Triathlon

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A Triathlon is an athletic event made up of three contests (from the Greek). Nowadays, the name triathlon is mostly applied to a combination of swimming, cycling and running, in that order.

This form of triathlon was first held by the San Diego Track Club in the 1970s. The first major triathlon event, the Ironman Triathlon, was organized in 1978 and held in Hawaii.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) was founded in 1989.

The sport made its debut on the Olympic program at the Sydney Games in 2000.

There are a number of standard triathlon race distances, including

Sprint Distance Triathlon: 750 meters swim / 20 km bike / 5 km run
Olympic Distance Triathlon: 1.5 km swim / 40 km bike / 10 km run
Half-Ironman Triathlon: 1.9 km (1.2 mile) swim / 90 km (56 mile) bike / 21 km (13.1 mile) run
Ironman Triathlon: 3.8 km (2.4 mile) swim / 180 km (112 mile) bike / 42 km (26.2 mile) run

Though there can be some variation in race distances, the standards to which most race directors conform are those given above.

There is also a winter variant of this sport that's raced in snow-covered conditions and which usually consists of cross country skiing, mountain biking and running legs (in that order).

Another popular variant are so-called offroad triathlons that consist of swimming, mountain biking and trail running