Chris McCormack

0 Chris McCormack
Chris McCormack at Ironman 70.3 Taiwan, 2011
Personal information
Date of birth	4th April 1973 (age 47)
place of birth	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nickname	Macca
size	193 cm
Weight	82 kg
societies
1995-1998	Tricastin Triathlon Club Grand Prix de Triathlon
Since 2015	Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team
Since 2018	Breitling triathlon squad
successes
1997	ITU world champion short distance
1997	ITU World Cup winner
2007, 2010	2 × Winner Ironman World Championships
2012	ITU world champion long distance
status
not active

Christopher "Macca" McCormack (born April 4, 1973 in Sydney , New South Wales ) is a former Australian triathlete who is now an entrepreneur. He is a two-time winner of the Ironman World Championship (2007, 2010), world champion in the short distance (1997) and world champion in the long distance triathlon (2012). He is the only triathlete so far who has won the world championship on the Olympic distance (short distance) and the long distance as well as the Ironman Hawaii. He is ranked first in the best list of Australian triathletes on the Ironman distance .

Career

Chris McCormack grew up in Heathcote , a suburb of Sydney, right by Royal National Park, around 36 km south of central Sydney. When he was five years old, his father quit smoking and started running . Chris and his two brothers accompanied him regularly from then on. During his time at Kirrawee High School, he won numerous prizes in cross-country races , such as B. the "NSW Sporting Blue" as best high school athlete in New South Wales . However, he mainly spent his free time surfing . In 1987, at the age of fourteen, he was fascinated by ABC's contribution to the Ironman Hawaii in 1987 on television, and for the first time saw something of the sport of triathlon. Even if his family was generally active in sport, sport remained a leisure activity and the thought of a career as a professional athlete was still far away.

McCormack took on a degree in economics at the University of New South Wales and trained in parallel in an athletics club. In 1991 and 1992 he completed his first duathlon competitions and began regular swimming training in autumn 1992.

Triathlon since 1992

On November 11, 1992, he started his first triathlon in Wollongong . Although he was one of the last to get out of the water with his surfer wetsuit, which is not very suitable for swimming, he was able to make up a few places on the bike and finally won his age group with the fastest time of the race, without knowing, in this competition To have left members of the Australian youth squad behind over the Olympic distance. McCormack then received a call from the Australian Triathlon Federation, who wanted to send him to the start in competitions in Canberra and Perth . A few months later he was nominated for the Junior World Championship in Manchester in August 1993 , where he came in fourth - one place ahead of Normann Stadler .

McCormack graduated in October 1995 and successfully applied for a position as auditor at the investment bank Bankers Trust in Sydney. Five months later, he quit this position and moved to France with the decision to start as a professional triathlete. Here he started together u. a. with Simon Lessing and Lothar Leder for the Tricastin Triathlon Club from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in the French league Grand Prix de Triathlon and already triumphed in nine competitions in his first professional season. He won his first ITU World Cup in Drummondville in June 1996 - ahead of Stephan Vuckovic .

Triathlon World Champion Olympic Distance 1997

In 1997 Chris McCormack won both the overall ranking in the ITU World Cup and the ITU World Championships over the Olympic distance. He was then honored as Sportsman of the Year in Australia and even elected Triathlete of the Year in Germany . He finished the season in the lead in the world rankings - a position that he held for 26 months without a break.

1999 was a turning point in his career. In preparation for his big goal of qualifying for the 2000 Olympic Games in his hometown, where triathlon was part of the sporting program for the first time, he received a call from his brother that his 53-year-old mother was dying of breast cancer. McCormack immediately traveled to Sydney, where his mother died a few days later. Just a week after her death, he started a qualifying race for the Olympic Games in South Korea against the advice of his father, which he broke off on the running track in front of the cameras with tears in his eyes. When the Australian Association named its squad for the Olympics two weeks later, his name was missing. Chris McCormack was the highest-placed Australian in the world rankings at the time, but had violated the association's regulations by abandoning the race. McCormack then moved to the USA, where he was able to dominate over thirty competitions from 2000 to 2002. For the Australian team, he won the 2001 Goodwill Games and finished fifth at the 2002 Commonwealth Games .

