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The 2024 Ironman World Championship Kona by the numbers

It is the men's turn to race on the Big Island this weekend

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon

We are almost there! On Saturday we’ll see the men competing in the Ironman World Championship here in Kona – the women, of course, raced in Nice last month. Triathlon Magazine is here in Kona to cover Saturday’s race, so stay tuned for lots more coverage as the week progresses. We’ll kick things off with a look at some stats for Saturday’s race that includes (in case you haven’t memorized the numbers) a 3.8-km (2.4-mile) swim, a 180-km (112-mile) bike and a 42.2-km (26.2-mile) run.

How long?

The first Ironman World Championship took place on Oahu in 1978. The race moved to the Big Island in 1981. In 1982 there were two races – the date was moved from February to October.

How many?

There are more than 2,400 registered men from 85 countries here on the Big Island to race this weekend. Of that group, Europe leads the way with 47 per cent of the field, while North America makes up 29 per cent of the racers. Oceania brings in 10 per cent of the participants, with Latin America at seven per cent and Asia with six per cent. Africa and the Middle East make up the final two per cent.

The USA leads the way on the nation front with 638 registered athletes, followed by Germany with 266, Australia with 183, France with 158 and Great Britain with 138.

Kona start list announced – four Ironman World Champions head the field

Oldest and youngest

New Zealand’s Warren Hill is the oldest competitor – he’s 84. Wojciech Poparda, from Poland, is the youngest athlete in the field – he’s 20.

The average age for all the registered athletes is 46.

There are 12 athletes celebrating birthdays on race day.

After failed short course “project,” Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Kristian Blummenfelt sets his sights on Kona

US States

There are 46 US states represented in the race – the top five are: California, Texas, Florida, New York and Colorado. There are 22 athletes from Hawaii, and 16 of them are from the Big Island.

Qualifying races

There were 60 qualifying races in 2023 and 2024 that athletes qualified at for this Saturday’s race.

Age-group world champions

There are seven defending age-group winners from last year’s Ironman World Championship Nice including: France’s Pierre Stiereman (M30-34), Germany’s Christian Haupt (M40-44), Great Britain’s Donald Brooks (M45-49), Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokurov (M50-54), France’s Laurent Jalabert (M55-59), the United States’ Tim Bradley (M60-64), and Spain’s Jose Mugica Izagirre (M65-69)

Volunteers

There will be more volunteers than athletes out on the course – there are about 3,500 volunteers helping on race day.