The History of the Ironman

THE IRONMAN TRIATHLON

The IRONMAN was the brainchild of Judy and John Collins, a husband and wife from California who moved to Hawai’i in 1975.

They had participated in the Mission Bay Triathlon in San Diego on September 25th, 1974, that event was the start of the modern triathlon in the United States.

In 1977, the Judy and John took part in organizing a sprint, run, swim competition in Honolulu, which started the idea to put on a triathlon event the following year.

The goal was to establish something for the endurance athletes—those who favored events such as the Waikiki Roughwater Swim and the Honolulu Marathon over short sprint events.

In October 1977, Judy and John announced their “Around the Island Triathlon” would take place in 1978. A hand-drawn map, the outline of the course, beginning, and ending in Honolulu. The annual event would be a total of 140.6 miles, a 2.4-mile swim (3.9K), 112-mile bike (180.2K), and 26.2-mile run (42.2K). The three stages would take 10 to 17 hours to complete and establish the world’s ultimate test of endurance. On February 18, 1978, the first-ever Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon was held. In 1980, ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” was given permission to film the event, bringing worldwide attention to IRONMAN. In 1997, the Ironman also included the physically challenged athletes.

Ironman is now owned by a Chinese conglomerate called Dalian Wanda Group, which paid $650 million for it in 2015. Ironman puts on more than 260 races in 44 countries, with 680,000 annual participants.

James “Jim” Butterfield (born 1 September 1950 in Hamilton, Bermuda) was a rower for Bermuda at the 1972 Olympics.

Up until 2021, he is the only person to ever represent Bermuda in rowing at the Olympics.

He also represented Bermuda in the marathon at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, finishing 17th.

Jim finished 7th at the 1981 Ironman World Championship.

Louise Wells

Tyler Butterfield, the youngest of two sons to Jim and Debbie Butterfield, has followed in his father’s footsteps, became Bermuda’s first ever professional triathlete in 2002. Tyler became the world’s youngest-ever Olympic triathlete and has been Bermuda’s “Male Athlete of the Year” in 2006 and 2013.

NOWAVAILABLE ATSTORESTHROUGHOUT BERMUDA