Long distance triathlon since 2002

In April 2002, Chris McCormack triumphed in Forster at his first start on the long distance - it was his first of five wins in a row at Ironman Australia . At his first start at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii six months later, when he confidently announced that he would also like to win six times here - like Dave Scott and Mark Allen - he received a recommendation from Dave Scott that he should start with a win . Ultimately, however, he had to stop his race on the running track. He commented on this by saying that he had come to win and that he now knows how to win here.

One of his most spectacular races was in 2003, when he started five in a row at Challenge Roth , where he and Lothar Leder initially fought an eight-hour head-to-head race until Leder pulled away 400 meters from the finish and finally in in a dramatic final sprint with only three seconds ahead of second place. In the following years, Chris McCormack was able to triumph at Challenge Roth four times in a row. His finish in 2003 is next to that of Pauli Kiuru and Ken Glah at the Ironman New Zealand 1989 the tightest decision in long distance triathlon. Three months later at the Ironman Hawaii 2003 he did not break off this time and finished in 114th place.

In 2005 Chris McCormack managed to finish sixth in the top ten for the first time in 8:23:52 h at the Ironman Hawaii, where he had broken off his race on the running track again the previous year. In 2006 McCormack even finished second in Hawaii behind Normann Stadler and ahead of last year's winner Faris Al-Sultan . After the competition, however, Stadler and Al-Sultan accused him of deliberately violating the rules and there was even almost a fight.

Chris McCormack wins Challenge Roth (2007)

Ironman World Championship in Hawaii (2007)

Ironman Hawaii 2007 winner

On June 24, 2007 McCormack competed in Challenge Roth for the fifth time in a row with the announcement that he would undercut the world record set by Luc van Lierde ten years earlier on the Ironman distance (7:50:27 h). Until the final discipline he was on course, but then, due to the high temperatures, he left a few minutes behind and crossed the finish line in his fourth win in a row in Roth with a personal best of 7:54:23 h. Four months later he won the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii for the first time in October ahead of his compatriot Craig Alexander and the Dane Torbjørn Sindballe . In the final discipline he ran the fifth fastest marathon in the history of this event in 2:42:02 h. It is the only race in Hawaii since 1984 in which not a single German made it into the top ten: Last year's winner Normann Stadler got out of the bike course with stomach cramps, Faris Al-Sultan canceled his start an hour before the start, as did Thomas Hellriegel , 1997 winner, and Stephan Vuckovic, second in the 2000 Olympics, stopped their races.

In 2008, he won his fourth Wildflower Triathlon in California . After five years in a row at Challenge Roth, McCormack started at Ironman Germany in Frankfurt for the first time and received an entry fee of € 100,000. In the competition announced as the "Show-Down of the Hawaii winners of the last four years", he was able to win with a new course record. At the Ironman Hawaii three months later, he got off the bike course again.

Winner Ironman Hawaii 2010

After McCormack finished fourth behind Andreas Raelert in Hawaii in 2009 , memories of the "Iron War" of 1989 were awakened in 2010: Andreas Raelert got out of the water nine seconds ahead of Chris McCormack, but lost his lead in the transition area. 20 km before the end of the bike course, “Macca” picked up the pace, Raelert switched to the running course around 250 m behind. After approx. 15 km McCormack, who at this point was about 2½ minutes behind Chris Lieto, had extended his lead over Raelert to around 650 m, with Craig Alexander and Marino Vanhoenacker between the two . At 35 km Raelert caught up with the leader McCormack, both of them ran shoulder to shoulder from now on and alternating tempo increases in order to shake off the other were unsuccessful. Shortly before the last refreshment point, McCormack accelerated downhill on Palani Road and was able to pull away. In the end, he was 100 seconds ahead of Andreas Raelert at the finish in his second win at the Ironman World Championship. At 37 years of age, he was the second-oldest Hawaii winner of all time - only the American Mark Allen was a month older when he last won Hawaii in 1995.

