8 hours on two different courses. At the 2002 Ironman World Championships at Hawaii, McCormack failed to finish the race on his first attempt. He finished in 2003 in 9:32:11, placing 59th. In 2004, he again failed to finish and abandoned into a race vehicle driven by six-time World Champion Mark Allen, who counseled Macca to race fewer iron-distance races during the year. In 2005, he was able to finish 6th with the fastest run split of the day. The next year, in 2006, McCormack finished Hawaii in second place. After Normann Stadler completed a new course record bike time of 4:18 McCormack started the run some 10 minutes down. After running a 2:46 marathon time he was just 71 seconds behind Normann Stadler at the finish but he had given it absolutely everything he had. McCormack became Ironman World Champion in 2007 with a winning time of 8:15:34, including a 2:42 marathon in very hot conditions. McCormack again won the 2010 Ironman World Championship, defeating two-time defending champion, Craig Alexander. Olympic qualifying McCormack focused his 2011 season on qualifying for Australia's 2012 Olympic team in triathlon. He stated, "it's the one thing in my career I regret, not making an Olympics." In his eight ITU points races, in pursuit of fulfilling his Olympic goal, McCormack's finishes placed him in the range of 26th to 34th place along with 3 DNFs (did not finish). Despite this, McCormack was still thought to be a potential selection to the Olympic team when taking into account the performance of other fellow Australian triathletes. Ultimately Triathlon Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee did not select him for the three-man Olympic team. McCormack expressed his frustrations about the vague and ambiguous selection process for the Olympic team by Triathlon Australia, but stated that the team that was selected was worthy. The Australian federation suggested an attempt at the 2012 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships. It was a title only one other Australian male had ever won: Greg Welch, almost 20 years prior. The event was held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain in July, involving a 4 km swim, 120 km bike ride and a 30 km run. While he struggled a little with the length of the bike ride, McCormack's run was one of the most powerful delivered over the distance, clocking 1 hour and 40 minutes to win his fourth world title and become the