(Image: www.scotttinley.com)
A new website has been launched by two-time Ironman world champion Scott Tinley and journalist Mike Plant, described as a collaborative scrapbook of the history of triathlon.
At launch trihistory.com features articles, photos and narratives from the founders' own personal archives, although Tinley and Plant hope that readers will be willing to join the project and add their own stories.
“Mike and I feel the same about our disparate but connected pasts in the sport,” said Tinley. “We could not have been more fortunate to be cast into those early cauldrons, to be standing on the swampy sands of Fiesta Island looking at each other and just laughing at how much damn fun this really hard new sport could be. There was something about triathlon and perhaps it’s only now that we can all step back and ask WTF was that all about?"
Tinley made his name in triathlon competing against the likes of Dave Scott, Mark Allen and Scott Molina, and won twice on the biggest stage of all – Kona – in 1982 and 1985. Plant meanwhile is a photojournalist and author of the book 'Iron Will', which covers the history of the Hawaii Ironman.
“Scott and I personally own volumes of historically significant information – and have access to a lot more” said Plant. “Most of it was seen originally by a relatively small audience; some of it was never published at all. I see this site as kind of a big scrapbook, personally narrated by the people who were there at the time.”
The founders warn that their new website is not an exhaustive database for statistics, but rather a place where triathletes can get together and tell stories. "With the help of you, our readers, we will tell the stories behind the stories – tales that for one reason or another never made it into the published record," they add.