Triathlon (64680)

A triathlon is a Greek word that refers to an athletic event made up of three contests. In contemporary usage, the name triathlon is mostly applied to a combination of swimming, cycling and running, in that order. more...

Home
Antiques
Art
Baby
Books
Bullion
Business & Industrial
Cameras & Photo
Cell Phones
Clothing, Shoes &...
Coins
Collectibles
Computers & Networking
Consumer Electronics
Crafts
DVDs & Movies
Digital Cameras
Ethnographic
Everything Else
Health & Beauty
Jewelry & Watches
Music
Musical Instruments
Pottery & Glass
Specialty Services
Sporting Goods
Airsoft (31680)
Archery (20835)
Baseball & Softball (16021)
Basketball (21194)
Billiards (21209)
Bowling (20846)
Boxing (30100)
Camping, Hiking,...
Canoes, Kayaks, Rafts...
Climbing (30105)
Cycling (7294)
Disc Golf (79802)
Equestrian (3153)
Exercise & Fitness (15273)
Fishing (14104)
Football (21214)
Go-Karts, Recreational...
Golf (1513)
Gymnastics (79792)
Hunting (7301)
Ice Skating (21225)
Indoor Games (36274)
Inline, Roller Skating...
Lacrosse (62163)
Martial Arts (36279)
Other Sports (40141)
Paintball (16045)
Racquetball & Squash (62166)
Running (64685)
Scooters (11330)
Scuba, Snorkeling (16052)
Skateboarding (16262)
Skiing & Snowboarding...
Snowmobiling (23831)
Soccer (20862)
Surfing, Wind Surfing...
Swimming (74050)
Tennis (20868)
Triathlon (64680)
Wakeboarding, Waterskiing...
Wholesale Lots (40146)
Stamps
Travel
Video Games

In most modern triathlons, these events are placed back-to-back in immediate sequence and a competitor's official time includes the time required to "transition" between the individual legs of the race, including any time necessary for changing clothes and shoes. As a result, proficiency in swimming, running, and cycling alone is not sufficient to guarantee a triathlete a competitive time: trained triathletes have learned to race each stage in a way that preserves their energy and endurance for subsequent stages.

History

According to former Ironman Champion, triathlon historian and author, Scott Tinley, the Triathlon is anecdotally based on a race in France during the 1920-1930s that was called "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. 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 André-Barbeau. Since the 1930s, very little was heard about triathlon until 1974 at San Diego's Mission Bay in Southern California, where a group of friends began training together. This occurrence is well-documented and has no basis on the old French event. 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 (2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) swim, 112 mi (180.2 km) bike ride, and a 26.2 mi (42.2 km) run) was the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon, the idea for which arose 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. Cdr. 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 Cdr. 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; originally a two-day event) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.219 mi./42.195 km). It is worth noting that no one present had ever done the bike race and they did not realize it was a two-day, not one-day, event; Cdr. Collins calculated that, by shaving 3 miles 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®!" With a nod to a local runner who was notorious for his demanding workouts, Collins said, "Whoever finishes first, we'll call him the Iron Man." Of the fifteen men to start off the in early morning on February 18th, 1978, twelve completed the race and the world's first IRONMAN®, Gordon Haller, completed in 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds..

Read more at Wikipedia.org