Kona, live.

Kailua Bay, the Queen K, and the Energy Lab

The most watched single day in endurance sport: 3.8 kilometres of ocean, 180 on the lava highway and a marathon in the heat.

The IRONMAN World Championship returns to Kailua-Kona in 2026 as one combined day, with the professional men and women racing together for the first time since 2019. The 2026 course connects three very different disciplines: an ocean swim in Kailua Bay, 180.2 kilometres north on the Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway to Hawi and back through the ho‘omumu crosswinds that come off the lava with no warning, and then a marathon down Ali‘i Drive, out along the highway and into the Natural Energy Lab, where the radiant heat off the road ends more races than the distance does.

It is seventeen hours from cannon to midnight for the last finishers, and a whole day of watching for anyone with someone in it. Livebib puts the swim, the bike and the run on one map with the athlete moving along them, transitions marked, and an arrival estimate for the next point that updates as the wind and the heat do their work. One link, free to watch, from anywhere in the world.