- Over the years there have been some incredible
professional triathletes, some of which
you would have said were capable of winning
the Iron Man World Champs, that sadly
never succeeded despite their impressive record of results.
- Well, with Iron Man World Championships
in Kailua-Kona just around the corner,
we thought that we'd take a look at some of those athletes
who just never managed to make the top step.
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- Well let's start with a current athlete
and an athlete that's also gonna be racing this year,
and that is Ronnie Schildknecht.
Now he is more or less Mr. Ironman Switzerland,
because he is one that raced an outstanding nine times.
And he's someone that I've always thought was capable
of winning at the Ironman World Champs,
but to date hasn't really succeeded in that.
However, he did place fourth in 2008.
But I've gotta say, he's always struggled
to match that of his other performances.
- Yeah, like becoming Swiss National
Duathlon Champion six times.
He's also almost more notably been the first person
to break the sub-eight barrier on U.S. soil,
which was Ironman Florida in 2011.
And that's quite a statistic when you think
about how many people have raced in the U.S. over the years.
And in total he's won 11 Ironmans.
- Yeah very impressive.
And he has actually suggested that the reason
he struggles so much in Hawaii is simply due to the heat.
- Which an awful lot of people comment on themselves.
- Yeah, it is, the heat is a massive barrier
for a lot of people.
And just goes to show how Kona is
such a totally unique beast.
- And one athlete who knows all too well
about the Kona heat is Marino Vanhoenacker from Belgium.
I remember watching Kona 2012, and he
had really established a big lead
leading on to the run, held that close to the energy lap,
but then the wheels fell off.
And we saw some really iconic images of him
slumped on the back of a truck cradling two litres of Coke.
And he ended up in an ambulance, and that was his day done.
- [Mark] Yeah, it's a really tough day.
I thought he had the win in the bag.
And he is an absolute machine.
He has 17 Ironman titles to date.
- (sighing) It's amazing.
- And actually an Ironman, a full distance Ironman title
on every single continent.
And that's not even including his Ironman 70.3 titles.
- And, you know despite all this, he did claim
a third in Kona back in 2010.
But numerous attempts since, they obviously
didn't go well like we just talked about.
And despite getting his slot for Kona
over the last two years, he's disclaimed it.
So it would look like we're probably not
gonna see Marino back there.
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- Well this next athlete is one of the legendary
uber bikers of recent Ironman history, Chris Lieto.
And he was certainly well known for his ability
to ride a bike, and ride a bike fast.
We rarely saw him enter T2 in anything other
than pole position.
And quite often with a sizable lead.
And he had the ability to do this over
non drafting Olympics, 70.3, and of course
full distance Ironman.
- Absolutely. And indeed, Chris had a real ability
to cope with the crosswinds that Kona's famed for,
and he very rarely hit T2 in Kona in anything but the lead.
Started the run in that famed Alii Drive leading the mouth.
In the 2011, he had ridden so fast that he just about broke
Normann Stadler's then bike course record.
He held his lead in the mouth and really far
into the race and only eventual winner,
Craig Alexander, was able to come past him.
So that second place was Chris' best chance at the victory.
And another athlete with incredible consistency
pedigree is Cameron Brown.
He has won Ironman New Zealand...wait for it...
12 times between 2002 through to 2016, which is just
really quite and incredible streak of consistency.
He's been European Ironman champion, countless other
70.3 and Ironman events that he's won.
And he's also been on the podium in Kona,
- [Mark] But has never actually taken the take
like many others.
The best he's managed to succeed with is two second place
finishes in 2001 and 2005.
And then two third place finishes, and guess what?
At 46 years old, he is still racing and he's actually
going to be racing the Ironman World championships
this year.
- Next athlete we're going to talk about is
Andreas Raelert, who's had a fantastic career spanning
two decades which started with a stellar ITU career
and representing Germany at the Sydney and Athens Olympics.
By 2008, he didn't make the Beijing team, but that
persuaded him to start racing one course racing
and in that year he came second at the Clearwater World 70.3
- Yeah, and it set him up for a very successful career
in long distance racing where he seamlessly stacked up to
the full Ironman distance and not only an incredible year,
he also had an incredible debut at Kona
where he placed third.
- And there's very, very few athlete's who've been on
Kona podium in their debut event there.
- Yeah, I struggle to think of many more, and then
the next few years he went back and managed
to end up on the podium again.
He had a second place finish and two more
third place finishes.
- And probably the most notable of those was his 2010
epic battle with Chris McCormack.
- Which I'm sure you'll remember very well.
- I do because I was in the race that day, but quite a bit
behind these two guys I'm afraid.
But, that was just a really iconic moment in the race.