Missed Olympic qualification and world champion triathlon long distance 2012

In February 2011, Chris McCormack said the only thing he regretted was that he had never started at the Olympics. His goal, for which he did not defend his title at Ironman Hawaii, was to qualify for participation in the Australian team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London . In the eight ITU point races in which he took part to implement this project, he was placed between 26th and 34th place (together with three DNFs ).

Due to the results of the other Australians, McCormack's nomination for the Olympics was still possible. Ultimately, he was not taken into account for the three starting places available in Australia. McCormack then criticized the qualification requirements, which were vague in his eyes, but saw the selected athletes as worthy of participation in London. In July 2012 he went to Vitoria-Gasteiz at the World Triathlon Union (ITU), endowed with € 70,000 in the long distance world championship, where he triumphed in front of Eneko Llanos and Dirk Bockel .

In the run-up to the Ironman Hawaii 2012, McCormack invited the journalists present to a press conference in his house in Kailua-Kona , which was decorated with the logos of the Challenge Family , the largest competitor of the WTC organizing the Ironman Hawaii, and announced together with Felix Walchshöfer that he was for would serve as the Challenge Family brand ambassador for the next ten years. During his subsequent participation in the Ironman Hawaii for the last time, however, he broke off the competition on the bike course. The following year, Chris McCormack canceled an announced start in Hawaii six weeks before the race due to an illness with the Epstein-Barr virus .

Chris McCormack has won over 200 triathlon competitions in the course of his career, including the ITU World Cup series, Escape of Alcatraz, Wildflower and numerous other well-known competitions over the Olympic distance as well as a total of 13 victories in the Ironman distance. ^{(Status: October 2014)} He is the only triathlete who was able to win the ITU World Championships on the short distance (Olympic distance), on the long distance as well as the Ironman World Championship and he was the first athlete to win four times on the Ironman distance to undercut the eight-hour mark. In 2014 he was nominated by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) for admission to the Hall of Fame .

At the beginning of 2015, Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa founded the Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team , for which Chris McCormack took over the management.

Super League Triathlon since 2017

In 2017 Chris McCormack founded a new triathlon competition format with the " Super League Triathlon " on Hamilton Island in Australia. The race lasts three days:

• At the opening stage on Friday, the usual order of the disciplines was mixed in the “triple mix” over short distances (300 m swimming, 6 km cycling and 2 km running).
• The “Equalizer” started on Saturday with an individual time trial and an interval triathlon with a chase followed.
• On Sunday, the "Eliminator" was held at the end: 15 athletes from the first round reached the semi-finals and the ten best athletes qualified for the final.

An overall rating is calculated from the points of the individual stages and the winner receives 100,000 AUD.

The 45-year-old joined the new Breitling triathlon team with Daniela Ryf and Jan Frodeno in May 2018 .

Private

In August 2003, Chris McCormack and his partner Emma-Jan married in Sydney. The couple met the evening before their mother died in 1999 at the age of 53. Their eldest daughter was born in January 2004, the second daughter was born two years later, and a few years later they became parents of a son. The family now lives in Sydney .

In 2007 Emma and Chris McCormack established the MaccaNow Cancer Foundation, a foundation honoring his mother's legacy. The aim was to collect AUD 140.6 (sum of miles traveled in an Ironman) for each of the 19,455 days that Theresa Lily McCormack lived in order to support people in the fight against breast cancer, e.g. B. to be able to finance the medical costs.

