Always Kona? The Case for a Rotating IRONMAN World Championship

Kona is synonymous with IRONMAN. Pretty much everyone in the sport of triathlon is well aware of just how steeped in history the Big Island is when it comes to the IRONMAN World Championship. There are even people who don’t know triathlon who still know that Kona is the be-all, end-all of the sport. But is that history enough of a reason to keep the championship event in Hawaii indefinitely? Or could IRONMAN, triathlon and the world’s top athletes benefit from a rotating world championship?

Kona or Bust

Kona has been home to IRONMAN since 1981, when long-distance triathlon was still in its infancy. As the decades have passed, the allure of the Big Island has grown exponentially, and today, thousands upon thousands of athletes worldwide show up to races with one goal in mind: to qualify for Kona.

The draw is there for athletes of all levels, from rookies up to the top pros. Just hours after winning his 70.3 world title in Nice, France, last month, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde spoke at the post-race press conference and outlined his objectives for the near future. He has two main goals: win Olympic gold and then head to Kona. That’s how big of a deal Kona is to triathletes — it is mentioned in the same breath as something that has represented the pinnacle of sport for more than a century.

If you look at the various lists of the best triathletes of all time, they are inevitably topped by Kona champions. American Gwen Jorgensen is undoubtedly one of the best to ever do the sport, winning two ITU (now World Triathlon) world crowns and an Olympic gold medal, but the lack of a Kona title (or even a single race on the Big Island) disqualifies her from GOAT (greatest of all time) contention in many people’s books.

It’s the same with Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee. He may have won two Olympic gold medals, two ITU world titles and countless short-course races, but he left his lone campaign in Hawaii with a 21st-place finish, causing many people to rank him lower than men who managed to break the tape in Kona.

Even Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt is stuck in an all-time rankings limbo until he does, or doesn’t, win in Hawaii. Blummenfelt has done pretty much everything else in the sport, winning Olympic gold, a 70.3 world crown and even an IRONMAN world title. He won his IRONMAN world championship in St. George, Utah, though, and there are fans of the sport who say he needs to win in Kona before he can rightfully be considered the GOAT (or at least added to the top two or three of all time).

These lists are of course completely subjective, but that’s the whole point — to a lot of people in the sport, a win in Kona holds so much more weight than even multiple Olympic medals or an IRONMAN world crown at another venue. To leave Kona behind and start a rotating championship may cheapen the IRONMAN world title in the eyes of die-hard triathlon fans.

A Tough Spot

When IRONMAN first introduced the 70.3 World Championship in 2006, the race was a Clearwater, Fla., event. After five years in Florida, it moved to Las Vegas, where it stayed for three seasons. Since then, it has bounced around the world, hitting four continents and nine different countries in a little over a decade.

When IRONMAN opted to split men’s and women’s fields up at the full-distance world championship in 2023, it seemed possible that the event could follow in the footsteps of the 70.3 model and eventually grow from just Kona and Nice into a more global and shared event. There was just one issue — many athletes didn’t like the split, a sentiment plenty of age groupers made known by skipping Nice and waiting to hopefully qualify for Kona a year later instead.

IRONMAN spent four decades building a storied, prestigious race, but that created a double-edged sword when the company wanted to make a change — and it could be the reason the sport will never see another shift away from Kona.

Why Rotate?

A question that comes with this topic is, “Why should IRONMAN consider a rotating championship?” Firstly, there is the matter of geography. Since it’s smack-dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii really isn’t a convenient spot for anyone to visit, but it’s certainly easier for some people to get there than others. Unless you’re from North America, Japan, Australia or New Zealand (or countries in and around those ones), you’re going to have a 12-, 16- or even 20-hour trip to the Big Island.

A rotating championship wouldn’t fix that travel time whenever the race returned to Kona, but it would give IRONMAN the chance to move the event around the world, therefore giving athletes shorter and cheaper trips to compete at the world championship. Look once more to the 70.3 worlds, which were held in New Zealand and Europe over the past three years, are set to return to Chattanooga, Tenn., next year, and will visit Oman in the Middle East in 2029. The world championship is truly around the world, opening the door to different athletes any given year.

Another reason a rotating event is worth some thought is the fact that it could even the playing field, particularly among the pros. Other than the past three years that saw races in Nice and the COVID-19 blip that forced the event to St. George, the IRONMAN World Championship has always been in Kona — and that is where it looks like it will be held for the foreseeable future. That gave (and continues to give) a distinct advantage to athletes who are naturally better at competing in hot and humid conditions.

This could seem like a weak argument — after all, if you want to be world champion, you should train yourself to race well in the heat. Becoming heat-adapted is certainly doable, but there are inevitably going to be athletes who fare better in the heat than others, just as there are people who can deal with colder conditions better than some competitors.

Since 2020, the men have had three chances to vie for a world title in conditions different than those in Kona, while the women have had two. How did those races play out? Blummenfelt won in St. George in 2022 (which was technically the 2021 championship), France’s Sam Laidlow won in Nice in 2023 and another Norwegian, Casper Stornes, won in 2025, also in Nice.

Each of these men were first-time winners of the IRONMAN World Championship. On the women’s side, Germany’s Laura Philipp won her first (and, to date, only) IRONMAN world title in Nice in 2024. The lone athlete to win in this span of years who had won in Kona before was Swiss legend Daniela Ryf, which brings us to the next (and final) point.

Ryf entered that race in St. George as one of the best triathletes ever. She had won in Kona four times, but in St. George, she proved that she wasn’t a one-trick pony. She showed everyone that she could step up at the world championship no matter where it was held. (She’s also a five-time 70.3 world champ, more proof of her versatility.)

Racing in different conditions, she took it to the field in Utah and dominated, winning by close to nine minutes. Racing in St. George may have broken the Hawaii tradition, but it gave Ryf the chance to show that she was an all-around all-time great, not just someone who had cracked the code of Kona (or someone who was predisposed to better races in heat).

How Could It Work?

None of this is to say that IRONMAN should say goodbye to Kona forever. That wouldn’t make anyone happy. Instead, the worlds could visit the Big Island every other year, or even every four. If IRONMAN went the every-two-year route, the championship could follow in the footsteps of the 70.3 worlds, going to a different country every year it isn’t in Kona.

Returning to Kona once every four years could follow the same plan, with the three years away from Hawaii going to random courses around the world, or IRONMAN could set up four stock world championship venues. Kona would be one, along with three other iconic races, such as Frankfurt, Nice, New Zealand, Cairns or Lanzarote.

This would not fix the be-all, end-all vibe that many have around Kona, but it could be a way to broaden the sport, bring even more history to some of the great IRONMAN triathlons around the globe and give pro athletes the chance to fight for world titles on different types of courses and in varying conditions.

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