IRONMAN Athletes Ready for Action
Thousands head to Swansea to watch swimming, cycling and running
Some of Britain’s top athletes are in Swansea today (Sunday, August 7) as the city hosts the first IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea event.
Double-Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee will be among the elite athletes taking to the water and the roads across the city and Gower.
Around 2,000 athletes will be participating in the IRONMAN 70.3 event, 700 from the Swansea area alone, with around 10,000 spectators expected to line the route.
Top IRONMAN professionals will include Britain’s Kat Matthews. She won the 2021 IRONMAN UK race in Bolton and came second at the IRONMAN World Championship event in May this year.
Robert Francis-Davies, council cabinet member for investment, regeneration and tourism, said the weekend promises to be an amazing event on Swansea’s doorstep, with the 70.3 alone boosting local tourism and businesses by around £2.5m.
He said: “Alistair Brownlee made his mark on the world of athletics in our incredible Olympic summer of 2012 when he won his first gold in the triathlon. He repeated the feat in 2016.
“That was the same year in which he and brother Jonny made international front page headlines when Alistair helped his exhausted brother over the line in the Triathlon World Series.
“Now he’s coming here for the first time and his presence alongside nearly 40 other pro athletes – including the incredible Kat Matthews - is a measure of how big an event IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea is."
Swansea’s IRONMAN event was sold out to participants within two days of going on sale and has attracted an international field with competitors travelling from the USA, Australia, South Africa and across Europe.
The IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea course starts with a 1.2-mile swim in Prince of Wales Dock and includes a 56-mile bike ride through the Gower and a half-marathon run, finishing at Museum Green in the city centre.