Sunday’s Ironman race in Penticton, B.C., marks the end of an era for the international competition that was first held in the city in the 1980s — making it one of the first races under that name in North America.
Ironman Canada-Penticton is hosting the triathlon for the last time, concluding a tradition that has been a cornerstone of the city for decades.
“There’s a huge sadness about it leaving and what that sort of means to the community,” said Jeff Symonds, the 2022 Penticton Ironman champion, who won with a time of eight hours, 38 minutes and three seconds. “Even for the people coming up that might not have seen too many Ironmans in their days, it’s unfortunate.”
Symonds will be among the more than 2,000 participants this weekend in what is expected to be the last Ironman race in Penticton and in B.C. for the foreseeable future.
The race usually consists of a 3.8 kilometre swim, a hilly 180 kilometre bike ride and a 42.2 kilometre run, although this year the swim portion was cancelled last minute due to cool water temperatures, according to Ironman’s athlete tracker app.
Last month, Ironman Canada announced the race will move to Ottawa in 2025, expressing gratitude to Penticton for hosting the triathlon for more than three decades.
Penticton, located in B.C.’s Okanagan, was the first Canadian city to host an Ironman triathlon, becoming home to the endurance race from the 1980s until 2012.
“It has been a part of our identity, it has been a part of who we are,” Symonds said.
In 2013, Ironman relocated to Whistler in the Coast Mountains, before returning to Penticton in 2019 under a new five-year agreement with event organizers.
LISTEN | Jeff Symonds speaks about Penticton’s Ironman
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Jeff Symonds says this is his favourite time of the year because it’s Ironman weekend in his hometown of Penticton but it’s bittersweet because it’s the final edition of the race as it’s not returning to the Okanagan next year
However, in recent years, Ironman has faced challenges in the South Okanagan.
Susie Ernsting, Ironman Canada’s race director, noted the race was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and again in 2023 because of the wildfires.
“It’s pretty sad to be leaving this town,” she told CBC News. “Penticton has always been so welcoming. It was here I did my first Ironman in 2010, so it means a lot to me to be able to put on the last race.”
Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield says bidding farewell to the race is difficult but it’s something the city has to accept.
“[Registration numbers] are not strong enough to continue anyway and we accept that and we move on.”
“The economics are very, very tough and [with] the draw they get from the larger population centres like Ontario, they get more chance of making it viable in those centres,” he said.
A brief history of Ironman
According to its official website, the Ironman triathlon was born in 1978 when Judy and John Collins organized the first race in Hawaii, blending swimming, biking, and running. The event gained worldwide fame in 1982 with American triathlete Julie Moss’s dramatic crawl to the finish, becoming an iconic moment in sports history.
Among the people who saw Moss’s finish was Lynn Van Dove, a key figure in bringing the Ironman race to Penticton.
Dove, originally from Dallas, quickly became involved in Penticton’s community after moving to the city, joining a tourism association and the well-known Penticton Peach Festival.
The festival, dating back to the late 1940s, drew crowds with its rodeos, parades, and industrial shows, but Dove noticed that the city was quiet the rest of the year. To boost tourism, she suggested hosting a triathlon.
And in 1983, Dove and her friends organized the first triathlon with Ironman distances in Penticton. By 1986, Penticton hosted the first official Ironman event in continental North America outside Hawaii.
“It created a base for sports tourism, which is what Ironman became all over the world,” she said. “The allure of Ironman was its exotic locations.”
Dove managed the race annually until 1991 and witnessed its growth, noting how ideal Penticton was as a venue.
Ironman defending champion Symonds agrees.
“[Penticton] is just a great place for swimming, biking and running. We’ve got some amazing lakes here.”
Despite this being the final edition of the race in Penticton, Symonds remains optimistic.
“One thing as an Ironman athlete, you’re trying to train or reframe everything as a positive,” Symonds said.
More than 2,000 athletes from Canada and around the world, including Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany, are participating in Sunday’s Ironman race.