History of the sport

A quick peak at the Past – The Multi-sports in Key Dates

1904 : An event in the Olympics was called “triathlon”. This consisted of a long-jump, shot put and 100 yard dash… Not quite the subject you’d agree !

1921 : The “Petit Perillon” swim club in Marseille (France) held an event called “Course des Trois Sports” – the “Race of the Three Sports”. The race consisted of a 7km bike, 5km run and 200m swim. Something was born and died at the same time due to lack of follow up.

1972 : Running Icon Dave Pain celebrates his 50th birthday in style, by organizing a run-bike “biathlon” in San-Diego.

1974 : Dave Pain, Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan advertised, in the San Diego Track Club newsletter, the “First Mission Bay Triathlon” – The sport was born, and 46 athletes competed on the day !

1978 : Navy Commander John Collins challenged a group of athletes to compete in the first IronMan in Hawaii, 3.8km Swim – 180km Bike – 42.2km Run… in an attempt to determine which athlete is the fittest !

1978 : 15 men competed, 12 finished the First IronMan. Gordon Haller won in 11h46m58s.

1979 : A “Sports Illustrated” article by Barry McDermott featured the Hawaii IronMan . The next year, there were 108 athletes.

1982 : ABC’s Wide World of Sports featured Julie Moss crawling to the finish line, inspiring many to take up multi-sports.

1989 : The first multi-sports World Championship is held in Avignon (France) using the Olympic Distance of 1.5km Swim – 40km Bike – 10km Run.

1993 : The Pan American Games approved multi-sports for competition at the 1995 Pan American Games in Mar Del Plata, Argentina.