- Well, it was!
I remember watching the video footage, the photos,
the iconic handshakes, sort of out of respect, because they
had this battle shoulder to shoulder throughout the race
which has been likened to the Iron War
- with Dave Scott and Mark Allen back in the day.
But that was the decisive moment in the race really Macca
very soon after surge, took the win, and I thought
Andreas came back in later years, most recently 2015.
He had another second place, which is amazing consistency.
Not that elusive win.
- Well now, let's move on to the women's and if you
have been following the sport triathlon for some time now,
then you'll probably recognise the name Fernanda Keller.
- She was the first Brazilian to race in Kona
as a professional and actually over the years
amass a quite staggering 23 times taking part
on the Big Island, during which she actually made 14
top ten finishes.
- Which is amazing, but she has only ever achieved
highest place third,
and she's managed that 6 times.
- Pretty impressive stats.
- Yeah, and that is all within the era of Paula Newby-Fraser
and even Natasha Badmann.
Next athlete we're going to talk about is triathlon's
very own Xena Warrior Princess.
Well, that's her nickname at least, and we're of course
talking about Caroline Steffen.
2010, 2012 she was ITU long distance world champion,
and in those same years, was also second place in Kona.
And in that latter edition, 2012, she was
leading the race for a long time.
It was actually Leanda Cave passing her deep
in the mouth that essentially stopped her
from winning that race.
That was certainly her closest chance to getting
the title and to date we've not seen her.
- And it was very close because I believe it was just
the last two or three miles that Leanda passed her.
And she actually has a really interesting story
to that date because she started out just two Olympic
distance triathlons and then rocked up to Ironman
Switzerland and placed second in her age group.
- Wow
- But before actually stepping up to professional
triathlons, she was actually invited to compete
for the Rally Lifeforce professional cycling team.
So she tried her hand at cycling for just a bit alongside
the likes of Nicole Cooke and another triathlon star
Karen Touric, but it just didn't really fulfil
that satisfaction for her, so in 2008 she stepped away
from professional cycling and tried her luck
at professional triathlon.
And, well, the rest is history.
- And more laterally, we haven't seen Caroline racing
that much because she stepped away from the scene, to,
well, the birth of her first child.
She has now resumed racing this season, but not at
Ironman distance yet, so hopefully, we'll see
her in Kona again soon.
- Now let's talk about Rachel Joyce.
Now, she actually started out as an age grouper in 2006
focusing on middle distance- 70.3 distance.
And it was on a 70.3 Monaco where she placed first
in her age group and first overall.
And then went to the iron master world champs where she
also placed first in her age group and first overall.
And that really gave her the confidence then to step
up to racing professionally, and actually leaving
her job in London, where she was currently a lawyer.
- And Rachel's rise to the professional ranks was
started with a series of top tens in Kona
in her early years of racing.
2011, she won the ITU World long distance championships
and really, her position as a world leading female athlete
were cemented by her win and Challenge Roth,
you know, a huge event.
This set her up for an extremely consistent period of racing
on the Big Island between 2013 and 15, she had 2 seconds
and a third place.
Let's not forget, Rachel's just one of many British women
who've been super successful on the Big Island,
including Chrissie Wellington, Leanda Cave, Julie Dibens
Liz Blatchford, and of course currently, Lucy Charles.
- Bot our final athlete on the list packs quite a punch.
It is Yvonne Van Vlerken.
And in just over a month's time, she will be turning
40 years old, and she's still racing.
She actually posted a sub-nine hour time in her debut
Ironman back in 2007 at Challenge Roth and then in 2008,
she returned to take the overall title and also posting
a record breaking time, she beat Paula Newby-Fraser's
14 year old record in a time of 8 hours and 45 minutes.
- And actually, she is the only athlete to simultaneously
hold both the half-ironman world record and the full Ironman
distance records, which, when you think about it
is really quite a stat.
She's been second at Ironman World Championships.
She's got an incredible result of races over her career,
but crucially, she's never taken the top step in Kona.
- Well of course we have actually missed a couple
of very big contenders.
- Nah, I'm pretty sure we got them all, Mark.
- Well, you know, Fraser might throw for.
- You're gonna have to do an Ironman, Mark.
- Well, that's very true, very true.
But in all seriousness, that is a very incredible list
of athletes, and I think we picked out some very good ones
there, but obviously there are so many more to choose from.
So, if you have any suggestions, please drop them in
the comment section below.
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- Such as our eight triathletes to watch for 2018 video.
Have a look at that here.
- Yeah, and if you'd like to see our
Ironman World Championship course preview video
that Heather recorded out in Kona last year,
you can watch that by clicking just here.