Sporting successes

(DNF - Did Not Finish )

Publications

• I'm Here To Win: A World Champion's Advice for Peak Performance , Center Street (May 23, 2011), ISBN 978-1-4555-0267-7

Web links

Commons : Chris McCormack  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Chris McCormack's website
• MaccaNow Foundation ( Memento from October 31, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
• Chris McCormack in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Profile for Chris McCormack at the Institute for Applied Exercise Science
• Chris McCormack's profile and results in the ITU database at Triathlon.org , accessed on January 31, 2020.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jean-Pierre Mestanza: Tragedy and fate molds a champion ( English , PDF) In: The Phuket News . December 13, 2013.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Don Norcross: Ironman feud lights a fire in lava fields ( English ) In: The San Diego Union-Tribune . November 10, 2007. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016.
3. ↑ Arne Dyck: Chris McCormack: Stadler and Al-Sultan accuse him of drafting . In: triathlon-szene.de . October 24, 2006.
4. ↑ Ironman - There is a lot of argument in Hawaii . In: The world . October 10, 2008.
5. ↑ Chris McCormack wants the record . In: tri2b.com . March 1, 2007.
6. ↑ Karin Bühler: As with 40 degrees fever . In: Berliner Zeitung . July 10, 2008.
7. ↑ Stefan Drexl: Chris McCormack: A triathlon race is good when it hurts . In: tri2b.com . October 16, 2010.
8. ↑ Jan Sägert: Bang: "Macca" targets the Olympics In: tri-mag.de . February 17, 2011
9. ↑ Amanda Lulham: Triathlete Chris McCormack to have tilt at triathlon at the 2012 Olympic Games . In: The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved October 31, 2015.
10. ↑ Paul Moore: Chris McCormack Will Not Defend Kona Title, Aims For 2012 Olympics In: triathlon.competitor.com February 17, 2011
11. ^ Timothy Carlson: TA gives Snowsill Olympic snub . In: slowtwitch.com . 4th June 2012.
12. ↑ Aaron Hersh: Chris McCormack Vents About Olympic Selection ". ( English ) Competitor Group, Inc .. June 12, 2012. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original - and archive link according to instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed October 31, 2015. 
13. ↑ Frank Wechsel: Chris McCormack becomes an ambassador for the Challenge Family . In: tri-mag.de . October 11, 2012.
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/MaccaNow/status/378810921205780481
15. ^ ITU Hall of Fame
16. ^ Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team
17. ↑ Super League Triathlon Premiere: It's Done on Hamilton Island (March 15, 2017)
18. ↑ The Breitling Triathlon Squad (May 15, 2018)
19. ↑ Honeymoon: Chris McCormack is "in firm hands" . In: tri2b.com . August 20, 2003.
20. ↑ Chris McCormack: There are offspring . In: tri2b.com . January 16, 2004.
21. ↑ Macca's Musings: More Than Winning (December 30, 2014)
22. ↑ Geelong Triathlon: Haug and McCormack strong (February 13, 2012)
23. ↑ 2012 Kinloch ITU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup (February 5, 2012)
24. ^ Dellow, Rollison dominate in Noosa . Archived from the original on May 7, 2013.
25. ↑ Sandra Christen: Spirig wins first race after injury break in Zurich ( Memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Swiss Triathlon . July 9, 2011
26. ↑ McCormack and Giger win at TriStar111 premiere in Worms . Archived from the original on September 4, 2012.
27. ↑ Kai Baumgartner: Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon: Leanda Cave and Hunter Kemper top . In: 3athlon.de . May 2, 2010. Archived from the original on May 7, 2010.
28. ↑ Liz Hichens: McCormack, Wassner Win In South Beach In: triathlon.competitor.com April 11, 2010
29. ↑ Results: 2ème Triathlon Challenge France .
30. ↑ Ironman 70.3 St. Pölten
31. ↑ McCormack Wins Desaru Half Ironman Malaysia  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
32. ↑ DTU press service triathlon at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane ( Memento from September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
33. ^ Ironman Cairns: McCormack's longest training day
34. ^ Challenge Cairns . Archived from the original on May 7, 2012.