Ironman and Ironman Hawaii only started in 1978, so it took a decade or two for people to figure out how to race the distance and for people to figure out about it. The increased popularity over the years made it more competitive and serious for the pro's, and newer athletes had information from previous years to help them train and prepare. There's a lot more sports science involved, Norwegians love that kind of stuff which is why they've seen two gold medals in the past 3 years. I agree with you, it had a lot more heart back then. I had the 2004 tape and my dad competed there in 2005, and it seems like in the 2010s the sport became a lot more flashy and bourgeoisie and less gritty.

If you think doping was less prevalent in the 90’s as it is today you live never paid attention to sports before.

⁠@@jhands1988Is there any study that you are aware of that measures the prevalence of doping in the early 90s vs today? I know that doping was much less sophisticated back then compared with the present day. There were a bunch of cyclists dropping dead back then until it was figured out that your hematocrit shouldn’t be 70% as Bjarne Riis’ reportedly was. Perhaps the Ironman research is out there that explains that running shoes, bike aerodynamics/technology, nutrition, new training principles, etc. can explain why Daniela Ryf and Lucy Charles Barkley are so far superior to Natascha Badmann, Paula Newby-Fraser, Michelle Jones, etc. I would be very interested in seeing research to specifically explain and quantify the differences between these different generations of athletes of the last 20-30 years.

I agree totally. I had this on VHS as a kid. And I played it so much that I wore the tape out. I love how much time and production was focused on the physiological challenges that the atheltes faced during the event, just as much as the physical challenges. Not one of the athletes featured in this event was arrogant or a chest thumper or said look at me. They all had a certain humbleness that was refreshing. Each of the winners here had to overcome phsychological challanges during the day to win. Richard Wells jumped out to the huge early lead and the experts all did not expect him to hold the lead and thought he would fade back to the middle of the pack in the bike and run. When Andrew Macnaughton passed him on the bike, doubt started to creep in for a short time, but he quickly over came that, regained the lead and never looked back. Kristen Hansen nearly had to quit the race after suffering from cramps during the bike and falling way behind. Then as a relative newcomber had to face the hard challenge in competing against two of the alltime great women in triathletes in Colleen Cannon and Paula Newby Frasier. Even the Jack Careess segment was so brilliantly done as it showed the challenge of just a guy who was not there to win but just there for the experience and to say he did it and having to overcome a body that was struggling and wanted to quit in order to push through to the very end.

There are 28 videos I digitized from VHS tapes. All from TV.

@@kaia6142 you don’t have 1989,1990,1992,1993 Alcatraz do you?