The History of the Triathlon

The Sport of Triathlon was conceived in the early 1970s by the San Diego Track Club as an alternative workout to the demands of track training. The club’s first event consisted of a 10km (6.21371 miles) run, an 8km (4.97097 miles) cycle and a 500m (0.310686 of a mile) swim. Within the next ten years, the sport of triathlon started to grow in popularity, and gained global recognition.

In 1989, the World Triathlon was established, and the first World Championship was held in Avignon, France. The official distance for a triathlon was set at 1,500m (0.9320568 of a mile) swim, a 40km (24.8548 miles) cycle and a 10km (6.21371miles) run.

In 1991, the World Triathlon unveiled a series of twelve races, in nine different counties called the Triathlon World Cup. The World Triathlon Series is the yearly series of triathlon events used to crown a world champion. It has grown into multiple rounds of competitions ending with a Grand Final race. Athletes from around the world compete head-to-head for points in these events to determine the overall World Triathlon champion.

The elite championship races are held over two distances, the standard and the sprint distance.

Bermuda veteran triathlete Kent Richardson

Owen Fosker Jonathan Herring Maddie Durkin

A triathlon is a mixture of three sports – swim, bike and run – and there are several different formats with variety of distances. Shorter races can take less than an hour to complete and some events can take several hours to complete.

RACE TYPE SWIM BIKE RUN TOTAL

Ironman

2.4m / 3.9km 112m / 180.2km 26.2 m / 42.2km 140.6m / 226km

Half Ironman 1.2m / 1.9km 56m /90km 13.1m / 21.1km 70.3m/113km

World Triathlon/ITU

(Long Course) 2km 80km 20km 102km

Olympic

1.5km 40km 10km 51.5km

Sprint

750m 20km 5km 25.75km

Super Sprint 400m 10km 2.5km 12.9km

Super League 300m x3 4km x3 1.6km x3 17.7km

SLT Arena Games 200m x3 3km x3 1km x3 12.6km

A triathlon can be completed over any distance, the distances for events such as Ironman and the Olympics are more normal, and most Triathlon Associations will align their course lengths to mirror established endurance tests.