Triathlon tragedy in storm’s wake claims Toronto athlete and ‘amazing human being’
‘I really hesitate to do a blame game; I just want Ivan back,’ says Ivan Chittenden’s coach after Sunday’s disastrous events in Ireland.
Ivan , 64, of Toronto, died during a triathlon race in Ireland on Sunday.
By Kerry Gillespie Sports Reporter
Toronto’s Ivan was hoping to be fast enough in Sunday’s Ironman triathlon in Cork, Ireland, to qualify for the world championships in his new age category.
He talked to his friend Jim back home about how best to prepare his bike for the ride, given the terrible wet and windy weather brought on by Storm Betty that had already delayed his race by a day. He texted pictures of the fast carbon-fibre-plate running shoes he’d wear in the 21.1-kilometre run
, 64, and Irish competitor Brendan Wall, 44, died during the race’s opening leg, the 1.9-kilometre swim — which organizers went ahead with even though Triathlon Ireland said the water conditions were unsafe and the event was not sanctioned.
Those new Saucony shoes that so excited Chittenden were placed in front of his casket at a ceremony held in Ireland on Tuesday, Schembri said.
“He’s just an amazing human being and I’m going to miss him so much. I wish everybody could have somebody like Ivan in their life just once,” he said.
retired two years ago as a partner at Ernst & Young and divided his time between Toronto and Dallas, where his wife, Siobhan Hyland, is a urologist. He had two stepchildren, Kate and Jack.
He was strictly a runner until his 50s, when he started training for triathlons in part as an outlet after the death of his first wife, Dianne, in 2011. He completed numerous international Ironman 70.3 events (also known as a Half Ironman) such as the one in Cork, as well as multiple full-distance Ironman events. He had run all six world marathon majors, held annually in New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, London and Berlin.
“He was absolutely living his best life,” said Lisa Bentley, who started coaching him 12 years ago. “I’m going to hold on to the fact that he loved what.
“I really hesitate to do a blame game; I just want Ivan back. I can’t have Ivan back. That said, I wish they had sent in somebody into the swim half an hour beforehand, a competent swimmer, and asked them: ‘Can we have a race? What do you think? Are you happy sending your grandmother into that body of water?’ Because we have to consider conditions for the weakest of our athletes; not the best athletes, the weakest.
Triathlon events routinely drop the swim portion, becoming a duathlon, if water conditions are considered to be problematic, even if it’s just concern over water quality.
Chittenden’s race had been scheduled for Saturday but it was postponed a day while organizers worked to clear the road sections of debris after flooding. The location of the swim was also changed and it was shortened.
Dramatic video footage shows rough waves battering swimmers and throwing them back toward rocks as they tried to get in the water.
In a statement, Ironman Ireland said its “on-swim safety team carried out all standard safety protocol checks that are completed at every race and determined water conditions were safe for the swim to take place.”
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