When Kaiden Lieto was 4 years old, his family moved to Kona from the Bay area of California. His mother said at that age he would wear his father’s race bib while running around their house and riding his bike to mimic a triathlon.
Lieto, now 21, remembers his dad picking him up at the finish line of many races. He especially recalls the father-son greeting in 2009, when Chris Lieto finished the most important and iconic triathlete of them all, the Ironman World Championship, in second place with a time of 8 hours, 22 minutes, 56 seconds — less than 3 minutes behind winner Craig Alexander of Australia.
“I thought my dad was the coolest in the world and I wanted to be like him,” he said.
Now, Kaiden Lieto has big dreams of becoming the first athlete from Kona to win the grueling 140.6-mile Ironman World Championship, which involves a 2.4-mile swim in Kailua Bay, a 112-mile bike ride to Hawī and back, and a marathon that finishes through a fan-lined Aliʻi Drive.
It’s a lofty goal, even with someone with his good athletic genes, but donʻt discount him. Kaiden Lieto already has shown he knows how to persevere. In his short life he has survived a bike-versus-car training accident, life-threatening brain surgery and his first crack at the 140.6-mile triathlon course, finishing the Oct. 26 race in 642nd place out of about 2,300 participants.
This time the roles were reversed and it was Chris Lieto waiting at the finish line to greet his son with a big hug.
And, nobody would like to see Kaiden beat his father’s best finish at the Ironman World Championship and win it all more than his father, who is also his coach.
During the two years leading up to Kaiden Lieto’s first Ironman World Championship, he faced a lifetime of challenges. But he overcame each of them to cross the finish line on Ali‘i Drive in 9:58:12, beating his dad’s time in his first Kona championship by 23 minutes.
“I was stoked,” said Kaiden’s proud father. “It shows a lot of potential, which we knew there was a lot of potential already, but it just kind of reinforced that he’s on the right track and has the ability to do really well.”
The finish was especially gratifying because of those challenges that began in January 2023, when Kaiden was training for the Hawaiʻi 70.3 Ironman race, a local qualifier for the Ironman World Championship.
He was hit by a car while biking on the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, suffering a concussion and broken collarbone. He healed enough by June to complete the grueling half Ironman race in Waikōloa, also known as the Honu.
And Kaiden didn’t just finish. He placed first in his 18-24 age group and third overall among the 988 finishers.
But the celebration was short-lived. The next day Kaiden flew to O’ahu for a follow-up to the crash injuries that left him struggling with memory loss and post-concussion issues. It was during that doctor visit that an MRI showed he had venous malformations (veins that develop abnormally) and needed brain surgery.
In March, he finally underwent the surgery after taking months to find the right doctor. Two weeks after the successful operation, Lieto found out he had earned a slot for the most recent Ironman World Championship in Kona.
But nothing would come easy. Two days before the race in October, Karis Lieto said her son couldn’t get out of bed. He was hit with body fatigue, body aches and headaches.
He had been seeing a doctor about a potential auto-immune disease, and will be following up with the doctor in the coming weeks to create a health plan to address the symptoms.
By race day, Kaiden Lieto had recovered and felt ready. As he walked down the steps to Kailua Bay for the start of the swim, he took a moment and gazed upward.
“I was looking at my home,” Kaiden Lieto said. “I switched into feeling like it was just another day at home swimming at the pier, just with a couple extra thousand people around.”
Karis Lieto said it’s been difficult to watch her son fight so hard, calling it a miracle he made it to the start line.
“It shows his integrity and willpower,” Karis Lieto said. “I’m in absolute awe of who he is.”
Leading up to race day, Chris Lieto said his nerves were all over the place, from anxious to excited with his biggest hope that his son would have a good experience and journey.
He followed his son as much as he could throughout race day, including watching him bike at the top of Palani Road and Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway. During the run, he used a motorized bike to get ahead of Kaiden so he could encourage him every step of the way.
For the swim portion, Kaiden Lieto finished fifth in his age group despite being stung by jellyfish during the last 100 meters. He said there was a Jetski or a boat that was trying to wake the jellyfish out of the area, but instead the wake hit him so hard his goggles flew off.
