2026 Challenge Xiamen (Xiamen Triathlon Open) will be held November 7–8 along the Huandong Romantic Coastline in Tong'an District, Xiamen.
 
The event's biggest highlight is undoubtedly the "Norwegian duo" Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden — two of the top men's triathletes will appear in China together.
 
Kristian Blummenfelt

To date the only male triathlete to complete the "career Grand Slam" of an Olympic triathlon gold medal, IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship title and IRONMAN World Championship title; his maximal VO2 max is 101, the highest known value.

At the 2022 Pho3nix Sub7/Sub8 Challenge he posted 6:44:25 to become the first athlete to break the 7-hour barrier over the full triathlon distance.
 
In his last 10 races he has stood on the podium 9 times, with 6 victories. At the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona this October he is, without doubt, the favorite to win. This Challenge Xiamen will be his mainland China debut.
 
Gustav Iden
 
In 2018 Iden made his first appearance in China, winning the Weihai, Shandong Triathlon World Cup in 1:53:11.
 
He rose to fame afterward, winning the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in 2019 and 2021. Because he won wearing a cap embroidered with the Chinese characters "埔盐顺泽宫", Chinese fans have nicknamed him the "Hat Guy."

At the 2022 Kona World Championship he won, breaking two records (overall time and the run split); Blummenfelt finished third, bringing the "Norwegian duo" together on the podium.

In 2026 his form has been returning, finishing second at the IRONMAN European Championship in Frankfurt. After eight years, "Hat Guy" Iden will return to China.

Behind the top-level performances of the two Norwegian athletes, the Norwegian threshold training method plays an indispensable role.

Unlike mainstream training methods, the Norwegian threshold approach uses blood lactate concentration as the core metric, scheduling two threshold sessions in the same training day separated by 5 to 8 hours: a morning first lactate threshold (LT1, 0.7–2.5 mmol/L) session and an afternoon second lactate threshold (LT2, 2.0–4.5 mmol/L) session.

As Xiamen brings the world's top triathletes to China, there is also commercial news in triathlon globally: on September 11 Salomon reached a five-year agreement with IRONMAN to become IRONMAN's global principal partner.

With top athletes coming to China and brands increasing their investment, triathlon is continuing to heat up worldwide.

Registration is open; entries close when capacity is reached on September 30. There are three categories:

Sprint Distance (25.75km) Early-bird ¥799, regular ¥999
 
Olympic Distance (51.5km) Early-bird ¥999, regular ¥1199
 
Middle Distance (113km) Early-bird ¥1699, regular ¥2099
 
The "Norwegian duo" meet in China for the first time — who are you rooting for?

Text/Editor: MP
Image sources: athletes' social media / ChallengeXiamen official website
Visual: Max
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