Competitor Magazine

I’ve got a decent collection of Competitor Magazines. From the late-1980s until the late-1990s. They came from a garage sale in San Diego.

They are broadsheet format. And therefore quite hard to scan. So I probably won’t be adding them to the digital collection.

I used this September 1990 issue to do some research for a podcast about the early history of the United States Triathlon Series. Or USTS.

The magazine was started by Bob Babbitt and Lois Schwartz in June 1987. The content was mainly local to So-Cal. But they also covered wider US running and triathloning as well as some international stuff.

Babbitt sold the magazine in 2007. But continued working there until 2014. November / December 2017 was the last issue of Competitor.

Images: Competitor Magazine September 1990

Bob Babbitt was also one of the first triathlon podcasters. In 1990 he started doing a radio show called The Competitors on the San Diego station The Mighty 690. The show aired every Sunday night between 8 and 10 PM.

Post-live show there was a shorter podcast release. I started listening on my Ipod Nano in 2006. It was pretty funny with interesting guests. Bob’s co-host was former professional triathlete Paul Huddle.

Pleasingly, Bob has started to re-release some episodes from the archives on his YouTube channel and podcast feed. Here’s a good one.