RISING IRONMAN STARS
British triathlon’s blessed with some of the finest long-course athletes in the world. On the men’s side, we have the likes of Ironman record holder Tim Don and David McNamee, twice third at the Ironman World Champs. On the women’s side, we have three-time Hawaii runner-up Lucy Charles, while Rachel Joyce has two Hawaii runner-up spots to her name.
They’re fantastic athletes and their shadows loom large over up-and-coming British athletes. But, as you’ll discover, there are a band of triathletes ready to step out into the light and join – if not eclipse – them on the world stage.
They’re hungry, fit, and, certainly in the case of Tom Davis and George Goodwin (both under 25), defying the historic dogma that to challenge at Ironman, you needed to have years of aerobic-building miles behind you. It’s not just the Brits, of course. Last autumn, Gustav Iden was just 23 when he won the Ironman 70.3 Worlds.
Why the change? A key one is that while older triathletes succeeded through years of trial and error, now, thanks to training tools and data, there’s less waste and more precision.
There’s also arguably less risk than times gone by. Where once this peripatetic lifestyle meant living off prize money scraps and limited sponsorship, now the Professional Triathletes Organisation pumps $1,150,000 into
