What Wimbledon is to tennis, and the Super Bowl is to football, the Ford Ironman World Championships is to triathlon. The event that marked the birth of the Ironman is seen as one of the most grueling athletic events in modern day sports, and with the 2009 race scheduled for October 10th, the world will witness the 31st year of the race with some of the most talented athletes in the history of the sport competing.
Held on the Big Island of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, the temperature during the race reaches above 90 degrees with a humidity level of 90 percent. The championship consists of a 2.4-mile swim in the choppy, rough water of the Pacific, a grueling 112-mile bike ride along the scorching roads headed north on Kona Coast, and is finished with a 26.2-mile marathon run through Kailua on a trail including lava-covered roads to end back in Kailua-Kona down the famous Alii Drive to cross the finish line.
The competition begins way before the athletes to the starting line as over 50,000 triathletes try to get one of 1,800 spots to test their body and mind to the limits. Most of the slots are earned through placing high at designated qualifying Ironman races around the world leading up to championships in Kona. An additional 150 U.S. athletes are invited to compete after winning a lottery spot, while 50 more international athletes find their way to the island’s premier event that way. Despite how they get there, each will share the experience of competing in the pinnacle of the sport.
After the finish of a running race in Honolulu in 1978, Navy Commander John Collins and other competitors at the event began debating over who is more fit-swimmers, runners, or other athletes. The discussion set off an idea for Collins and his wife, Judy, who thought of combining three races already existing on the islands. The races included the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, the Around-Oahu Bike Race, and the Honolulu Marathon.
Introducing the idea of the culmination of the three events in a swim, bike, and run order, the Collins couple intrigued 15 men to test their strength and endurance and compete it all back-to-back in one day. The race was held on the island of Waikiki on February 18th of that year. Collins proclaimed that the winner of the race would be named the “Ironman.” At the end, 12 of the men completed the race with Gordon Haller crossing first in 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds to be named the first Ironman in history.
In the following two years, word began to spread of the limit-testing event and in 1980 ABC filmed it. The documentation of the Ironman brought interest from athletes and spectators alike from around the world and so the buzz and the admiration of the event were born. Triathlon races began to spring up at all different distances internationally- foreshadowing the magnitude at which the sport would reach to this day.
The Ironman World Championship has been evolving and growing since its debut and continues to this day. Since 1981, the race has been held on the Big Island of Kona, offering an even more “survival of the fittest” atmosphere as the triathletes now race along a lava field terrain. Later in 1990, Alii Drive-popularly referred to as “The Pitt”- was added to the course to keep competitors safe from traffic. It has since become the most heavily populated areas for supporters and spectators to gather to cheer on the athletes.
With the development of the race came the formation of the World Triathlon Corporation as well as the Ironman Foundation in 1990. The foundation was created to help support the people of West Hawaii-lending a philanthropic side to the event. Later in 2003, 20 slots to compete in the Ironman World Championships were auctioned off on Ebay to raise money for the Kona YMCA. In total $400,000 was raised.
The spirit of the Ironman has been highlighted by the athletes who have participated over the years. In 1982, a historic moment in the race’s history unfolded as a young Julie Moss collapsed right before the finish line. Ahead of the women’s field the entire race, she became victim to fatigue and dehydration from the beaming sun. With her collapse she lost her chance at a title. She did not let that stop her from finishing, as she crawled across the finish line while spectators cheered her on. That day the crowd witnessed an endearing and motivational moment in perhaps all of sports history. From that moment, the mantra of the Ironman was born-just finishing is a victory.
Through the years the race has leant more inspiring moments in both the form of world records being broken and people simply beating personal obstacles. A prime example of this came in 1994 when Dr. Jon Franks taught all spectators that nothing is impossible with perseverance and strong will as he became the first physically handicapped athlete to start the race. Remarkably, he rode the entire 112-mile bike course with his hand-powered bike. Later in 1997 with the spirit of Dr. Frank still fresh, the championship debuted the physically challenged division. Another inspirational debut occurs that year in Kona as the first 80-year-old competitor finishes the race.
The demand and desire to compete in Kona for the biggest event in the sport of triathlon created the need for Ironman qualifying races around the world. The first two international qualifying races debuted in 1985 with the Double Brown Ironman in Auckland, New Zealand and in Japan at the Yanmar Ironman. Since then, a total of 25 Ironman races have been formed around the world as qualifying races. The debut of the races also allows more opportunities for triathletes to test their strength at the longest distance in the sport.
Despite the camaraderie that the athletes at the race share while all embarking on the daunting task of the total 140.6-mile race, there are many athletes that are there to do more than cross the finish line. With the first $100,000 donation anonymously given to the race organizers for a prize purse in 1986 and the amount rising exponentially through the years, there has been the growth of the professional field. With the Ironman races and sponsors that support them along with those who are the best in the sport, triathletes are able to solely focus on competing. Each race offers prize money, along with the chance to call themselves an Ironman champion. Despite the races that are offered year round, when over 50 countries and all 50 United States are represented at the Ironman World Championships only one male and one female can call themselves the worlds greatest.