title: Infodemiological data of Ironman Triathlon in the study period 2004-2013.
abstract: This article reports data concerning the Internet-related activities and interest for Ironman Triathlon competition. Google Trends (GT) was used and mined from 2004 onwards. The interest for Ironman Triathlon was found to be cyclic over time. The Triathlon-related Internet activities negatively correlated with the number of finishers per year (Pearson׳s correlation r=-0.690, p-value<0.05), while an increasing participation of female athletes who were less likely to surf the Internet could be noticed (r=-0.811, p-value<0.05). Further, younger athletes, who were more likely to access the web, were underrepresented in the Ironman Triathlon event. Moreover, there was a correlation between the biking time and the Internet query volumes (r=0.590, p-value<0.05), and, in particular, for the male athletes (r=0.664, p-value<0.05). Finally, the countries which most contributed to the Internet query volumes were those with the highest number of medals.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tunis University, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Sofiane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mnadla
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Department of Health Sciences (DISSAL), Genoa University, Genoa, Italy; Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, Genoa University, Genoa, Italy; Department of Mathematics (DIMA), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola Luigi
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Bragazzi
authors.affiliation: Tunisian Research Laboratory ''Sport Performance Optimisation'', National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rouissi
authors.affiliation: Tunisian Research Laboratory ''Sport Performance Optimisation'', National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Anis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chaalali
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics (DIMA), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siri
authors.affiliation: University eCampus, Novedrate, Italy; Faculty of kinesiology, University of Split, Split, Croatia.
authors.forename: Johnny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Padulo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological, Biomedical and Movement Sciences, School of Exercise and Sport Science, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca Paolo
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Ardigò
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Franz Tappeiner Hospital, Merano, Italy; Department of Neurological, Biomedical, and Movement Sciences, Section of Neurology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brigo
authors.affiliation: Athlete and Health Performance Research Center, Aspetar, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chamari
authors.affiliation: Institute of General Practice and for Health Services Research, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Gesundheitszentrum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Beat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Knechtle
keywords: Digital era; Google Trends; Infodemiology; Ironman Triathlon; Web 2.0