Triathlon History
Swimming | Cycling | Running | History
According to some sources, the Triathlon is based on a race in France during the 1920-1930's that was called "Les trois sports", "La Course des Brouillards" and "La course des Touche a Tout".
Nowadays, this race is held every year in France near Joinville le Pont, in Meulan and Poissy. 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 crossing of the channel Marne. Those three parts were done without any break.
There are articles in French newspapers about a race in Marseille in 1927. There is a 1934 article about "Les Trois Sports" (the three sports) at the city of Rochelle about a race with three components: (1) a channel crossing (c. 200 m), (2) a bike competition (10 km) around the harbor of Rochelle and the parc Laleu, and (3) a run (1200 m) in the stadium Andre-Barbeau.
Since the 1930's, very little was heard about triathlon until its re-invention in 1974 at Mission Bay near San Diego in Southern California where a group of friends began training together. Amongst them were runners, swimmers and cyclists and before long training sessions turned into informal races. Directed and conceived by Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan, the first Mission Bay Triathlon was held on September 25th 1974 and welcomed 46 athletes.
This date is celebrated as the day modern triathlon began.
The first modern long-distance triathlon event (3.8 km (2.4 mile) swim / 180 km (112 mile) bike / 42 km (26.2 mile) run) was based on a barroom discussion by soldier John Dunbar, Navy Commander John Collins, and the taxidriver/fitness instructor Gordon Haller (the first winner).
The debate was over who was the toughest competitor of 3 different events: The Waikiki Rough Water Swim (2.4 mi), the Oahu Bicycle Race (112 mi), or the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 mi).
The race combining all three was organized on February 18, 1978 and held on the island of Oahu in Hawai'i. Later, the race was moved to Kona on the Big Island of Hawai'i.
Today, a number of triathlon events over varying distances are held around the world, but the Kona event still represents the "original triathlon with the finishers called 'Ironmen'." The Hawaii Ironman Triathlon now serves as the Ironman world championship, but the entity that owns the race, the World Triathlon Corporation, hosts other triathlons around the world that are also called Ironmans.
Long-distance multi-sport events organized by groups other than the World Triathlon Corporation may not officially be called "Ironman" races. Such triathlons may be described as "Iron-distance" or "Half-Ironman", but the "Ironman" label is the official property of the World Triathlon Corporation.
The International Triathlon Union (ITU) was founded in 1989 as the international governing body of the sport, with the chief goal of putting triathlon on the Olympic program. The ITU has never officially sanctioned the Ironman Triathlon. Some believe that the Hawaii Ironman should be recognized as the official world championship for the sport as a whole, and as such should be sanctioned by the ITU. For its part, however, the ITU has expressed little interest in supporting longer distance triathlon, choosing to retain its focus instead on the shorter races geared toward the Olympics.
The sport made its debut on the Olympic program at the Sydney Games in 2000 over the Olympic Distance (1500 m swim - 40 km bike - 10 km run).
Since its founding, triathlon has grown significantly and now includes thousands of races with hundreds of thousands of competitors worldwide each year.
Source: Wikipedia
