Hawaii Ironman a Part of Triathlon History

If you mention endurance racing, anybody with knowledge of its history will think of the Hawaii Ironman. The early Greeks had an Olympic event they called the triathlon. In it, triathletes usually competed with a long jump, shot put, and a 100-yard dash. 

We don’t have much mention of multi-sports events again until more recent times. We can track a multi-event race back to 1921 in France where the triathletes cycled for about 4.2 miles, ran for 3.1 miles and then had a 200 meter swim finish.

The San Diego Track Club is credited with bringing triathlons into modern times. In their first race back in 1974, triathletes ran for 6 miles, biked for 5 miles and then swam for 500 yards.

The Elite of the Triathlon is Born

It wasn’t until 1978 that we first see an Ironman. The story goes that athletes had been arguing over who was better: runners, swimmers, or other types of athletes. Navy Commander John Collins proposed that interested parties combine three events that they had scheduled in Hawaii at the time. The winner, John Collins proposed, would be called the Ironman.

In the first Ironman, triathletes swam for 2.4 miles, biked for 112 miles, and ran for 26.2 miles. Twelve of the fifteen original triathletes back in 1978 finished the Ironman. The first Iron Man was Gordon Haller. He finished the Ironman race in just under twelve hours.

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