TSP23: The 1983 Los Angeles Ricoh Ironman

03/30/25 • 38 min

In 1988 Valerie Silk and her Ironman company added two more franchise races to their roster. Ironman Europe in Roth. And Ironman Australia in Forster-Tuncurry. That brought the total number to six. With Hawaii, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

However, the first Silk-sanctioned race outside of Hawaii had already come and gone. It was the Ricoh Los Angeles Ironman. In 1983. In this episode we’ll dive into that race. And go over some vital Hawaii Ironman backstory. That sets up a few more episodes about the race.

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/23

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/23

Previous Episode

The Slough Demos Part 1. A Triathlon History Tour.

This is the first in a series of episodes called The Slough Demos. Mainly about what it was like growing up in Slough in the 1980s as a teenage triathlon nerd. TSP2: The Speed And The Sweat was about the first triathlon I ever did. In May 1989 in Wokingham. And these episodes will kind of follow on from that. With some prequel stuff too.
Part 1 is a running tour of Slough that you can do to get an overview of the triathlon history that exists there. The inspiration for this episode came from a YouTube video on the Ginger Runner channel. It’s with Ben Gibbard from the band Death Cab For Cutie. And he describes a 46 mile run he did through Seattle visiting famous local music landmarks.
Enjoying learning more about Slough!

Note: I had a few technical problems with this one. I've got a new portable recorder. And I'm not yet accustomed to setting the correct levels for different situations. I'll probably re-record it. Cheers. Ross.

Next Episode

TSP24: Season Openers Part 1

This episode is Part 1 of a two-parter about Season Openers. The traditional races in the late-1980s that let us know that the tri-season had started. Both domestically and internationally.

The idea came from recently leafing through two triathlon magazines that had significance to my life. That brought back waves of nostalgia from the time when I first got interested in triathlon.

These season opener races were important for the athletes. To validate their fitness after a winter of training. But for the magazine readers. These race reports were all we had. Before Eurosport or live streams or YouTube.

This is how we got to understand the racing and to learn about the athletes. In articles written by familiar names like CJ Olivares Junior, Chip Rimmer, Richard Graham or Terry Mulgannon.

There’d be backstory, play by play race commentary, athlete profiles and a discussion of what the results meant. Therefore building up a season-long narrative to follow along with.

We’d find out if the Big 4 and Mike Pigg were still at the top. And who were the up and coming athletes? As nobody was vlogging or uploading their breakfast to instagram.

And via the excellent photography that accompanied the articles we also got to see the new bikes and kit.

So have a listen. And learn more about the 1988 Lanzarote Triathlon, the Gold Coast World Cup and the Swindon Triathlon in the UK.