The abbreviation Kona is for Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, the legendary site of the IRONMAN World Championship. Conducted every year (alongside Nice, France since 2023), Kona’s heat, humidity, and cross-winds render it perhaps the most difficult one-day endurance contest on earth.
Aside from IRONMAN proper, the island of Kona is triathlon heaven. Ho’Omau Endurance has an island presence, offering services and community assistance to the residents and visitors. Kona tradition—the first 1978 IRONMAN to its fabled lava fields course—is endurance sport culture at its finest. Athletes train in the conditions found in Kona twelve months out, not only for the privilege to be invited into the champions’ club but for the fabled Kona climate, where one tests oneself against the island’s harsh conditions.
