It’s race week here in Nice, and the world’s best professional and age-group Ironman athletes are on hand to take on the challenging course here on the French Riviera. We’ll do our best to deliver lots of race-week action, but we’ll get things started with some of the facts and figures for Sunday’s race:
How many women?
Yes, that’s been the big question. Would a world championship race in Nice attract as many women as the race in Kona did last year? Most of us didn’t think it would, and we were right. According to Ironman, there will be “more than 1,400 registered athletes in the race.” The word is that the official number of registrants is 1,471, but who knows how many will actually toe the line on Sunday. It probably won’t be far off that number – the world championship events don’t typically see a big drop off compared to other Ironman races.
Where are they from?
Forty-seven per cent of the athletes are from Europe, with 36 per cent from North America. Then there’s Latin America with six per cent, Oceania and Asia with five per cent. The final two per cent of the field are from Africa and the Middle East.
The US has the most athletes – 447. Then you have: UK – 150, Germany – 124, France – 83, Australia – 54.
More facts and figures:
- American Missy Lestrange, who is 72, is the oldest woman in the field.
- The average age of the athletes registered is 43
- About 1,000 volunteers will help the athletes complete their day on Sunday.
- The bike course includes 2,400 m of climbing (7,900 feet)
- The first long-distance race was hosted in Nice in 1982
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