Nation related participation and performance trends in ‘Ironman Hawaii’ from 1985 to 2012

Abstract Background This study examined participation and performance trends in ‘Ironman Hawaii’ regarding the nationality of the finishers. Methods Associations between nationalities and race times of 39,706 finishers originating from 124 countries in the ‘Ironman Hawaii’ from 1985 to 2012 were analyzed using single and multi-level regression analysis. Results Most of the finishers originated from the United States of America (47.5%) followed by athletes from Germany (11.7%), Japan (7.9%), Australia (6.7%), Canada (5.2%), Switzerland (2.9%), France (2.3%), Great Britain (2.0%), New Zealand (1.9%), and Austria (1.5%). German women showed the fastest increase in finishers (r2 = 0.83, p < …