“As we get closer and closer to August, more and more racing gets scheduled and these athletes build form and build momentum. I must pay attention, because we want to pick the best team we can.”
Craig Alexander
The Collins Cup was inspired by and named after Judy and John Collins, who 40 years ago were instrumental in establishing the sport of triathlon by inaugurating a long distance event on the idyllic shores of Hawaii, where they were stationed while John was a Commander in the US Navy. Inspired by their recent experience in short distance triathlon in California, they designed a long distance, around-the-island event in Hawaii, by adding a long bicycle leg to existing swimming and running events. The winner was to be considered the best all-round athlete.
Since that fateful day, triathletes, male and female, have established themselves as some of the fittest athletes on the planet. From its earliest days, the competition has included men and women racing the same distance, over the same course, on the same day for equal prize money. This has always been an important principle of the Collins’ and the cornerstone of the philosophy of the Professional Triathletes Organisation.
The Collins Cup was inspired by and named after Judy and John Collins, who 40 years ago were instrumental in establishing the sport of triathlon by inaugurating a long distance event on the idyllic shores of Hawaii, where they were stationed while John was a Commander in the US Navy. Inspired by their recent experience in short distance triathlon in California, they designed a long distance, around-the-island event in Hawaii, by adding a long bicycle leg to existing swimming and running events. The winner was to be considered the best all-round athlete.
Since that fateful day, triathletes, male and female, have established themselves as some of the fittest athletes on the planet. From its earliest days, the competition has included men and women racing the same distance, over the same course, on the same day for equal prize money. This has always been an important principle of the Collins’ and the cornerstone of the philosophy of the Professional Triathletes Organisation.
The Collins Cup was inspired by and named after Judy and John Collins, who 40 years ago were instrumental in establishing the sport of triathlon by inaugurating a long distance event on the idyllic shores of Hawaii, where they were stationed while John was a Commander in the US Navy. Inspired by their recent experience in short distance triathlon in California, they designed a long distance, around-the-island event in Hawaii, by adding a long bicycle leg to existing swimming and running events. The winner was to be considered the best all-round athlete.
Since that fateful day, triathletes, male and female, have established themselves as some of the fittest athletes on the planet. From its earliest days, the competition has included men and women racing the same distance, over the same course, on the same day for equal prize money. This has always been an important principle of the Collins’ and the cornerstone of the philosophy of the Professional Triathletes Organisation.
Natascha “The Swiss Miss” Badmann is truly a legend of the sport, not just because of her six IRONMAN® World Championship victories in Hawaii, but the incredible longevity of her career, her passion for triathlon and her positive attitude.
Having become a mother at 17, it would be several years before Badmann set the prototype for supermom athletes as one of triathlon’s most dominant performers. Originally taking up jogging in her early 20s to lose weight, kick an eating disorder and find her true self from a broken past, Badmann first found her passion and talent for multisport competition as a duathlete.
Her incredible bike power and pure running strength earned second place at the duathlon world champs in 1994 and first the following year. She also raced Olympic distance triathlon, becoming European Champion in 1997 and collecting over 30 medals at international championships. Her first big long-distance win was at Powerman Zofingen in 1996 – an infamously tough race.
Her rookie IRONMAN® race was Kona 1996, where she came second only to fellow legend Paula Newby-Fraser. Always racing with a smile, Badmann returned to take victory in 1998 – the first European ever to do so. This began an era of dominance with wins on the Big Island following in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005.
While leading the race in 2007, a huge bike crash threw Badmann to the tarmac, destroying several parts in both of her shoulders and requiring two surgeries. The doctor’s prediction: “You’ll never be able to swim or race again.” Refusing to believe this, Badmann spent years fighting her way back, her overwhelmingly positive attitude keeping her in the sport she loves.
After getting back to fitness with second at IRONMAN® Lanzarote in 2011, Badmann won IRONMAN® South Africa and came sixth in Kona the following year, setting the day’s fastest bike split at age 45. Badmann competed her last IRONMAN® Kona in 2016, 20 years after her first start. She continues to race, using her legendary status to inspire others while taking first at IRONMAN® 70.3 Oman and India in 2019 and 2020.
Badmann lives in Switzerland with her husband and long-time coach Toni Hasler. Both pioneers of the sport, they heralded new training methods, developing mental techniques, nutrition strategies and aerodynamic advantages that took the sport to previously unknown levels. Today, both Natascha and Toni remain inextricably linked to triathlon. Badmann works as a business coach and motivational speaker – skills that she will combine with experience from her glittering pro career to lead Team Europe in the battle for the Collins Cup.
