On August 26-27, Lahti in Finland will welcome over 6,000 registered athletes who are participating in two days of racing at the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon. Live race day coverage will be available on Outside Watch with race preview content available on all of IRONMAN’s social media channels.
In 2017, the global rotation of the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon began. Due to the pandemic that rotation was paused, but begins again in 2023 as the VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon will return to Europe for the first time since 2019, marking the first time that Lahti, Finland, and a Nordic country has hosted the event and the third time for Europe (previously, Zell am See, Austria in 2015, and Nice, France in 2019).
Regional representation at the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon sees Europe lead the way with 52% of athletes registered to race and North America with the second most, accounting for 22% of athletes.
Latin America follows with 10%, while Oceania athletes made the long haul bringing in 5%. Asia added just over 4% to the field, and Africa and Middle East both brought nearly 4% to consist of the remaining athlete field for the 2023 edition of the event.
The United States of America is the most represented nation with 1,152 registered athletes, followed by France (517), Germany (515), the United Kingdom (453), and Australia (250). Finland has a healthy hometown contingent with over 200 athletes.
Other athletes from countries as far as Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Zambia are traveling from around the globe to race the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship. Countries being represented for the first time include Armenia, Bulgaria, Burundi, Ghana, Nepal, Moldova, Rwanda, and Zambia.
This year’s field boasts 11 age-group champions from the 2022 Intermountain Healthcare IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship presented by Utah Sports Commission that took place in St George on October 28-29, 2022.
The 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship race will kick off with a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) ROKA Swim Course, which takes place in Lake Vesijärvi. A challenging 56-mile (91.3km) FULGAZ Bike Course follows, which will lead athletes through the Finnish countryside passing through the small towns of Kärkölä and Hollola and culminating with a steep incline just before returning to transition at the Sport and Fair Centre.
The 13.1-mile (21.1km) HOKA Run Course will take athletes on two loops beginning indoors at the Sport and Fair Centre, passing inside the Lahti Stadium and tackling a long climb up Salpausselkä ridge before making their way back towards Lake Vesijarvi. The run path will showcase water views and eclipse the Pikku-Vesijarvi before culminating in an finish line experience just in sight of famous Salpausselka Ski Jumps.
Finland is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, across from Estonia.
Finland covers an area of 338,455 square kilometres (130,678 sq miles) with a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages, with Swedish being the native language of 5.2% of the population.
Finland’s climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.
Additional historical facts and stats on the field competing in the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon in Lahti, Finland:
- Lahti is the 10th city in history to host the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship following Clearwater, FL (USA) (2006-2009), Henderson, NN (USA) (2010-2013), Mont-Tremblant, Quebec (Canada) (2014), Zell am See-Kaprun, SalzburgerLand (Austrai) (2015), Mooloolaba, Queensland (Australia) (2016), Chattanooga, TN (USA) (2017), Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape (South Africa) (2018), Nice (France) (2019), St George, Utah (USA) (2021-2022).
- Bob Heins (USA) is the oldest male participant at 84, while Linus Hilfiker (CHE) is the youngest at 18. Peggy McDowell-Cramer (USA) is the oldest female participant at 82, while Lisa Shi (CHN) is the youngest at 18.
- 37% of the registered field of participants are female and will race on Saturday.
- 63% of the registered field of participants are male and will race on Sunday.
- 42 is the average age of all registrants.
- 37 athletes will be celebrating their birthdays on their respective race days.
- 48 US states are accounted for, with top five states in the USA athlete count being, California, Florida, Texas, Colorado, and New York.
- 2,514 athletes racing in this year’s VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon are IRONMAN All World Athletes.
- 21 new IRONMAN 70.3 race locations were added to the calendar in 2023.
- Approximately 1,500 volunteers will help at the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in 2023.
