Categorized | Featured, Multi-sport, Sports

Moss inducted to Triathlon Hall of Fame

Missy LeStrange, John McLaren and Julie Moss (Photo courtesy of Paul Phillips)

MEDIA RELEASE

Three outstanding multisport athletes who helped define the landscape of triathlon have been inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame.

Age-grouper Missy LeStrange, paratriathlon pioneer Jim MacLaren and the iconic Julie Moss have all left indelible marks on the still-growing community.

Moss was introduced by longtime sports broadcaster Jim Lampley who recalled for the audience how Moss’s incredible crawl to the finish line at the 1982 Ironman World Championship made such a lasting impression.

“People in edit rooms were blown away,” Lampley said. “We knew we had to get it on the air in exactly the right way.”

“I was being transformed into someone who felt like I deserved to be thinking of myself as someone who was good at something,” said Moss of the final 400 meters of her memorable finish.

LeStrange was honored for her phenomenal career during which she won 14 Ironman events and competed in a total of 24.

MacLaren’s left leg was amputated below the knee following a 1985 accident and, through his rehabilitation, he discovered triathlon and a welcoming community.

He finished the 1989 Ironman World Championship in 10 hours, 42 minutes — a record that stood for 11 years — before a second accident left MacLaren a quadriplegic.

MacLaren passed away in 2010.

Bob Babbitt, himself a Hall of Famer, remembered MacLaren as a man who set out to change perceptions.

For MacLaren, “it wasn’t about being accepted,” Babbitt said. “It was about showing that someone with a prosthetic could do anything.”

The USA Triathlon Hall of Fame was founded in 2008, and this year’s class brings the total number of inductees to 22.

— Find out more:
www.usatriathlon.org
www.ironman.com

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