Ironman Switzerland

Ironman Switzerland
venue	Thun ( Zurich until 2019) Switzerland
First run	1997
organizer	World Triathlon Corporation
Records
distance	3.86 km 180.2 km 42.195 km
track record	Men: 8:09:18 h, 2018 Jan van Berkel   Women: 8:53:49 h, 2016 Daniela Ryf
Website	Official website

Ironman Switzerland is the name of a triathlon sport event over the Ironman distance (3.86 km swimming, 180.2 km cycling and 42.195 km running) in Switzerland that has been held every July since 1997 . It has been held in the city of Zurich and the surrounding area since 1997 and relocated to Thun for 2020 .

organization

In October 1982 the Zurich graphic artist René Friedli was one of the first Europeans to take part in the Ironman Hawaii alongside Manuel Debus and Detlef Kühnel . After Friedli had crossed the finish line in Hawaii in 12:57:11 hours, he thought of organizing such an event himself. On 23 July 1983 he organized the first Swiss Triathlon in Zurich with 66 finishers on original distance of the Ironman Hawaii and 1/3 and 2/3 distance, the order for the second European long-distance triathlon after the Triathlon de Nice of the IMG on the 20th November 1982 was. In the follow-up event in 1984, the number of participants exceeded 1,000, and in 1985 the event was held for the third time. In the following years there were repeated announcements, but these were canceled due to a lack of participants by the competing event Trans Swiss Triathlon.

The 18 percent incline on Heart Break Hill near Kilchberg is one of the nests of atmosphere at Ironman Switzerland

Bike course near Uetikon am See

Running track near the Landiwiese

On August 1, 1995, Peter Boll, one of the founders of the Swiss Triathlon Association in 1985 , and Martin Koller, its first full-time managing director in 1990, organized another triathlon over the Ironman distance under the name “Euroman Zurich”, for the first time in Switzerland The two also awarded twenty-five starting places for the Ironman Hawaii to the fastest athletes in each age group. At the second edition of Euroman on August 11, 1996, there were even forty qualifying places for Hawaii, half of the top 20 of the Ironman Hawaii from 1995 were at the start in Zurich, Eurosport reported on the event on television with Mark Allen as co-commentator . As in 1995, in addition to the long distance, an Olympic distance competition was integrated into the event.

Boll and Koller and their company BK Sportpromotions AG , founded in 1995 , subsequently acquired the right to use their trademark “Ironman” in the event name through a contract with the American company World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) . On August 3, 1997 the event took place for the first time under the name Ironman Switzerland , at the event endowed with US $ 60,000 in prize money, well-known triathletes such as Alexander Taubert , winner 1995 and 1996, Wolfgang Dittrich (third at Ironman Hawaii 1993), the duathlon - 1994 World Champion Normann Stadler on his Ironman debut, Scott Tinley as the winner in Hawaii in 1982 and 1985, Tony DeBoom and Uwe Widmann at the start. Among the women were the Roth winner in 1996 and fifth in Hawaii in the previous year, Ute Mückel, as well as the winner of the Ironman Japan 1995 and 1996, Heather Fuhr , Ariane Gutknecht and the Australian Robyn Roocke. A total of 740 triathletes competed for the qualification places for Hawaii, which have now been increased to sixty starting places.

In 2002, Boll and Koller initiated Ironman Germany in Frankfurt together with the Frankfurt printing engineer Kurt Denk, who with his Hawaii Holiday Service agency, founded in 1989, has been organizing trips for hundreds of triathletes and their relatives to the Ironman Hawaii since 1995 , until they bought their shares in 2005 to whose organizer Xdream sold to Denk. Meanwhile, Ironman Switzerland, including a sprint triathlon the day before and the IronKids race, had grown to 5500 participants in 2006, and 75 Hawaii starting places have now been allocated in Zurich. From 2007, BK Sportpromotions also organized the Ironman 70.3 Switzerland in Rapperswil-Jona over half the distance of the Ironman Switzerland.

When the WTC was taken over by a private equity company in 2008 , it changed its strategy of not only allowing independent organizers to use its protected trademark "Ironman" against payment of a license fee, but also - in addition to the Ironman Hawaii, other - triathlon Organize competitions. Accordingly, she bought her company from Peter Boll and Martin Koller in 2009 and has been organizing Ironman Switzerland on her own responsibility ever since. In 2015, the organizer moved into the possession of the Chinese investor Dalian Wanda , who had previously also bought the Swiss sports marketer Infront Sports & Media .