A head-to-head showdown in Samorin among the world’s greatest athletes will determine who rules triathlon
Normann “The Norminator” Stadler (born February 25, 1973). Winner of the 2004 and 2006 IRONMAN® Triathlon World Championship, Kona.
Normann ran his first marathon at 11 years old. Later, he became a triathlete and was a member of the German national team in 1988. He won a world duathlon title in 1994. He first competed at the IRONMAN® World Championship in 1999 as an age-group athlete. He took third place in 2000, fourth place in 2001 and 2003, and then he won in 2004.
Following his 2004 IRONMAN® World Championship, Stadler was expected to do well in the 2005. However, he withdrew from the race after suffering three tire punctures and a bleeding bee sting on the thigh and in the process created one of the most iconic moments of all time at Kona, in a fit of rage, “the Norminator” threw his bike into the Kona lava fields… a devastating moment for Stadler’s defense of his title, but an unmissable watch for the rest of us who could sympathise with Stadler’s frustrations!
In 2006, Normann returned to Kona to compete in the IRONMAN® World Championships. Stadler swam fast enough to exit the water only moments behind the race leaders. Once on the bike course, Stadler managed to gain over 10 minutes on the chase pack, setting a bike course record at 4:18:23 (26 mph). Australian Chris McCormack came within 71 seconds of Stadler but was unable to get any closer.
On July 5, 2011, following successful heart surgery, Stadler announced his retirement from professional triathlon racing, but continues to be involved in the sport he truly loves at every opportunity. Has triathlon ever seen more passion? Undoubtedly the Norminator will instill the same in Team Europe!
Simon “The Olympian” Whitfield (born 16 May 1975). Whitfield won 10 consecutive Canadian Triathlon Championships titles and carried the Canadian national flag during the 2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Sydney, where he had won his gold medal, and the opening ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, making him one of few athletes to be honoured twice as Olympic flag bearer.
In Sydney, Whitfield got up off the ground after he and 14 other riders crashed in the bike race portion of the event and worked his way back near the leaders. In the foot race, he cut down the field one at a time then put on a finishing kick to take the victory. His final time was 1:48:24.02, which until 2012 stood as the fastest Olympic triathlon.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics Whitfield won a silver medal, after a sprint duel on the blue carpet with Jan Frodeno, current European Collins Cup Team member.
Whitfield retired in 2013 and in 2017, he was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
If anyone knows how to deal with the highs and the lows of competition at the highest level and still come out on top, it’s “The Olympian”!
Erin “The Activist” Baker MBE. Baker was originally coached by John Hellemans but controlled and developed her successful career by self-training, “I was self-trained. I just trained as much as my body would handle, and that was a shit load. I trained and trained, and I trained more if I had time. I never got injured so I would often do more in case somebody else was training while I was resting”.
In 1981 she was convicted of throwing explosive devices while protesting during the South African Rugby team tour of New Zealand. This act prevented her from entering the United States for several years, restricting her from competing in any American competitions. Baker was also known for her protests at the Hawaii IRONMAN® competitions when she rebelled against the notion of the winner of the men’s division receiving a car and the women’s division winner receiving nothing for her efforts. She voiced her opinions on numerous occasions and as a result was well known as a controversial athlete.
She finished her triathlon career in 1994 with a record of 104 wins from 121 triathlons entered.
Baker was named “Triathlete of the Decade” by American magazine Triathlete. The magazine commented on her success by saying, “We’ve stopped trying to figure Erin out, we just accept her as the best female triathlete that ever lived”.
In the 1993 New Year Honours, Baker was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to Triathlon.
Chrissie “Smiles” Wellington OBE won the IRONMAN® World Championship in three consecutive years (2007–2009), but could not start the 2010 World Championship race because of illness. She returned in 2011, but was suffering from injuries so severe that her coach said she should “not even be on the start line” – nonetheless, she battled to her fourth title. She is the first British athlete to hold the IRONMAN® Triathlon World Championship, and was undefeated in all thirteen of her races over the IRONMAN® distance. She is the only triathlete, male or female, to have won the World Championship less than a year after turning professional, an achievement described by the British Triathlon Federation as “a remarkable feat, deemed to be a near impossible task for any athlete racing as a rookie at their first World Championships.”
Her current long course world record of 8 hours 18 minutes 13 seconds set in 2011 was more than 32 minutes faster than the record which stood from 1994 to 2008. Following her 2010 world record, Wellington was described as “a person of true international sporting excellence that is overshadowed by no one in any other sport.” Sports Illustrated described Chrissie as “The World’s Greatest Female Athlete”.
