri

I stumbled upon this while looking at some results. I thought it was interesting, and as I tell the kids - it's nice to share:) Enjoy.

http://www.midlandtri.com/NewsFeeds/nf131020101101.html

Triathlon and IronMan History

How did it all start? When did it all start? And what the hell possessed them to go as long as an Ironman distance???
Triathlon as we know it today can be traced back to 1974, Mission Bay, South California, where a gang of friends began to train together, some were swimmers some were runners, and others were cyclists. Before long the training turned to friendly races, and under the direction of Jack Johnston and Don Shanahan on the 25th of September the first Mission Bay Triathlon got under way. The race was funded by the San Diego track club and with a field of 46 athletes the first recorded triathlon was born. The race then consisted of 10k run, 8km bike and a 500mtr swim. That’s how triathlon came about.
How ironman came about is a completely different story! In 1978 Hawaii was host to 3 original events, The Waikiki Rough water swim (2.4 miles), The Oahu bike race (112 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). After arguing about which discipline required the greatest endurance, one of the participants - Commander John Collins - suggested the three disciplines were combined and they’d call the winner ‘Ironman’.
The first ironman had a field of 15 athletes with only 12 making it to the finish line. The first winner was Gordon Haller with a time of 11hrs 46 minutes and 58 seconds. Within the space of four years the field had increased to 580 athletes.

This year (2010) Gordon Haller at the ripe old age of 60 returned to Hawaii and completed the race in a time of 16:26:58. A full history of Ironman can be found on the official site and if you have any interest in ironman this is a brilliant read,
Official History of Ironman

tunney

Nice. Pity it's not true though. Documented swim,bike,run events decades in france before mission bay. Yanks live the mission bay bit though.

Macanri

Cheers for the insight - a quick google produced a Wikepidia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triathlon

History
Triathlon is considered by some to have its beginnings in 1920s France.[6] According to triathlon historian and author Scott Tinley (and others[7]), the origin of triathlon is attributed to a race during the 1920s-1930s that was called variously "Les trois sports", "La Course des Débrouillards", and "La course des Touche à Tout". Nowadays, this race is held every year in France near Joinville-le-Pont, in Meulan and Poissy.

An earlier tri-sport event in 1902 featured running, cycling, and canoeing.[7] There are documented tri-sport events featuring running, swimming, & cycling (not necessarily in that order) in 1920, 1921, 1945, and the 1960s.[7] In 1920, the French newspaper "L´Auto" reported on a competition called "Les Trois Sports" with a 3 km run, 12 km bike, and a swim across the channel Marne. Those three parts were done without any break. Another event was held in 1921 in Marseilles with the order of events bike-run-swim. Among the participants was American athlete Charles Sector.[8] There are also articles in French newspapers about a race in Marseille in 1927. There is a 1934 article about "Les Trois Sports" (the three sports) in the city of La Rochelle, a race with: (1) a channel crossing (c. 200 m), (2) a bike competition (10 km) around the harbor of La Rochelle and the parc Laleu, and (3) a run (1200 m) in the stadium André-Barbeau.

[edit] Modern triathlon
The first modern swim/bike/run event to be called a 'triathlon' was held at Mission Bay, San Diego, California on September 25, 1974. The race was conceived and directed by Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan, members of the San Diego Track Club, and was sponsored by the track club. 46 participants entered this event. It was reportedly not inspired by the French events,[9] although a race the following year at Fiesta Island, California, is sometimes called 'the first triathlon in America.'[6]

[edit] Ironman
The first modern long-distance triathlon event was the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. It included a 2.4-mile (3.86-km; 77 lap) swim, a 112-mile (180.2-km) bike ride, and a 26.2-mile (42.195-km) run. It was conceived during the awards ceremony for the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay (a running race for 5-person teams).

Among the participants were numerous representatives of both the Mid-Pacific Road Runners and the Waikiki Swim Club, whose members had long been debating which athletes were more fit: runners or swimmers. On this occasion, U.S. Navy Commander John Collins pointed out that a recent article in Sports Illustrated magazine had declared that Eddy Merckx, the great Belgian cyclist, had the highest recorded "maximum oxygen uptake" of any athlete ever measured, so perhaps cyclists were more fit than anyone. Collins and his wife, Judy, had taken part in the triathlons staged in 1974 and 1975 by the San Diego Track Club in and around Mission Bay, California, as well as the Optimist Sports Fiesta Triathlon in Coronado, California, in 1975.

A number of the other military athletes in attendance were also familiar with the San Diego races, so they understood the concept when Collins suggested that the debate should be settled through a race combining the three existing long-distance competitions already on the island: the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4 mi/3.862 km), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles (185 km); originally a two-day event) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.219 mi/42.195 km). No one present had ever done the bike race so they did not realize it was a two-day, not one-day, event. Collins calculated that, by shaving 3 miles (5 km) off the course and riding counter-clockwise around the island, the bike leg could start at the finish of the Waikiki Rough Water and end at the Aloha Tower, the traditional start of the Honolulu Marathon. Prior to racing, each athlete received three sheets of paper listing a few rules and a course description. Handwritten on the last page was this exhortation:

“ Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life![10] ”
— Commander Collins, USN (1978)

With a nod to a local runner who was notorious for his demanding workouts, Collins said:

“ Whoever finishes first, we'll call him the Ironman. ”
— Commander Collins, USN (1978)[11]

Of the fifteen men to start off in the early morning on February 18, 1978, twelve completed the race and the world's first Ironman, Gordon Haller, completed it in 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds.[11]

So 'tis the French we can thank for all this fun! Vive la France