Ironkids Worlds 1985
This is from the first year of IronKids. The title calls it IronKids Worlds but in the article they refer to the event as the Colonial Iron Kids National Championships.
Later, the series was named after Rainbo. A type of chemical-bread made by Colonial. Here’s a video. It features TJ Fry. He raced some early draft-legal World Cups. And he’s still involved in triathlon.
Other alumni include:
Nick Radkewich (2000 Olympian), Laura Reback-Bennett (2008 and 2012 Olympian), Hunter Kemper (2000, 2004, 2008 Olympian) and Lance Armstrong (1989 and 1990 US Sprint Triathlon Champion).
It seems the series was eventually sponsored and / or managed by Hy-Vee and ended in 2013. Now World Triathlon Corporation just organise Fun Runs for children. Strange. With all the resources they have.
Still. There are plenty of other great triathlons for children out there. I get to lots. In the UK, France and Germany. We even have a local series of five events, called the Oberbayern Kids Cup.
The IronKids my brother did at Christ’s Hospital School in 1989 certainly wasn’t connected to the World Triathlon Corporation. You could throw around the word Iron quite liberally in the 80s.
We’d just got back from Florida where we’d bought a stash of triathlon kit not yet available in the UK. Although we took his Profile Aero 2s off in the van, he still rode his Uni-Disc. And won.
Two other things to note on this page above. Yes. Like at Caesar Creek we used to fit the race distances to the local geography. And. Doesn’t the Minnesota Border to Border Triathlon look cool?