At the 17th edition of the Ironman Switzerland 2013, the Swiss Ronnie Schildknecht won the Ironman Switzerland for the seventh time in a row. No athlete in the world had ever managed such a series in an Ironman race.

The record number of participants at Ironman Switzerland was achieved in 2014 with 2,655 registrations. The number of qualification places awarded in Zurich for the Ironman Hawaii has meanwhile been reduced to forty. Professional triathletes who fight for a total of US $ 50,000 in prize money in Zurich can qualify for the Ironman Hawaii, which is endowed with US $ 650,000 , via the Kona Pro Ranking System ; the winners receive 2000 points in Zurich. For comparison: Hawaii has the most points (8000). a. awarded at Ironman Germany and Ironman Texas . Most other full-distance Ironman races award either 1000 or 2000 points for victory.

The 20th edition took place here on July 24th, 2016 and Daniela Ryf set a new course record with her winning time of 8:53:49 h. The last event was here on July 21, 2019.

In 2020, the second oldest Ironman event (after Ironman Lanzarote , since 1992) and the oldest on the European mainland should be relocated from Zurich to the city of Thun in the canton of Bern. The 24th edition, originally planned for July 12, 2020, had to be canceled at the end of April as the coronavirus pandemic spread and set for July 11, 2021.

Route

• The 3.86 km swimming stage, which was redesigned for 2016, runs in the form of an "M" in Lake Zurich with the destination at the Landiwiese , Zurich's exhibition and culture meadow between the Mythenquai lido and the shipyard of the Lake Zurich Shipping Company . The start will take place for the first time in 2016 as a rolling start : the amateurs will be given the start clearance at the same time in groups of half a dozen athletes, and the individual competition time will be measured using transponders and timing mats that have to be overrun. The advantage of this measure is that the participants are equalized early on, thus avoiding the formation of a crowd on the bike course. The disadvantage is that the order in the ranking cannot be inferred from the order in which they crossed the finish line.

• The 180.2 km bike course is a two-lap course that initially leads in the direction of Rapperswil along Lake Zurich and past Greifensee back to Zurich as well as a spectacular ascent for spectators on Heartbreak Hill in Kilchberg , each lap comprises around 630 m.

• The running route over the marathon distance was partially redesigned for 2016 and now includes an additional loop through the high medieval stone buildings from the 13th century in the historic city center on the Limmat . A total of four laps have to be run along the western and northern banks around the Zurich lake basin. The start and finish is again on the Landiwiese .

Winners list

Ironman Switzerland (since 1997)

Men

Women

No. year First place Second place third place 24 July 11, 2021   2020 (called off) 23 July 21, 2019 Jan van Berkel -2- Sven Riederer Cyril Viennot 22nd 29th July 2018 Jan van Berkel (SR) David Pleše Cameron Litter 21st July 30, 2017 Nick Kastelein Ruedi Wild Jan van Berkel 20th July 24, 2016 Ronnie Schildknecht -9- Timo Bracht Jan van Berkel 19th 19th July 2015 Ronnie Schildknecht -8- Jan van Berkel Alessandro Degasperi 18th July 27, 2014 Boris Stein David Pleše Marek Jaskolka 17th July 28, 2013 Ronnie Schildknecht -7- Iván Raña Per Bittner 16 July 15, 2012 Ronnie Schildknecht -6- Jan van Berkel Mathias Hecht 15th July 10, 2011 Ronnie Schildknecht -5- Clemente Alonso McKernan Mathias Hecht 14th July 25, 2010 Ronnie Schildknecht -4- Swen Sundberg Mike Aigroz 13 July 12, 2009 Ronnie Schildknecht -3- Stefan Riesen Torsten Abel 12 July 13, 2008 Ronnie Schildknecht -2- Stefan Riesen Frank Vytrisal 11 June 24, 2007 Ronnie Schildknecht Mathias Hecht József Major 10 0July 2, 2006 Stefan Riesen Mathias Hecht Gerrit Schellens 9 July 17, 2005 Christoph Mauch Olivier Bernhard Mitchell Anderson 8th July 25, 2004 Olivier Bernhard -5- Normann Stadler Christoph Mauch 7th July 27, 2003 Olivier Bernhard -4- Stefan Riesen Christoph Mauch 6th July 21, 2002 Olivier Bernhard -3- Christoph Mauch René Rovera 5 0Aug 5, 2001 Péter Kropkó -2- Christoph Mauch Stefan Riesen 4th 0Aug 6, 2000 Olivier Bernhard -2- Péter Kropkó Paul Kemper 3 0Aug 1, 1999 Péter Kropkó Olivier Bernhard Rolf Lautenbacher 2 0Aug 2, 1998 Olivier Bernhard Christophe Buquet Péter Kropkó 1 0Aug 3, 1997 Pierre-Alain Frossard Alexander Taubert Dirk Van Gossum

