An archive of triathlon magazines from 1983 until 1996. Click on magazine titles to see the issues I’ve scanned so far. PDF donations of magazines from this period will be gratefully received.
Triathlon (USA): Launched in February 1983 by the team at Swim Swim Magazine in Santa Monica. In 1982 they had tested the concept by printing one issue of a magazine they called Swim Bike Run.
Tri-Athlete (USA): Launched by Bill Katovsky in May 1983 out of San Francisco. An early investor in Katovsky’s project was Belgian Jean-Claude Garot, the publisher of Winning Magazine.
Tri-Athlete (UK): Launched in January 1986 on blue paper and inserted into Tri-Athlete (USA). A colour version debuted in May 1987. At the end of 1987 Tri-Athlete (UK) became a 52 page stand-alone magazine. Changed name to Triathlete in May 1990. Returned to a UK cover-mount on the US version.
Tri-Athlete (FR): Launched in June 1985 by Jean-Claude Garot in Brussels and the team at Tri-Athlete in California. Changed name to Triathlete in May 1990. Closed at the end of 2020.
Tri-Athlet (DE): Launched in January 1988.
Triathlete (USA): Triathlon and Tri-Athlete merged in July 1986 to create Triathlete. Jean-Claude Garot bought the magazine out-right in 1988.
TED (FR): Launched by former Tri-Athlete journalist and photographer, Max Malaurent in August 1992. There were 13 regular issues and a Hawaii Special. The last one was published in March 1994.
220 (UK): Launched in March 1989 by John Lillie. 220 is still around today. But John Lillie sold it in 1997.
British Triathlon Scene (UK): Published from March 1989 to April 1990.
Triathlon (UK): Launched in May 1990 as a supplement in Running Magazine. But the quarterly title only made it to maybe six issues before Running Magazine was absorbed into the US title Runner’s World sometime in 1993.
One of the main contributors, Karin Zeitvogel, had worked at Tri-Athlete and persuaded the editor of Running, Nick Troop, to create Triathlon. Karin also owned the specialist Triathlon shop Wholly Fit in London.
Running Magazine (UK): See above. this title sometimes had triathlon content before they started the Triathlon supplement.
Triathlon Magazin (DE): A 1980s German magazine from the makers of the running publication Spiridon between 1985 and 1997. From 1998 onwards the triathlon content was absorbed into the running title.
The French language running magazine Spiridon was launched in Switzerland in 1972. And a German language version was first published in 1974 by journalist and 1972 Olympic marathoner Manfred Steffny.
Triathlon Ireland (IRE): I only have one copy of this. It was included in a race goody bag in 1989. And I don’t have any other information.
Athletics Today (UK): An early-90s rival to Athletics Weekly. I’m only the scanning the issues with Sun Life Great Race reports.
Today’s Runner (UK): Sometimes covered triathlon in the 1980s. Responsable for the Try-A-Tri initiative. This is how I got into triathlon.
Athletics Weekly (UK): Absolutely THE number one historical athletics source. Founded by Jimmy Green in 1945. I’ll only be scanning issues with content relevant to blog or podcast stories.
Winning (BE): Started by Jean-Claude Garot in 1983. To cover European Professional Cycling in English. Garot also owned all the
Tri-Athlete titles in the 1980s. I only have 3 issues at the moment.
Tri News (UK): This was / is the official members magazine of the BTA / BritTri. I had loads in the 90s. But only have one now.