Media Triathlon Watch

Arrested Development - Episode 44 - Notapusy I haven't seen this. It's an example of a man trying to prove he is manly, and deciding that completing a triathlon is a worthy event in which to do it. Quote: Michael: Why are handlebars in my bed? Pictures from here

The Company Car I haven't read this novel, just found out about it trawling the internet. It's mainly about a man's life, but his wife Dorie is the triathlete. He is is suspicious that she is having an affair, using being away competing in triathlons as a cover story. She also has to juggle an important career with her training and competing in events. Looks like an interesting read, and is compared to John Irving, a novelist I already like.

(image copyright CBS) Ghost Whisperer - Season 1 - Mended Hearts This is a series about a woman who can talk to the dead, and she helps them 'move on' to their next destination in the afterlife. In this episode, the dead person has been killed during the bike stage of a triathlon. There are a few flashbacks to the accident, and they aren't very impressive. The bike has normal straight mountain bike handlebars as far as I could see, not drop handlebars or tri-bars. This would be pretty unusual for a serious competitor. He was wearing a cycle helmet, so this isn't a very good advert for them as he died anyway.

(Image Copyright NBC) Scrubbs - Season 5 - Episode 3 Scrubs is a very popular medical comedy series from the US. The main character is a young doctor called JD. In this episode he finds a list of things he wanted to do before he is 30 years old. On the list is finish a triathlon. Triathlon is featured heavily, including all three disciplines. JD is really pretty useless: he swims in the sea in Speedos when everyone else has a wetsuit. He struggles on the bike, and his friend and fellow doctor Elliot cycles alongside him for a while as shown in the picture above dressed in girly pink. He collapses near the finish line of the run and has to be carried over it by Elliot. This program shows triathlon to be a very hard endurance event, possibly putting some people off it, but maybe encouraging others. I don't think this can have been an Olympic distance event, possibly half or full Ironman, though it's not formally stated. The writers seem to have actually done a bit of research. Yo

Malibu, CA was a teen sitcom which ran for two seasons between 1998 and 2000. The Wikipedia entry gives us "Episode 26 - The Triathlon" as the final episode of Season One, and TV.com has a brief plot summary here . In the episode, three people train for a triathlon, two boys and one girl. There is the inevitable element of the toughness of the training (which one person cannot keep up with). I'd like to see this.

Triathlon as a sport is becoming more and more popular. From a few hardened enthusiasts, it's now something that many ordinary people know about. People now see the event as something a bit more interesting, and challenging, than a marathon (the day when someone completes a triathlon in a suit of armour are thankfully a long way off). The popularity is also helped by having various distances, from introductory sprints, through the standard Olympic distance, right up to the ultimate Ironman event. The media have started to notice the event, and in the last week I've seen it referred to prominently in two US series. So I've started this blog as a way to catalog where you can see triathlon mentioned in TV, movies, novels or other non-factual media. Please email me if you see something I've missed, I'd like to try and make this an exhaustive database of all mentions of triathlon in the popular media. [News articles reporting on real triathlons in papers/magazines/TV are