Jan Frodeno will not start at Ironman Hawaii on October 8th.

The 40-year-old triathlon Olympic gold medalist and three-time Ironman Hawaii winner has had hip surgery and announced Friday night that he will not be competing in Kona.

He sustained his injury in a wheel fall a few weeks ago.

The symptoms were manageable at first, but eventually tissue inflammation made surgery unavoidable.

This ended Frodeno's dream of defending his title as Hawaii champion.

Simultaneously with not competing in Kona, Frodeno announced that he would continue his career to fight for the Ironman triathlon crown again next year in Kona.

Frodeno will be 41 next week, at the Ironman in Hawaii 2023 he would already be 42. No reason for him not to continue.

He still feels the desire and fire for his sport, he said in a video that he published on Instagram on Friday.

Bad luck with a training crash

Frodeno's fall injury had not previously been known.

It was known that he suffered from a partial rupture of the Achilles tendon during his training for months.

He said he got this under control to the extent that he would have traveled to Hawaii in good spirits.

He has been doing everything he can to be at his best in recent months, training a lot at altitude, moving to Andorra from his adopted home of Girona in Catalonia and trying to balance his family life with all the training before his woman with children needed some time off in her native Australia after the pandemic.

“But a few weeks ago,” Frodeno writes in a personal message, “I was unlucky again when a gust of wind caught my front wheel just as I was getting something to eat out of my bag on a long training ride.

I fell hard, hit the handlebars with my ribs, got the usual cuts and bruises, but also hit my hip.

Bandaged, he continued the training.

Until the wound became infected and the infection spread to the tendons and muscle attachments in the hip.

Eventually, German Olympic doctor Casper Grim, who looks after Frodeno, decided that surgery was unavoidable.

It took place on Thursday.

"I'm not ready to give up"

"It's certain that my Kona dream is shattered for this year," writes Frodeno, "but I'm not ready to give up.

After so many ups and downs over the last few months, there is some relief to be able to re-plan the next 14 months and make one last attempt at winning some of the best races around the globe and ending up with the trophy in hand , destined for the victor of Hawaii."

In a way, he's looking forward to spending his days with his family for now.

"But the love, passion and belief in this sport and winning its biggest races keeps me going."