IRONMAN’S
IRON
MA N
Checking in with Graham Fraser
By Stephen Fleck
THE
TWENTY YEARS AGO THIS PAST SUMMER, IRONMAN NORTH AMERICA PRESIDENT GRAHAM FRASER WAS STANDING ON A BEACH JUST OUTSIDE HIS HOMETOWN OF GRIMSBY, ONTARIO. He was staring out at a calm but cold
Lake Ontario. Three hundred keen triathletes were gathered
awaiting his final instructions for the first race that he had ever
organized. Triathlete mag contributor and friend Stephen Fleck
had the good fortune to be there on that hot summer day in 1986,
and he recently had a chance to talk with Fraser about that day, the
two decades that have elapsed since and where his business of running the largest series of Ironman races in the world is headed.
Triathlete: When you were standing on Grimsby Beach at that
first Trisport triathlon in 1986, what were the thoughts going
through your head when the starting gun went off?
Graham Fraser: My thoughts were not what I thought they
would be. As you know, one-third of the field turned around after
about 200 meters of the swim because the water was too cold. I was
petrified! I really did not have a chance to savor the moment
because of that. So, we quickly organized one of the first
duathlons, ever. I also remember being very tired because, just like
a first Ironman, I did not sleep much the night before. We really
did not know what we were doing back then. It was all so new.
