Conrad Will (July 29, 1941 – September 11, 2002) was one of the early pioneers in the sport of

Triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the d ...

. A member of the famed “San Diego Track Club” and “Horny Toads” running group in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, he competed in some of the earliest triathlons in the late 1970s. In 1981 he participated in the Ironman Triathlon in its first year on the

Big Island of Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of , it has 63% of th ...

. He competed in Ironman Hawaii 6 times in his 40s and 50s. In 1984 he set a world record in the 40-49 age group at the Ultra Distance triathlon in Massachusetts. A few days later, he won the over 40 national title in the Long Course Triathlon in Colorado. Outside of competition he was an even greater contributor to the sport of triathlon. He worked closely with Valerie Silk and the Ironman Triathlon to bring the sport to a larger audience and in 1983, he produced and directed the first ever Ironman “spin-off”, the Ricoh Ironman in

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. That same year he went on to create and co-found the annual three-day

Ultraman (endurance challenge) Ultraman is a three-day, 515 km (320 mile) multisport race modelled on the one held annually on the Big Island of Hawaii which is now called the Ultraman World Championship. "Ultraman" is a branding for events affiliated with the Hawaii orig ...

, also in Hawaii, which more than doubled the distances of the Ironman. In 1984 he was elected board president of the national governing body for the sport

USA Triathlon USA Triathlon (USAT) is the national governing body for the multisport disciplines of triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and winter triathlon in the United States. USA Triathlon is a member federation of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee an ...

, then called Tri-Fed. In his efforts to race faster, Mr. Will also invented and manufactured the ''QWIKFIL'' tire inflation device, which greatly reduced the time needed to repair a flat tire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Will, Conrad American male triathletes 2002 deaths 1941 births