For Aussie kids growing up on a traditional diet of cricket, tennis and football, WWOS was their window to a wider sporting globe and a major inspiration of a generation of athletes.

One of the highest rating specials was the annual coverage of the IRONMAN World Championships and every year Ballarat teenager, Arti Shaw, would sit mesmerised by the magic of Kona and the super human achievements of Dave Scott, Mark Allen and Paula Newby Fraser.

“Growing up, sport had been part of my life but it was the traditional tennis, football and athletics representing my school Ballarat High at state level for 100m and 200m sprints. But it was the IRONMAN story and the mystery of watching the three-hour special on Kona on WWOS that grabbed my attention and was my first inkling of interest in the sport,” Shaw recalled.

“But as normal kids go, you get a car, start going out and have a good life with friends at parties and discos, then you get married and have kids.

“I was in the corporate world and it was part of the 90s culture that you would drink after work and there would be lots of functions and customer entertaining. I really let my health go and didn’t really think about it because I was concentrating on work and bringing up a young family.

“It wasn’t until my mid thirties that through excessive drinking that the doctor said to me ‘son, if you don’t change your lifestyle, you won’t make 50’. When the doctor says you need to make a change, you need to make a change and that was when I decided to try to run. In hindsight, I was heavily drinking because I was suffering depression but at that stage it was undiagnosed.”

Being from Ballarat, Shaw did what all local runners do and headed for the 6km track around Lake Wendouree. Eventually he joined a running group and began preparing for his first marathon and what was to be a major change in his life.

Shaw’s first triathlon was an IRONMAN qualifying race in Shepparton, but he didn’t make the cut. So he went to Canberra and got a roll down spot and the IRONMAN journey began.

“The biggest fear for me was swimming because I nearly drowned twice, once as a child and once as an adult on the North Shore in Hawaii,” he said.

“So I had an underlying fear of open water. I wasn’t a great swimmer so that was the skill that I really had to develop. It was a matter of getting through the swim. From there, it was all about finishing and I was happy with my time around the 12:15, 12:20 mark.

“After my first IRONMAN I said to all my family and friends that it was so good that I am going to do 10 in a row, which I eventually got to and got my legend number.”

In 2007, all of Shaw’s dreams eventually came to fruition, making some significant changes to his work and lifestyle and finally competing at the “big dance”.

“Ultimately, I got to experience what I had watched as a teenager and the IRONMAN World Championship was everything that they say it is. I still pinch myself that I have actually done it and I am just in awe of it,” he said.

“Even though it was 11 years ago, I still remember every aspect of the day.”

Shaw will compete at the Western Sydney IRONMAN event this Sunday.