Life Time Fitness, Inc., a Healthy Way of Life Company, today announced that the 2003 Life Time Fitness Triathlon was honored as the ‘2003 Event of the Year' by Competitor Magazine at the 12th Annual Endurance Sports Awards Banquet held on February 7, 2004, in San Diego.
Life Time Fitness Founder, Chairman and CEO, Bahram Akradi, and Life Time
Fitness Athletic Events Director, Marilyn Franzen, were on hand to accept the
award, along with the other honorees, including the Triathletes of the Year,
Competitor of the Year, Cycling, Olympic and Running Legends, and inductees
to the Ironman Hall of Fame.
“It is an honor to accept this award on behalf of our Company, our stellar
athletic events team and, most importantly, the thousands of competitors and
spectators who made our event a success,” said Akradi. “In 2002,
we established a vision to create a world-class athletic event which ranks among
the top sporting events in the world. After just two years, we have become internationally
renown with our unique timing and competition format, record setting cash prize,
and same-day network television coverage. As we look toward our third triathlon
event this summer, which occurs just a few weeks ahead of the Olympic triathlon
events in Athens, one cannot help but recognize what an exciting time and opportunity
this is for triathlon and endurance sports in general.”
The 2004 Life Time Fitness Triathlon will occur on Saturday, July 17, 2004,
in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The event will be broadcast the same day on NBC Sports
from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. eastern and once again offer the largest prize purse
in the history of triathlon at $500,000. New for 2004, the event will feature
an Olympic-distance course – 1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run – on a
beautiful course through the Twin Cities. A Short-Course distance also will
be offered.
The 2004 Life Time Fitness Triathlon will once again feature the ‘Equalizer'
timing format, a unique competition structure that allows professional women
and men to compete on equal ground. Based on past Life Time Fitness Triathlon
course results as well as results from a number of world and American international-distance
events, the Equalizer allows pro women to start ahead of pro men by a predetermined
amount of time, resulting in a new and innovative competition format, and an
exciting, dramatic race to the finish.
The 2004 Life Time Fitness Triathlon will occur just five weeks prior to the
2004 Olympic Triathlon in Athens. Of the more than 40 professional triathletes
who will participate at the Life Time Fitness event, it is expected that many
will move on to represent their respective countries at the Olympic Games.
The 2004 Summer Olympics will be held August 13-29 in Athens, Greece. The women's
triathlon is scheduled for August 25 and the men's event will be held on August
26.
About Life Time Fitness,
Inc.
Life Time Fitness is one of the nation's fastest growing health and fitness
companies. As of June 4, 2004, the Company operated 34 centers in eight states,
including Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas and Virginia.
The Company has set the industry standard in providing consumers with category-redefining
all-in-one sports, professional fitness, family recreation and resort/spa centers,
nutritional products and supplements, the award-winning healthy lifestyle magazine,
Experience Life, world-class athletic events, full-service spas, cafés,
personal training consultation, health and nutrition education, and corporate
wellness programs. Life Time Fitness is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota
(www.lifetimefitness.com).
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