After a three-year hiatus, the IRONMAN World Championship returned to the Kailua-Kona and the Island of Hawai`i – with racing held over two days for the first time in over 40 years of the race’s existence.
More than 5,000 registered athletes representing more than 92 countries, regions, and territories from around the globe ranged in age from 18-82 at the 2022 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship triathlon.
Race day #1 saw the pro women’s field lined-up on October 6th, with Chelsea Sodaro becoming the first American woman to win the IRONMAN World Championship since 1996.
Race day #2 on October 8th saw the pro men’s field battle it out. Norway’s Gustav Iden swam with the lead pack, biked confidently, and ran a course-best 2:36:15 run to his first IRONMAN World Championship title. Iden’s race made history as he became the first Norwegian and first male rookie since the debut of professionals to win the IRONMAN World Championship with the fastest overall time this race has ever seen, in 7:40:24.
On Saturday, the top 10 men all finished Sub-8-hours showing the growth in competitive long-distance triathlon in a very short time. It wasn’t long ago that breaking the 8-hour mark in the men’s professional IRONMAN World Championship race was the time to strive for. It wasn’t broken until 2018 when Patrick Lange won with a time of 7:52:39.
- Of the 27 age-group division world champions, 10 hailed from the United States while Brazil, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland all had two world champions each. Rounding out the representing countries of the 2022 world champions were Australia, Austria, China, Denmark, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and Poland with one each.
- With a time of 16:31:27, Chris Nikic (USA) became the first person with Down syndrome to finish the IRONMAN World Championship; it was also his 23rd birthday on race day.
- With a time of 13:05:44, 29-year-old Sam Holness (GBR) became the first known person with autism to finish the IRONMAN World Championship
