Posted: October 9, 2004

Triathlon: Greg Welch To Be Inducted Into Ironman Hall of Fame

Popular Australian Triathlete To Be Awarded Ironman’s Highest Honor In October

Diminutive but dynamic Greg Welch, one of Australia’s finest and most revered celebrity athletes, will be the next inductee to the prestigious Ironman Hall of Fame. The ceremony will be held during the 2004 Ironman Triathlon World Championship race week in Kona, Hawaii, in mid-October.

The announcement by World Triathlon Corporation’s (WTC) President Ben Fertic brought more than 4,000 athletes and fans to their feet who were attending the Ironman Wisconsin pre-race dinner. Welch, long a favored son “down under” and the first non-American to win the Ironman Triathlon World Championship, was by all accounts, thoroughly “chuffed.”

“At first I thought it was a joke,” said a typically modest Welch, 39, in Madison to anchor Ironmanlive’s online coverage of Ironman Wisconsin Sunday. “Once I realized he (Fertic) was serious, I was just blown away. What a tremendous honor – I’m still flying high.”

Welch first traveled to Kona to race Ironman back in 1987, qualifying for repeat visits until his breakthrough win in 1994. He also won the 1996 World Long Distance Triathlon Championships, 1993 World Duathlon Championships and 1990 World Triathlon Championships, making him the only triathlete to win the big four “grand slam” of triathlon. He is also a three-time U.S. Pro Triathlon Champion (1992, 1993, 1999), two-time Ironman Japan winner and five-time Triathlon World Cup champion.

Welch would still be competing at the highest levels if not for a rare and life-threatening heart condition that surfaced during the 1999 Ironman in Hawaii. Known as ventricular tachycardia, the condition is aggravated by the high adrenalin states of athletic competition, and Welch was forced to announce his premature retirement from the sport in January 2000.

But triathlon is in his blood, and he keeps busy coaching, writing and working with WTC in their national and international broadcasts of Ironman events and webcasts..

“We feel Greg’s contribution to the sport of triathlon, and to Ironman in particular, is impossible to adequately describe,” said Fertic. “When I reviewed his resume this week, it says he raced in more than 300 triathlons, winning more than 100 of those events! As he entered the water, he was one-for-three to WIN the race.

”It is however, in my opinion, what Greg has done off the race course that is most impressive in his career,” continued Fertic. “He has worked effortlessly to promote the Ironman experience and the sport of triathlon. His passion and drive to improve the sport and enhance and share the Ironman Experience are unmatched, and we thank him.”

Welch and wife Sian live in Encinitas, California, with their two young daughters, Annie, 2, and Emma, 15 months. He will be traveling to Kona, Hawaii in advance of this year’s October 16 Ironman Triathlon World Championship to prepare for a major role in both broadcast and online coverage of the race, and will be officially inducted into the Ironman Hall of Fame at the event’s Carbo Party on Thursday, October 14.