Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's marathon 10 kilometre events require different tactics and showcase several different racing strategies that are more common to competitive cycling, marathon running and water polo than traditional pool swimming. It is one of the few Olympic sports where the athlete's coaches play a critical role during the actual event. The coaches have four opportunities to provide drinks to their athletes as the athletes swim by floating pontoons in the course. If the coach falls in the water, his or her athlete is immediately disqualified. Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's marathon 10 kilometre The women's marathon 10 kilometre event at the
2008 Ironman World Championship 2008 Ironman World Championship The 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship was held on October 11, 2008 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It was the 32nd such Ironman Triathlon World Championship, which has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978. The champions were Craig Alexander and Chrissie Wellington. The championship was organised by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). The championship race had a total of 1,731 athletes competing (1,256 men and 475 women) from 51 countries started the race with 1,634 finished, 94 did not finish and 3 were disqualified. A maximum temperature of 81.6 °F (27.6 °C) made for warm racing conditions