You are here

Scott Tinley

Bio

Scott Tinley, a 6th generation Southern Californian, is an accomplished teacher, author, and athlete. He teaches sport humanities courses at San Diego State University and California State University, San Marcos and has authored several books, including Racing the Sunset: An Athlete’s Quest for Life after Sport, a personal and in-depth study of life transition. Tinley has also written for CBS News and Sports Illustrated, among other popular and academic sources. He is a member of the Triathlon Hall of Fame, a two-time Ironman World Champion, and has competed professionally in over 400 triathlons since 1976.

Recent Articles

Kona: A Place, a People and a Heavy Metal Event

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

To mark the recent 40th Anniversary of the IIonman World Triathlon Championship in Kona, Hawaii, I wanted to offer a survey of ideas and thoughts about the event I’ve penned over the past decades. But when I went through old files, most of the what I’d written was about the town of Kona and its amazing people. The reconstituted essay below first appeared in my book, Finding Triathlon: How Endurance Sports Explains the World (Hatherleigh, 2015).

In Search of Style

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Looking just fine. 2016 USA Olympian Ben Kanue is the epitome of contemporary tri-style -- and the result of four decades of multisport technological evolution, from eyeware to nutrition to everything in between, -- Mike Plant photo 

"When the will and the imagination are in conflict, it is always the imagination that wins" -- Emile Coue'
 

Bill Phillips, The First Doctor of Speed

Life at the front of the sport began with Bill Phillips -- A TriHistory Interview
Monday, May 29, 2017

All oral history is lost. Those cataclysmic moments when a parent or a preacher, a crook or cop pulled us aside and spoke to us of better times, of worse periods, of something or somebody or some idea that came before us, before Snapdoodle was our source of historical inspiration, are dead. Speaking in a human voice to another human being for the sake of their (and our own) humanity have gone the way of the town crier—left for the elderly and the luddite and the less-than-hip.

Aging Up

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

My recent return to Xterra, and in some strange way, competition itself, was thwarted by the weather. But that sounds lame. Shit happens. After four days of near constant rain, the great majority of the bike and run course were mired in two or three inches of icy clay; that sticky earth of which bowls and mugs are shaped and fired. Great for a set of dishes when glazed but a challenging surface on which to run or push a bike up a steep slope as the red dirt collects, dries, and immobilizes movable parts.

Passing Lane

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Dale Basescue 

1950’s fitness guru, Jack Lalanne, argued wrongly that “I can’t die; it will ruin my reputation.” The American icon lasted 96 years and three months before he passed quietly in January of 2011. At the root of any discussion on the cultural history of health and fitness, you will still find the name, Jack Lalanne. Increasingly, however, Jack Lalanne’s nine and one-half decade tenure stands anomalous to a troubling trend of athletes dying before their time.  

Pages

Elsewhere on the Web