Remembering Les McDonald
Driven and divisive, Les McDonald, the controversial long-time leader of swim, bike, run has left a global sport with an Olympic legacy
A pugnacious communist and proud feminist from coal mining roots in the north east should go down as the most influential figure in triathlon history. “Les McDonald was unique,” Sarah Springman, the former president of British Triathlon, says. “A man who pursued his vision almost to the exclusion of everything else.”
It’s no exaggeration to say this naturalised Canadian, who was raised in Felling upon Tyne, near Newcastle, revolutionised multisport, both in governance, with the formation of the International Triathlon Union, and in competition, as swim, bike, run abandoned its non-drafting origins in a quest for Olympic inclusion.
McDonald revelled in power struggles and political manoeuvrings, but retained a relentless drive for gender equality – his grandmother, a suffragette, would hardly have allowed otherwise. It was thus fitting that his magnum opus came when triathlon’s elite women dived from the pontoon next to Sydney Opera House in 2000 to signal the start of Olympic competition.
The achievement of fast-tracking triathlon into the Games is unique. Where rival sports have been striving for inclusion for decades, it took just five years from the ITU’s inception for the sport to be enrolled in the wider Olympic programme. International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch may have been wooed by the spectacle, but it was also testament to McDonald’s skilful lobbying.
Springman recalls those persuasive powers from the first time she met him in 1988, collared on Ali’i Drive having just completed the Ironman: “He would spot people he could bring on to his side and who he could see would be wonderful advocates for the sport. I learnt an awful lot from him.”
John Lunt, course manager of the London 2012 triathlon, remembers a first encounter in 1989 in the aftermath of the first ITU World Championships, Avignon, France. “He was a difficult character and made enemies,” Lunt says. “But he stuck to his socialist principles and fought hard for the underdog.”
Despite winning Kona five consecutive times in his age-group, Ironman became the “arch enemy.” “He saw a lot of money flying around that wasn’t being pushed back to the athletes,” Lunt adds. “But he also played the long game. He knew the sport would grow if he looked after those who had their hearts in it, and he knew how to win elections.
“He also pushed equality hard, both in terms of equal prize money and on the boards of national governing bodies.”
Triathlon was all-encompassing for McDonald, so it wasn’t just the elixir of power, but a need to retain an identity that sustained his ambition. As we prepare for the inclusion of the short, sharp mixed relay in Tokyo 2020, there’s no doubt he stayed the long course.
“He stuck to his socialist principles and fought hard for the underdog”