You are here

December 2014

The French Connection

Friday, December 12, 2014

Was Marseilles, France the original Fiesta Island? (Paul Cezanne's The Gulf of Marseilles as seen from Lestaque) 

People love to celebrate birthdates for the sake of celebration, a bit of history, and a few beers. And in the case of the first triathlon, TriHistory.com is guilty of this charge.  Forty years to the hour after 9/25/74, when forty one participants gathered on those boggy and incomplete shores of Mission Bay, a bunch of us gathered and drank beer. And celebrated our locally-global history. Much ballyhoo was awarded San Diego’s Fiesta Island; the group back-slapping each other…damn we were young and bitchin’ then. So prescient, so tan.

Avignon 1989: The First ITU World Championships

Thursday, December 4, 2014

By the end of the 1980's, triathlon had established itself as a full-fledged sport. There were athletes making a living from it, companies were developing products to support it, and best of all if you happened to be sitting next to a stranger on an airplane and you started up a conversation with them you didn't have to explain what an Ironman was anymore. They had either done one themselves or at least knew someone who had done one.