https://www.facebook.com/...dorvanity=1162840027

Here is a little clip from that first race, and about halfway through you can see what they called the race back then. I also saw it called the International Triathlon, and of course the Nautilus Triathlon, but not the Hawaiian Ironman world champs back then..

Check out my front pack, filled with 6 glass peanut butter jars of ERG, chain breaker, spokes, wrenches, and other assorted tools. And first year they said you had to wear a helmet, so I brought my lifeguard dory helmet with chin strap. And of course the map of the island and course on top of my aero front bag, just in case we got lost. It was like an adventure race for us back then!!

Are we going into Mandela Effect territory?

I don't remember ever hearing or reading about it as "The Hawaiian Championship", but as Ironman World Championship Hawaii (or Kona Hawaii). But I'm relatively new to the sport (2015).

I’ll say it again Monty if you ever write a book I’ll be the first one to buy it

the folks at IRONMAN say that in their collective memory, going back 10 years, the term with "Hawaiian" in front of it, was not used. so i'm wondering if it was ever used and i'm pretty sure it was. but i don't know with certainty, even tho there are references all over the internet. in kona's beginning, in 1981, it was known on the island as Nautilus International Triathlon. it was also known as IRONMAN World Triathlon. back then, there was no World Championship in the title. at some point that was added and i kind of think that back then, perhaps during the 80s, it became Hawaiian IRONMAN World Championship. but i don't know, hence my asking.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

If you have that full broadcast I would be willing to do bad things to get my hands on it. Any chance it's up on YouTube or anywhere else? I LOVE watching old races while I'm on the trainer, and that front pack is incredible, lol.

On "Hawaiian Ironman" I'm definitely newer to the sport, been at it only a little over a decade now, but I've honestly never heard that in an official capacity. So that narrows it down to pre 2012 if my memory is holding up okay. A quick journal dig found this 1993 article using that terminology but I don't think that's officially from Ironman though. But I'm guessing they'd use the accepted vernacular of the day.

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Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

This site has the official results from every year and I looked at a dozen or so throughout the history and didn't see that description on any of the results.

I feel like the "Hawaiian" reference was used a lot by the old ABC broadcast teams. Maybe I'm dreaming that up, but it feels right to me that some random guy in a sports coat would be reporting "here at the Hawaiian Ironman World Championships" or some variation of...

Excellent find! I'm looking forward to reading 20+ pages about the ritual aspects of the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon this weekend. Here's a sentence from the conclusion: "It takes place in a sacred place, at a sacred time of the year, and provides a unique opportunity for ordinary individuals from all walks of life to have an extra-ordinary, epiphanic experience that can be shared with others like onself."

I have some 1990 swag that says "Triathlon World Championship - Kona Hawaii" Doesn't even say Ironman.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

When Thomas Magnum did it in 1981, it was the Iron Man Classic

righteo! but when i did the bandit version of that race in 1981, it wasn't called that ;-)

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I have no race results on print, but before there was Ironman Canada, Ironman Japan, Ironman Germany, Ironman New Zealand and Ironman Australia, there was just the Hawaii Ironman.

At some point, like most sports American, the world "World Championship" got tied in (much like the NBA championship, or MLB or NFL). I think it was around the time that the other 5 Ironmans around the world got added, but even then it was not "right at that point". There were all these individual Ironmans by country and one Hawaii

I believe in 1992 was when they created the world series of events tying all these events into a unified series with Hawaii at the World Championship. You can talk to Ken Glah, Tinley, Ray Browning and a few others as a distinctly recall these guys flying around the world competing for points before Kona. If there was a year that "World championship" was definitively added to Hawaiian Ironman, it would be the first year of the world series. I think your ex may have also participated in that world series (or a number of events in it....I think she won IMC 1992)

According to the official results it appears it was first called the "World Championship" in 1982.

I swear I heard Welchy call it the "Hawaii Ironman World Championship" on the broadcast at least 20 times this year. And it's always been him calling it that.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

i'm familiar with the series. it began i think in 1991 and erin baker won it. i remember it because my ex won it in 1992, as you correctly remember. i think it was the IRONMAN Series World Championship but i don't remember.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

From the broadcast of the 1991 race...

well that's pretty good evidence.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

While in Kona I took a picture of all the old race posters on the wall of a downtown store. Looking at it now, none of them say Hawaiian Ironman.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

Some race posters from 1981-present

https://www.konainnjewelry.com/iron_man_posters.htm

Great job! I hope they didn't pay the person who made the 1984 poster too much money.

Here is a copy of the Official Race Results. It is presented as "Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship Kailua Kona, Hawaii"
It was my first time there. Qualified at the great old "Original" World's Toughest Triathlon in South Lake Tahoe.

So it seems like it was 83 when they started officially calling it the world championship. I think that was the first year of prize money too, and perhaps the first year of qualifying to get in too?

I thought prize money did not come till 88 or 89 and all the pro field was going to Nice because it had a big prize purse and eventually when Ironman decided to give prize money the "big race" became Kona, but before that it was trending towards Nice being "the show". I thought the thing that was keeping Kona prominent was that the guy winning Kona (Dave Scott) kept beating the guy who kept winning Nice (Mark Allen) at Kona.

But you guys were on the inside in the pro field and in the center of the triathlon universe (California)....the rest of us age groupers were just reading what Triathletemag was writing about.

Here's a good progression of names from the broadcasts. For the 1980 broadcast, they just called it the "Triathlon".




In 1981 they called it "Endurance Triathlon"





For the February 1982 race they called it the "Ironman World Endurance Triathlon"




Finally, for the October 1982 race they called it the "Ironman Triathlon World Championship"