During the 112-mile bike ride to Hawī, he was feeling good until miles 42 and 43, when the sun came out after a brief rain. The water on the asphalt heated up like a sauna. Kaiden had no water to pour on himself to cool off.
While he did have carbohydrate-mix energy drink, he said: “You don’t want to over-drink carb mix because it will upset your stomach. So I kind of got stuck and started slowly getting dehydrated.”
He rallied for the remainder of the bike, grabbing water at aid stations.
Lieto started the final marathon leg strong, but started going downhill about mile 9. He really was feeling it at mile 17, as he entered the 4-mile stretch in Hawai‘i Ocean Science Technology Park, a few miles south of Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport.
“It’s usually where pretty much everyone starts falling apart,” said Chris Lieto, who would know having competed on this course in 12 Ironman World Championships.
He explained it’s usually when the legs start tightening up and the heat starts getting to you. The park also is a difficult stretch to run because the area is quiet with few spectators and no support crews allowed.
“At least on the highway, it’s easier because you have the energy of the crowd,” Chris Lieto said.
The younger Lieto doesn’t remember much of the run portion at the technology park saying: “I was pretty out of it.”
At the beginning of the run, Chris Lieto said Kaiden looked amazing. He was smooth and relaxed. When Kaiden started to struggle, his father got tactical and tried to guide his son through the pain, telling him: “You cannot stop. You cannot stop and walk.”
Chris Lieto told Kaiden to get to an aid station where he could walk to reset, cool off and get nutrition.
“Even if he was saying there was no way he can keep going, I was like, ‘there’s a way,'” Chris Lieto said.
While Kaiden Lieto’s run didn’t go as desired, the elder Lieto said it was expected since it was his son’s first Ironman and it’s hard to train without the experience of actually doing the race.
“There’s things you can’t teach or coach through. You kind of just have to do it,” said Chris Lieto, who at 52 retired as a professional triathlete in 2012 because of his age and issues with his Achilles.
Chris Lieto said his son will train differently with an Ironman under his belt because he now knows how to manage the heat, nutrition and pain.
“Knowing what you’re body is capable of allows you to push through when your body is telling you to stop,” said Chris Lieto, who won the 2006 Ironman Japan, 2005 Ironman Canada, and 2002 Ironman Wisconsin, as well as many other races throughout his career.
Chris Lieto, who is now a performance and life coach, trains everyone differently based on their ability and goals. For Kaiden, he said there’s a lot of development that needs to happen without going too much too soon or too hard too soon.
Part of that is figuring out how Kaiden Lieto’s health reacts to the training.
“Ideally, it’s to train him in a way and build his body up to support whatever’s going on instead of taking away or making it worse,” he said. “Being healthy and exercising has shown to be a benefit to everybody in any health situation.”
Kaiden Lieto hasn’t thought much about what he’s doing now that he’s finished an Ironman World Championship other than taking some much-needed rest.
He was thinking about participating in the USA Triathlon Long Course Nationals in Daytona, Fla., on Dec. 7, but decided to take a break for now to get to the bottom of his health issues, and recover from exhaustion with head and body aches.
“I’ve been full gas through the car crash and brain surgery and I feel like I just need a break,” he said. “I have plans but not holding on to them tightly. Just going day-by-day for now.”
In the meantime, Kaiden Lieto will train others for triathlon and running events. He also hopes to race again in the Ironman 70.3 Hawai‘i in June 2025. He wants to beat the course record for his age group, and also the overall record of 3:50:55 set in 2020 by Lance Armstrong, the winner of a record seven Tour de France titles before a doping scandal stripped them from him.
“I want to beat that. And after that, I’m going to take my pro card,” Kaiden Lieto said.
He no longer is dealing with issues surrounding his brain surgery, which he said is “less of a pain than whatever this is.” His potential auto-immune disease is different because it hasn’t been figured out.
But as he navigates his future, Kaiden Lieto looks back with happiness about the support he received on race day in his hometown of Kona.
“Every aid station, every single aid station, especially the run, was just people shouting my name,” Kaiden Lieto said. “Kona continually surprises me when they choose to back someone and support someone. It’s just one big family, and I can’t thank everyone enough for that.”
Karis Lieto said it’s been amazing to watch her husband and now her son take on the grueling sport.
“It’s such a gift to see their passion,” she said.
