Joey Hicks (left) chats with his father, David Hicks, at the May Half-Ironman competition at Chattanooga.

By Charlotte Underwood 

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WLAF) – Campbell County native Joey Hicks placed third in his division in the recent Half-Ironman competition at Chattanooga which took place in May. This placement earned him a spot to once again compete in the Half-IronMan World Championship which will take place in St. George, Utah, in late October. He competed at last year’s Half-Ironman World Championship in Utah as well. 

Hicks said the Chattanooga competition three weeks ago went great despite the heat, with him ranking third in his “Executive Challenge” division against other business executives and CEOs. 

“The run was the hardest this time because of the heat,” Hicks said.

Joey Hicks said he loves to compete in IronMan competitions and plans to keep doing it as long as he can.

His May 22 competition was the first of this year, but he has three more coming up including the World Championship in Utah.

In the meantime, he is continuing his rigorous two times a day training sessions to prepare for those upcoming IronMan competitions.

Hicks heads to an IronMan competition in Canada outside of Montreal in just a few weeks and another in Boulder, Colorado, in August, before heading to Utah to compete in October. Between those competitions, he will also compete in a marathon and a couple bike races. 

Hicks is excited for the upcoming events and has been training every day. He trains two times a day, doing a combination of swimming, biking and running. 

A full Ironman competition consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run (140.6 total miles). A half-Ironman cuts the distance of each portion in half.

Dr. Joey Hicks is flanked by his parents, Dianna and David Hicks at the recent Half-Ironman competition at Chattanooga.

There are I-M events across the world, and those who are at the top of their age group get an option to attend the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. 

In 2019, Hicks competed and finished in the Ironman World championship in Hawaii. 

Hicks graduated from Campbell County High School in 1987, and he has always been an athlete, playing basketball and running track in high school.  After his residency in orthodontics, he began racing bikes and did that for 15 years.
He competed in his first triathlon in 2014, coming in third overall. Wanting to step up the challenge, he decided to compete in “the hardest triathlon,” the IronMan competitions.

In October 2015, he competed in his first IronMan in Maryland and completed it in under 11 hours.

To date, he has competed all across the United States including California, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Maryland, Indiana, and more.  But he has also traveled overseas to compete in St. Lucia, Spain, and several summers ago he competed in Germany which is where he qualified for the world championship.

Father and son celebrate a big finish at Chattanooga as Joey Hicks (left) came in third while David Hicks cheered for him.

In 2018, he traveled to South Africa to compete in the half-IronMan World Championship.

Hicks said he loves competing in these tests of endurance and competes in multiple competitions each year. (WLAF NEWS PUBLSHED – 06/16/2022-6AM)

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