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Triathlon made its debut at the Goodwill Games in 1994, demonstrating the growth of the sport, its global appeal, and its viability for the Olympics. As the commentators note, allowing drafting on the bike was unusual for the sport at the time, though the approach was that it would make for a better format of the race to eventually be part of the Olympics. Simon Lessing dominated the menâs race as he did many short course races in the mid 90s, while Isabelle Mouthon-Michellys of France won the womenâs race.
#triathlon #olympictriathlon #goodwillgames
In 2011, Craig âCrowieâ Alexander won his third Ironman World Championship with a LOT of controversy along the way. A month earlier, he won 70.3 Worlds in Las Vegas on an unbadged Cervelo P4 despite being sponsored by Orbea, whose bikes lagged behind the new âsuperbikeâ era. Then in Kona, he debuted Specializedâs new Shiv Tri and an aero helmet, becoming the first pro to win both 70.3 Worlds and Ironman Worlds in the same year. Specializedâs famous â13:14â ad referenced the improvement in his Kona bike split from 2010, after rival Macca had famously dropped him on the bike the year before.
#ironman #ironmankona #imwc
By 1990, triathlon had definitely expanded beyond the Anglo countries. The 1990 Olympic distance championships for the USSR were held in Zelenograd, won by Alexander Nikulshin (at least if my attempt at translating was correct). I canât tell if the coverage is only of men, or perhaps this was a menâs only race at the time. Watching the video, a few foreign athletes make appearances too, though none of the names are very recognizable 36 years later. The images look more or less the same as any triathlon in the west from the same era, further owing to the global reach of the sport by that time.
#triathlon #throwbacktriathlon
2014 ITU Edmonton Grand Final, where âthe young Norwegianâ 20 yo Kristian Blummenfelt made it into a breakaway with reigning Olympic gold medalist Alistair Brownlee. Theyâd end up with approximately a minute into T2 and @kristianblu wound up finishing 33rd, but he became one to watch over the next few years before winning the world title in 2021 along with Olympic gold and now his dominance over long distance racing.
#throwbacktriathlon #ironman #triathlon
Long ago, you learned of the local race through stumbling on a flyer in a gym or bike shop rather than defaulting to one or two websites. For the motivated race director and premier events, there was the chance to advertise in magazines. In addition, Triathlete Magazine kept an extensive calendar for free that featured more than just traditional swim-bike-run events.
Photos all from March 1988 Triathlete Magazine
#triathlon #throwbacktriathlon
In the lat 1980s and early 1990s, the Bud Light US Triathlon Series was an absolute mainstay of short course racing, with hefty prize money for the series winners, with plenty of the best foreign athletes spending their summers stateside to make a living. The races put triathlon in the map in many communities where it remains popular today throughout the United States.
#budlight #triathlon #throwbacktriathlon
Before it became Ironman France and a favorite recurring World Champs spot, Nice served as the âotherâ big triathlon with slightly different 4k, 120k, 32k distances. Ironman Hawaii and Nice fought for the top athletes with both being within a few weeks of each other, including a boycott of Kona by top pros in 1985 due to its lack of prize money, while Nice had a generous purse for the time. Nice moved its date to May in 1989, freeing up more athletes to choose both races. The race continued on in some form through the 90s and early 00s, frequently serving as world or European champs for ITU Long Distance. As most know now, the Ironman World Championships was held as alternating single gender from 2023-2025 in Nice, 70.3 WC in 2019 and will host again in 2026 and 2028.
#triathlon #nicetriathlon #ironmanfrance #im703wc
A time when running shoes and ballet slippers looked alike. Whose calves are still healing from this era?
#vintagerunning #running #whatwereyoulikeinthe90s #throwbacktriathlon #triathlon
If youâve only begun running or triathlon in the last 7-10 years, you may not believe that we used to race in paper thin race flats, called that because of their lack of cushion and heel-toe drop more common in trainers. From the earliest days of the Bowerman waffle shoes in the 70s, the thought was that lighter = faster for race shoes. Beyond just seeking performance, the 2009 book Born to Run used Mexicoâs Tarahumara tribe, know for running long distances barefoot, as an example of how modern running shoes may not be best. The book ushered in broader appeal of minimalist running, with the most extreme options being barefoot or barefoot-like shoes like the Vibram Five Fingers in photo 2. This article from the May/June 2010 issue of Inside Triathlon by @sindballe weighs the merits of the phenomenon.
#throwbacktriathlon #running #barefootrunning
XTERRA, the main organizer of off-road/cross triathlon, got its start in 1996 when the Maui Visitors & Convention Bureau wanted to create its own big time race to mirror that of the Big Island of Hawaiiâs Ironman. Originally called Aquaterra in 1996, the event substituted mountain biking and trail running for the traditional road formats. The race moved around a few different venues until 2022, when the race moved to Molveno, Italy. 2026 will see it return to the USA in Ruidoso, New Mexico.
The format has attracted occasional crossover from both traditional road triathletes like Flora Duffy and Javier Gomez, as well as mountain bikers like Ned Overend an even some from adventure racing. These days, the format has many of its own specialists racing in the XTERRA World Cup.
#triathlon #xterratriathlon #triathlonoffroad
While wetsuits are a given now, they werenât always. Inheriting equipment, rules, and attitude from single spots meant that innovation was often met with controversy. 1987 saw the start of the triathlon-specific wetsuit from Quintana Roo, no longer just adopted surf or scuba suits. While this intro to the Baltimore USTS race notes the ambiguity in the rules, most race organizers and federations eventually began to set wetsuit temperature cutoffs, often with different ones for elites and amateurs like we see today.
#triathlon #throwbacktriathlon #openwater
