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Explore the early days of triathlon as we recall some of the more colorful people, places, and events that shaped the sport.
It’s a place to kick back and go back in time.

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Recent Feature Articles

Bill Phillips, The First Doctor of Speed

Life at the front of the sport began with Bill Phillips -- A TriHistory Interview

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...
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Three members of the soon-to-be-Big Four fight it out in San Diego on June 12, 1982. Scott Molina (front left), Scott Tinley (front right), Dales Basescu (center) and Mark Allen

Dawn of the Big Four

In the history of triathlon there is perhaps no more significant race than the first U.S. Triathlon Series event on June 12, 1982 at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego, California. It was, in retrospect, a rudimentary production, little more than a somewhat tentative proof of a wild-eyed...
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Jason Cambell (left) and the author (right) hang out with US Olympic triathlete Joe Maloy. Harper is now a law partner at Bowles & Verna LLP in Walnut Creek, Calif. He is also the head coach for the University of California/Berkeley triathon team. In his day, Dean Harper was among the top professional triathletes in the world -- about as close as you could get to being one of the Big Four without being named Scott or Mark.

Chill Factor

Before triathlon existed in Northern California, I raced triathlon Hall of Famer, Dave Scott, in a run-swim event. It was August of 1976 and the race was held at Pacific Shores in Redwood City, California. I’d known Dave from collegiate swimming and water polo but failed to ask him why he...
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Chaos Theory

Back in the day when people were still looking at triathletes as if they were gods or fools, Miranda Carfrae was still in diapers, and fig newtons and chocolate chip cookies were the multisport energy foods of choice, a young man in Walnut Creek, California decided that he had what it took to be...
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WRTN?

"Where Are They Now" (WRTN) connects the historic humanity of multisport with the reality of time and tide; people’s lives updated with the middle parts left for future investigation.

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Recent WRTN Articles

Dale Basescu out of the water at the inaugural Bud Light USTS National Champonship in 1984.

Dale Basescu

Dale Basescu out of the water at the inaugural Bud Light USTS National Champonship in 1984. Mike Plant photo

Pauli Kiuru

Kiuru’s competitive fire produced seven international Ironman victories, including four wins in a row (1991-1994) in Australia. In the photo above he is leading Mark Allen at the 1991 Ironman in Kona. (Click on the photo for the full shot)

Linda Buchanan

Linda Buchanan after her victory at the NIce Triathlon in 1983.

Carl Thomas

Carl Thomas on the Queen K Highway in 1985. At the time Bud Light was the sponsor of Thomas' U.S. Triathlon Series, and the Ironman in Kona.
Memorabilia

Imagine digging through your grandmother’s old dresser and discovering precious nuggets of the past that force you to sit on the edge of the bed and ride the flow of your memory to wherever it wants to go. These are some of triathlon's precious nuggets.

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Recent Memorabilia Articles

Scott Tinley (left) and Scott Molina finish in a dead heat in the 1984 Atlanta US Triathlon Series event.

Missing in the Mist

This is the kind of story we tell each other over a beer. It’s a triathlon classic from the wooly early days of the sport, when the world was just waking up to the notion of triathlon, and even folks in the business were learning as they went. It was on-the-job training for everyone,...
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Agony & Ecstasy --Julie & Kathleen Revisited

The Beast from the East

The Soul of Triathlon, Redux

In 1998 France won the World Cup and snowboarding made its debut in the Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan. Microsoft was the most valuable company in the world, the Dow dipped below five hundred, and President Clinton denied having sex with Monica Lewinsky. Alistair and Jonathon Brownlee were 10...
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Perspective

Read essays that foster powerful and personal feelings about triathlon's past -- and perhaps even its present. It's a page that bleeds emotion. And, hopefully, causes you to think…

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Recent Perspective Articles

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

To mark the recent 40^th 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...
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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

In Search of Style

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

The short history of triathlon might be written in the long search for style. How the sports’ participants sought a certain look, a feel, and a coveted approach to...
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Gale Bernhardt and part of her collection of Triathlete magazines. The magazines (not Gale) are looking for a good home.

Collector's Edition -- Two Decades of TriMag

In my home office closest, gathering dust and the fur of my support staff, sits 23 years’ worth of Triathlete Magazines, 1987 to 2009. Recent life events had me staring at the carefully dated boxes. What made me start keeping the magazines and why are they still in my house?...
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Aging Up

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...
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Galleries

Step into the photo gallery of triathlon's past and meet the great shooters and view their sweet, stirring images from the early days of the sport.

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Recent Galleries

Chicago Bud Light U.S. Triathlon Series Event -- 1988

It sits like a time machine in a corner of my office: a large file drawer stuffed to overflowing with images from the original Bud Light US Triathlon Series, transferred several years ago from cardboard file boxes but never fully catalogued. The collection of unpublished negatives and proof...
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Liberty to Liberty Triathlon, July 4, 1984

It was a grand idea by an early multisport impressario, Dave Horning: a point-to-point triathlon from the lower end of Manhattan, with a view of the Satue of Liberty, with a finish at the Liberty Bell in downtown Philadelphia. Easier said than done, but somehow most of the 140 starters made it...
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Frodeno Delights The Crowd

Over the past several years, I've been back at the Ironman World Championship in Kona with a different perspective than in the old days. I go now to see clients and pitch new business for my company, but I have no official role at the race itself. No credential, no passes, no access. This...
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Back To Basics -- An Eye For Running In The Early Days of Multisport

“Most photographers seem to operate with a pane of glass between themselves and their subjects. They just can’t get inside and know the subject.” – W. Eugene Smith

Look deep into the core DNA of triathlon and you’ll find running. No wetsuits, no carbon fiber, just...
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T-3

T3 is that after-sport transition that marks the edges of a life, not the sections of a race.
We look for significant events, passings, births, occupations…
things that matter to our sport now that soon enough might become something historic.

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Recent T-3 Articles

Tom Fleming, winning the Jordache Marathon LA in 1981 (Mike Plant photo)

Tom Fleming, Runner (July 23, 1951 – April 19, 2017)

It was sad to hear that running great Tom Fleming died last month of a heart attack at the still-young age of 65. Fittingly, he died while coaching a track meet. If he’d had a choice, I’m sure...
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Bill Katosky in his triathlon life circa 1984

Death of a Voice

William R. Katovsky didn’t like very many triathletes. And in a pathetic indictment of the sport, many of the self-anointed movers-and-shakers didn’t like him.

Steve Tarpinian at his beloved Mighty Hampton Triathlon

Daring Greatly -- Steve Tarpinian 1960-2015

by Jean Mellano

Steve Hed at Interbike, 2008 -- Dapper Lad Cycles Photo

Knowing Steve Hed

By Scott Molina

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