NEW!
On October 5, 2022, Cherie won her 14th IRONMAN World Championship title in Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i, becoming the oldest female ever to complete the race. She was featured on the annual NBC documentary of the race, along with a piece about the Exceeding Expectations kids.

 

Click below to see a video excerpt plus a photo montage 
of the kids in action during 2022.

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USA Triathlon

Hall of Fame induction

 

Photos, video and more:

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(Photo: J. Dodson)

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2021 USA Triathlon All American

Ranked #1 Female 75-59

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2019 WORLD RANKINGS

Cherie Gruenfeld
Age group: F75-79
Country: United States

(No rankings for 2020-21.

IRONMAN seasons canceled/abbreviated.)

Latest Media Appearances

Kona Week 2020:
"Fiercest Women of Kona" with MIke Reilly
Kona Week 2020:
Interview with Michael Lovato & Dede Griesbauer
With Mike "Voice of IRONMAN" Reilly for the IRONMAN VR Club
With Yuri Hauswald of GU Energy Labs
Chatting with
Bob Babbitt

 

Podcast with Molly Watts, Angela McDade of "Live HAPPIER Longer"
Desert Sun: EE kids at Tram Road Challenge.
"Hit Play, Not Pause"
with Selene Yeager

For more coverage, click MEDIA in the top menu, or HERE

BECOME AN IRONMAN
by Cherie Gruenfeld

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An amateur’s guide to the world’s toughest endurance event

Become an IRONMAN is a treasure trove of deeply insightful training and racing wisdom hard-won during the course of triathlete Cherie Gruenfeld’s 28-year IRONMAN career, along with some great stories and reminiscences.

CHERIE'S BODYHEALTH COLUMNS

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Cherie is a featured columnist on the BodyHealth website. Her writings cover a wide variety of topics of interest to triathletes.

Sample of Cherie's Columns

 
  • The secret to [racing] success

  • An epic year in IRONMAN history

  • Triathlon training: 5 pitfalls to avoid

  • Key workout techniques for a successful IRONMAN

  • The benefits and drawbacks of the training race

  • Coming back from an injury: 5 tips for quicker healing

FEATURE ARTICLES

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IRONMAN.com
"Cherie Gruenfeld: Kona's Golden Girl"

The official IRONMAN website reports on Cherie after
her record-breaking World Championship race at the age of 70.

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40 Stories by Mark Allen
2015: Cherie Gruenfeld

In 2018, to celebrate forty years of IRONMAN, six-time world champion Mark Allen wrote up his favorite stories from each year. His entry for 2015 described Cherie's extraordinary come-from-behind win to capture her thirteenth Kona title.

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"Great Expectations"

Triathlete Magazine -- "A Southern California nonprofit called Exceeding Expectations introduces inner city kids to triathlon. What happens next is nothing short of life changing."

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"One From the Heart"

Inside Triathlon Magazine -- Lee Gruenfeld's story about his wife, Cherie, won Triathlon America's "Article of the Year" award.

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"Steely Resolve"

The Desert Sun -- "When Cherie was enticed by the world of triathlon back in the early '90s, she knew the one race she wanted to compete in was the prestigious IRONMAN World Championship on the lava fields of Kona."

Click on the Wheaties box for more articles and videos,
including coverage of Cherie's appearance on the
Wheaties Energy Crunch cereal box.

The EE Kids have their very own website

Exceeding Expectations, a program in San Bernardino that serves an inner-city population, is designed to encourage at-risk kids to move their lives in a positive direction, using the sport of triathlon as the vehicle.

The goal is not to develop the kids into elite athletes, but rather to offer them opportunities to participate in a lifestyle that is healthy, goal-oriented and very unlike that which they experience in their everyday lives. We strive to replace negative influences with positive role models and to instill in the kids a powerful new discipline of setting measurable goals and working hard to achieve them.
Our highest priority is education, and our ultimate objective is to ensure that every one of the kids graduates high school and goes on to college. We make this promise to all the EE kids: When you get into college, we'll make sure money isn't an obstacle.

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