If an amateur athlete, Joe and Jill endurance athletes, were to participate in a Grand Slam of amateur sporting events, what then, would be the four events? Let’s say that two were the Boston Marathon and Ironman World Championship (Hawaii), then what would be the other two? Or what would be your four?
Pebble Beach Pro/Am. Put me in a foursome with Tiger, Michael Jordan and Lance. I will skip the other three.
You might put the Markleeville death ride on the list.
A big ultramarathon like the one across the sahara. And either an ultra swim or an adventure race. I would say the Raid Gauloise for the adventure race but they messed that up and went corprate.
You’d want a good cross section of events/sports so as not to duplicate. How about adding the American Bierkebeiner 50km XC Ski race in Feb. (3500 skiiers). Adding an Ultramarathon sort of over does running. Maybe a classic open water swim Like Tiburon or La Jolla. Or a a paddling event.
If you’re talking open water, the English Channel swim is the biggest one of all.
The Olympics? 
Thay’re theoretially amateur.
Swim: Channel Swim (or Rottnest but Channel swim is the biggie)
Bike: Etape du Tour
Run: London/ Boston
Multisport: Hawaii (Or NZ Coast to Coast is a good shout)
Edgar Ette did a fairly ultimate Tri in the Uk, which was Run London to Channel Coast (About 50 odd miles), swim the Channel, then Bike to Paris (150? miles) but it is all tide dependent and not in true Tri order (but I’m not going to tell him that)
http://www.enduroman.com/page4.html
The “Arch to Arc”: 87 mile run (19-20 hrs), Channel swim (12-18 hrs), 180 mile bike (14-18 hrs for these guys).
The record is 81 hrs, including almost a day waiting on weather at Dover. Nuts.
For cycling, it would be Paris-Brest-Paris (1200km) which has been going since 1891 (older than the TDF). Last year there were >4000 riders.
I agree with pdxjohn that the American Beirkebeiner should be in there, too.
Most people seem to be picking the toughest / longest. In other sports the grand slams are the oldest or most prestigious. Also paris -brest-paris and the english channel swim aren’t really competitions. My list therefore is:
IM Hawaii, Boston Marathon, The XC ski race in Norway where every one wears packs to simulate carrying the infant King to safety (don’t know the name) and some event. For cycling I dont know what to pick. Certainly the Tour, but its not amateur. PBP maybe, but its not really a competition, awfully close though. Any one know of a single day, tough old amateur race?
theres the amateur paris-roubaix, or maybe some of the miserable centuries, where its actually 140 miles, in a desert (110 degrees) and you go up 10000 ft in elevation, those those usually arnt competitions
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How woud you define a Grand Slam??? Four events of the same magnitude in one year (e.g: OZ Open-French Open-Wimbeldon-US Open, PGA-Masters-British Open-US Open)??? You could argue IM OZ-IM Canada-IM (something) USA-IM Hawaii would do it.
You could break IM back up and say: English Channel (or Manhattan Island Swim)-Boston or NYC Marathon-some one day Classic (Paris-Roubaix, for ex.) and finish with IM Hawaii.
Option 3: Olympic-1/2 Iron-Ironman-Eco-Challenge / Raid?
Option 4: Go Totally Off!!! X-Games-Olympic Decathlon-Pebble Beach Pro/Am-IM Hawaii
Well, since this is just theoretical, I’ll assume that you are trying to find the most hard-core, insane athlete out there, who can go beyond the ridiculous.
Therefore:
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Badwater Ultra
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The Tour de Romandie, or another 5-7 day stage race
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Swim Catalina or English Channel (wetsuits allowed)
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Climb El Capitan (timed, trad method)
I think that if you could win those four events on GC, you’re one bad mf.
Ok if this is going to be a real test, or the mother of all “amateur” tests; how about Mt.Everst solo w/o suplemental oxygen, English Channel swim (non suited), RAAM (Race Across America) and Western States 100 mile run.
Ok if this is going to be a real test, or the mother of all “amateur” tests; how about Mt.Everst solo w/o suplemental oxygen, English Channel swim (non suited), RAAM (Race Across America) and Western States 100 mile run.
I think of all the lists posted PDXjohn probably got the best one going. My “personal list” would be Boston-Hawaii-Birkibeiner (90K XC in Norway)-Zofingen.
Excellent question. As the original question was first posed, I think that the events should be spread around four distinctly separate sports…in other words, not all of them should include endurance sports. However, the replies have focused mainly on endurance sports, and so, here are the 4 that I’d select for the “Grand Slam of Amateur (Endurance) Sports” (individual sports, only, hence the absence of adventure racing):
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Running: Badwater Ultra. Hot, long, painful, challenging. What’s not to love. Honorable Mention: Tie between Hardrock and Leadville. Both are killers due to extreme altitude and course.
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Cycling: RAAM. No contest! It’s arguably the toughest endurance event in the world! Honorable Mention: Tie between Furnace Creek 508, Race Across Oregon, and the (now defunct?) Race Across the Alps. The latter features 544km (337 miles) with 13,700m (44,947 feet!) of climbing over 11 passes in Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
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Swimming: English Channel Crossing. Duh. Cold, long, currents, weather. Honorable Mention: Swim Around Manhattan (28.5 miles) in questionable water.
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Other: Iditasport Extreme – a 350 mile bike race. It follows the Iditarod Trail from Knik over the Alaska Range dropping through the Dalzell Gorge and continuing to the remote bush village of McGrath. 10 days time limit. Fastest time belongs to John Stamstad: 3 days, 8 hours and 15 minutes. Entrants must qualify for Iditasport Extreme with at least one finish of the shorter Iditasport race.
Thoughts?
OK I agree on two - and reckon that most people will:
Cycling: RAAM
Swimming: Channel Crossing
But on the running I think you realistically have to put in the Marathon Des Sables ahead of anything else (Some argur that the Jordan Cup is harder but for history and worldwide knowledge it’s the MdS)
Number four I think should be IMH
Those are my final four - I am going to laminate them!
www.gigathlon.ch (NM)
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