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Was there a triathlon in 1972?
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My buddy pointed out an interesting anomaly in the November issue of Runner's World. There is a story on the 1972 sit in by six women at the start of the NYC Marathon. After showing a photo of the group protesting, there is another photo later on of the runners supposedly from later in the race. The interesting thing is that beside this woman, supposedly from 1972, is a guy wearing a West Point Triathlon t-shirt. The first tri was in San Diego in 1974. I've searched for info on the West Point Tri but there was no real history beyond a video saying this year's race was the 23rd annual (1989). Maybe the editor messed up in attributing the photo?

Anyone care to play Sherlock on this one?

http://www.triathloncoach.ca
Last edited by: geordiem: Oct 29, 12 16:32
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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Nothing to add except that I noticed that too. Gave up trying to figure out what was up after 20 minutes of Internet sleuthing. I'm thinking the photo is incorrectly attributed.
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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Youre wayyyyyy off!

Triathlon is considered by some to have its beginnings in 1920s France. [8] According to triathlon historian and author Scott Tinley (and others [9] ), the origin of triathlon is attributed to a race during the 1920s–1930s that was called variously "Les trois sports", "La Course des Débrouillards", and "La course des Touche à Tout". This race is held every year in France near Joinville-le-Pont, in Meulan and Poissy. An earlier tri-sport event in 1902 featured running, cycling, and canoeing. [9] There are documented tri-sport events featuring running, swimming, & cycling (not necessarily in that order) in 1920, 1921, 1945, and the 1960s. [9] In 1920, the French newspaper L´Auto reported on a competition called "Les Trois Sports" with a 3 km run, 12 km bike, and a swim across the channel Marne. Those three parts were done without any break.

who's smarter than you're? i'm!
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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geordiem wrote:
My buddy pointed out an interesting anomaly in the November issue of Runner's World. There is a story on the 1972 sit in by six women at the start of the NYC Marathon. After showing a photo of the group protesting, there is another photo later on of the runners supposedly from later in the race. The interesting thing is that beside this woman, supposedly from 1972, is a guy wearing a West Point Triathlon t-shirt. The first tri was in San Diego in 1974. I've searched for info on the West Point Tri but there was no real history beyond a video saying this year's race was the 23rd annual (1989). Maybe the editor messed up in attributing the photo?

Anyone care to play Sherlock on this one?

Good question. I noticed the same thing and was curious. Only reason I even picked up RW was for the Chris Gleason article.
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [Stelvio] [ In reply to ]
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I have nothing to add in regards to the West Point Tri, but it appears the photo is right. If you look at the sit in pic on pg 96/97 one of the signs says 1972. Then on pg 100/101 the pic of the West Point Tri shirt also has the woman wearing the 109 shirt that is second from the right on the pg 96/97 picture.
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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West Point Triathlon t-shirt

It probably refers to pistol shooting/swim/run triathlons that were established by the Department of the Army to promote interest in Olympic Modern Pentathlon.

Haim

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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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Chuck Norris did the first triathlon in the early stone age, it was three times the length of the distance we commonly know now as 140.6
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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The earliest triathlon I remember was the Northport L.I. tri in 1978, My mind is hazy on this but I did that race in 1978,79 & 80.

I'm sure there where many earlier than that.

Ron W.
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [cyclops] [ In reply to ]
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cyclops wrote:
Chuck Norris did the first triathlon in the early stone age, it was three times the length of the distance we commonly know now as 140.6



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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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I saw the picture too, and wondered. I also have an old Runner's World magazine from 1972 and it has a some pictures and an article about a swim-bike event in Massachusetts. Not quite a triathlon, but they called it a biathlon (which is what it was they also called these races in the 1980s). I'll dig it up and see it I can post it.

http://recoveryourstride.blogspot.com/
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [TDF] [ In reply to ]
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You can see the pictures and article on the 1972 biathlon here: http://recoveryourstride.blogspot.com/...lons-beginnings.html If only the race director had thought to add a bike leg.

http://recoveryourstride.blogspot.com/
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [veganerd] [ In reply to ]
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veganerd wrote:
Youre wayyyyyy off!

Triathlon is considered by some to have its beginnings in 1920s France. [8] According to triathlon historian and author Scott Tinley (and others [9] ), the origin of triathlon is attributed to a race during the 1920s–1930s that was called variously "Les trois sports", "La Course des Débrouillards", and "La course des Touche à Tout". This race is held every year in France near Joinville-le-Pont, in Meulan and Poissy. An earlier tri-sport event in 1902 featured running, cycling, and canoeing. [9] There are documented tri-sport events featuring running, swimming, & cycling (not necessarily in that order) in 1920, 1921, 1945, and the 1960s. [9] In 1920, the French newspaper L´Auto reported on a competition called "Les Trois Sports" with a 3 km run, 12 km bike, and a swim across the channel Marne. Those three parts were done without any break.

Read ^^^THIS^^^ and learn newbie. It's been pretty much covered throughout the years.

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [veganerd] [ In reply to ]
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sorry to say but you are wayyyy off. It's well documented that the egyptians, somewhere around 5000 BC both adopted the modern game of "boules" (balls) also know as bocce and "messtrecth which incorporated swimming, running, and throwing of boules.... However, it's safe to say they did not do an IM distance messtrecth as that was not duly started until collins et al showed up....

Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [rcmioga] [ In reply to ]
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rcmioga wrote:
sorry to say but you are wayyyy off. It's well documented that the egyptians, somewhere around 5000 BC both adopted the modern game of "boules" (balls) also know as bocce and "messtrecth which incorporated swimming, running, and throwing of boules.... However, it's safe to say they did not do an IM distance messtrecth as that was not duly started until collins et al showed up....

pictographs or it didn't happen.

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [pattersonpaul] [ In reply to ]
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I do have these pictographs...but I'll need the ancient sympol of syncronicity to share with you==do you know what it is?

Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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Despite the fact that there were swim-bike-run races before 1972, I find it doubtful that any of these was well known enough to inspire a t-shirt worthy swim-bike-run event in West Point that year. I think it's much more likely, as Haim pointed out, that "Triathlon" on that shirt refers to some other combination of three sports. Before I had ever heard of a swim-bike-run event, I can think of at least a couple combos that had the "triathlon" tag loosely attached to them (for example in my home state of Wisconsin, we had the natural extension of biathlon - skiing, shooting, and drinking)
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Re: Was there a triathlon in 1972? [geordiem] [ In reply to ]
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As long as bikes have been around, some asshole eventually drove his bike into a river and a girl chased after him...
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