year First place Second place third place 2021 2020 (called off) 2019 Katrin Esefeld Stephanie Kuhnert Daniela Schwarz 2018 Kaisa Sali Skye Moench Annabel Luxford 2017 Celine Schärer Tine Holst Martina Kunz 2016 Daniela Ryf -2- (SR) Emma Bilham Michaela Herlbauer 2015 Beth Gerdes Mary Beth Ellis Mareen hooves 2014 Daniela Ryf Natascha Badmann Sonja Tajsich 2013 Anja Beranek Celine Schärer Erika Csomor 2012 Erika Csomor Bella Bayliss Simone Brändli 2011 Karin Thürig -3- Amy Marsh Erika Csomor 2010 Karin Thürig -2- Heleen bij de Vaate Monika Lehmann 2009 Sibylle Matter -2- Monika Lehmann Lisbeth Kristensen 2008 Sibylle Matter Kathrin Pätzold Caroline Steffen 2007 Rebecca Preston -2- Sibylle Matter Alison Fitch 2006 Rebecca Preston Nicole Klingler Michaela Giger 2005 Karin Thürig Ewa Dederko Martina Lang 2004 Yvonne Krömker Wenke Kujala Sonja Heubach 2003 Ariane Gutknecht Yvonne Krömker Ute Mückel 2002 Beth Zinkand Jane Fardell Ariane Gutknecht 2001 Silvia Vaupel Angela Milne Ariane Gutknecht 2000 Tara-Lee Marshall Robyn Roocke Ariane Gutknecht 1999 Dolorita Fuchs-Gerber Tara-Lee Marshall Louise Davoren 1998 Heather Fuhr Ariane Gutknecht Bárbara Buenahora 1997 Ute Mückel Ariane Gutknecht Heather Fuhr

Euroman Zurich (1995–1996)

Men	Women
year First place Second place third place Aug 11, 1996 Alexander Taubert -2- Olivier Bernhard Jean Moureau 0Aug 1, 1995 Alexander Taubert	year First place Second place third place 1996 Heike Funk Ariane Gutknecht Katja Mayer 1995 Conny forge house

Swiss Triathlon (1983–1985)

Men	Women
year First place Second place third place   1985 Carl Kupferschmid -3-   1984 Carl Kupferschmid -2- July 23, 1983 Carl Kupferschmid	year First place Second place third place 1985 1984 1983

Web links

• Ironman Switzerland website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Goal Ironman (PDF)
2. ↑ Philippe Cattin: Re: Ironman in SWITZERLAND ??? In: ch.general (Google Groups). June 29, 1995. Retrieved November 11, 2015 . 
3. ^ Report on Euroman 1996 on YouTube from Eurosport
4. ↑ Michele Mueller: Helpers wanted for EUROMAN Zurich !!!! In: ch.general (Google Groups). April 22, 1996, accessed November 11, 2015 . 
5. ^ Report Ironman Switzerland 1997 ( English ) Swiss Triathlon . Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 19, 2015. 
6. ↑ Kurt Denk: Grab, tackle, let go . 2014, ISBN 978-3-7357-1599-9 , pp. 13-16 .
7. ↑ The iron challenge is still in vogue . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 1, 2006.
8. ↑ Dan Empfield: WTC sold to private equity firm . In: slowtwitch.com . September 8, 2008.
9. ↑ BK Sportpromotion, media release: Swiss Triathlon - change in management at BK Sportpromotion AG in Schlieren / Zurich . In: swisstriathlon.ch . December 31, 2010. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Wanda Group acquires IRONMAN for equity value of $ 650 million from Providence Equity Partners ( English ) In: Lava Magazine . August 26, 2015. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Distribution of points and prize money for professional triathletes ( English ) World Triathlon Corporation .
12. ↑ Thun will be the new venue in Switzerland in 2020 (April 4, 2019)
13. ↑ Ironman Switzerland postponed to 2021 - Hawaii also faces cancellation (April 29, 2020)