These days, the Queen of Smiles is devoted to her passion for promoting physical activity for all through her instrumental role as Global Head of Health & Wellbeing for the global phenomenon, parkrun. Chrissie’s competitive fire still burns, and no one on the face of the earth will be more focused on victory when it comes to leading Team Europe into battle for The Collins Cup!
Lisa “Super-Smiler” Bentley Lisa began her career teaching high school mathematics in Canada, spending weekends and summers training and competing in triathlons. After a few years achieving top racing results, she decided to leave teaching and explore professional athletics.
In 1988, she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis but decided that it wouldn’t stop her pursuing her passion for triathlon at the highest elite level. She says, “The fact may be that you have an obstacle, but it is how you think about that obstacle that determines its manageability.”
During her Pro career she went on to win eleven IRONMAN® races, including five IRONMAN® Australia wins in a row. In 2006, Lisa finished third at IRONMAN® Hawaii and just three weeks later finished second at the 70.3 IRONMAN® World Championships. Lisa called her 2007 win at IRONMAN® Canada one of the most special: she was plagued by a heel injury and wasn’t even sure if she could finish, but her positive attitude drove her to her third IRONMAN® Canada title. No wonder she is the “Super-Smiler”.
After her racing career, Lisa has remained deeply involved in triathlon, as a speaker, writer, coach and consultant. She is the author of An Unlikely Champion and has advised a number of top Canadian athletes as well as corporations and senior executives. She also promotes the need for greater research as part of the Cure4CF campaign.
Craig “Crowie” Alexander (born 22 June 1973) In December 1995, Alexander raced in his first professional triathlon in Sydney, Australia and notched his first win later that same year. Alexander focused on ITU and Olympic Distance racing in the first portion of his triathlon career, racing in France and becoming a dominating force in the US Olympic Majors (Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles – ‘The Triple Crown’). He won the prestigious Olympic Distance Triple Crown in 2004.
Perhaps the sweet spot for Alexander was the half distance, winning everything in sight including the debut of the IRONMAN® 70.3 World Championships in 2006 . That win qualified Alexander for the full distance IRONMAN® Hawaii World Championships the next year (2007) where he finished an astounding 2nd place in his first attempt in the lava fields.
In 2008 and 2009, Alexander dominated the IRONMAN® World Championships with his blazing foot speed and became only the 4th man in history to win back-to-back IRONMAN® World titles. But it was 2011, where Alexander the Great had perhaps his finest year in IRONMAN® racing, becoming the first athlete to win both the 70.3 and the IRONMAN® World Championships the same year.
In 2014, Craig retired from full distance racing to solely focus on the half distance and launch his own brand, Sansego (meaning; Without Ego), a mantra the Sydney native became known for in triathlon circles around the globe.
Amongst his multisport performances and victories over the course of his 25-year career, Alexander has been the recipient of many awards including the Triathlete of the Year (4x), the Australian Sportsperson of the Year, and the prestigious Order of Australia medal.
Karen “The Unbreakable One“ Smyers is a USA Triathlon legend, who retains an unquenchable passion for her sport. Competitively, Smyers won the ITU Olympic distance World Championship in both 1990 and 1995, and completed an historic double by taking the IRONMAN® World Championship in that same year of 1995. Smyers also won the 1996 ITU Long Course World Championship, took seven World Cup wins, Pan American gold in 1995 and 1999, and won the ITU Triathlon World Cup overall title in 1991.
Smyers is equally well known for her survival instincts. She came back from a sliced hamstring (suffered while changing a storm window), suffered a collapsed lung and multiple broken bones when hit by an truck on a training ride, shook off a broken collarbone and multiple injuries in a 1999 race crash (which ended her 17-year streak of never dropping out of a race ), and also survived a bout with thyroid cancer in 1999. Now a mother of two, she is described by ‘Slowtwitch’ as “gracious…, humble…the triathlon star most age groupers would like to have beer with…”
Mark “The Grip” Allen (born January 12, 1958) was voted in an ESPN poll as the “Greatest Endurance Athlete Of All Time.” Mark is a six-time winner of the IRONMAN® World Championship, the winner of the inaugural ITU Triathlon World Championship, a ten time undefeated winner of the Nice International Triathlon, and the the holder of one of the longest records in endurance sports with his 2:40:04 marathon split set in 1989. That record stood for 27 years.
Mark is also the holder of a record 21 straight wins at every multi-sport distance and discipline that lasted over two seasons starting at the end of 1988 and continuing through the end of 1990. He resides in Santa Cruz, California and is the founder of Mark Allen Coaching. Mark’s passion is coaching athletes at all levels of the sport.
Who do you think could battle their way into contention before the deadline?