Ironman legend to be inducted into USA Triathlon Hall of Fame
By Jon Ackerman Posted: Jan 14, 9:38a ET Updated: Jan 14, 9:38a ET
Spotlight: Ironman legend Dave Scott
American Dave Scott won six Ironman world championships in the 1980s, a mark matched by only one other person. He’s a member of the Ironman, Triathlon and USA Triathlon Halls of Fame.
Since the gun sounded the start of the first Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in 1978, no human has won more world titles than American Dave Scott’s six (though compatriot Mark Allen later matched the feat). In 1993, Scott became the first member of the Ironman Hall of Fame, which he celebrated by coming out of retirement to compete in Kona at age 40. He finished second and felt so good that he entered again two years later, placing fifth…
…Are you still competing these days?
I still train like a demon, but I got clobbered in May ’09. I was thinking about doing an Ironman; I silently told a few people. By the end of May I was going to make a decision and I really felt quite strong. And I was three-quarters of a mile from my house after riding about 56 miles and this woman did a U-turn in front of me in her SUV, and I was coming down this little grade. I screamed and hollered, locked up my brakes and skidded, and I slammed right into the side of her door. So I shattered my scapula and fractured my hand, wrist, and fingers. Ended up having three surgeries and got a blood clot in my lung. So that kind of curtailed things for quite a while.
But I still have a passion for health/fitness. So I’ll do mostly promotional events. I’ve got a couple this year — one grueling half-Ironman called Savageman (in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland) that has this most-wicked climb. I don’t even know how they pave the hill but it’s about 30 percent grade. I don’t have visions of beating too many of the young stallions but I still like to scare them.
