In the 80s of the 20th century, triathlon was widely spread after it was introduced to China. Over the years, with the development of scientific sports training and national fitness, China's triathlon research has gradually attracted attention, and its research involves sports science, medicine, psychology, and mechanical engineering. Therefore, to promote the sustainable development of triathlon in China, this study reviews the history, hotspots, and trends of triathlon research in the past, and provides a theoretical reference for subsequent research. The data in this study were obtained from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. A total of 263 relevant research articles were retrieved and screened by keywords such as "Triathlon", "Triathlete", and "Triathlon Event". These documents are uploaded to the CiteSpace software to generate research maps. Based on these maps, this study analyzes the co-occurrence and clustering of keywords and reveals the research hotspots and trends in the field of triathlon. China's research on triathlon began in 1989 and has shown fluctuating growth since 2004, with four significant growth periods in 2007, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The research mainly focuses on three categories: special training, scientific monitoring, and the event industry, and high-frequency keywords include "triathlon", "athlete", "training", "altitude training", "sports events", "youth", "physical fitness", and "swimming". The most cited literature includes applied research on special training, event development, and scientific monitoring, and representative studies have explored altitude training methods, physical fitness characteristics of elite athletes, and the organization and management of events. In recent years, emerging research hotspots include "physical fitness", "sports events", and "adolescents". The research shows that the research on triathlon in China fluctuates greatly, lacks breadth and depth, and the research hotspots are scattered. Among them, compared with scientific monitoring and event industry research, special training research attaches more importance to it, and applied research dominates. In the past five years, sports events, physical fitness, and youth-related aspects have become major research hotspots. To promote the development of this field, it is suggested that future research should break through the limitations of the field, integrate new interdisciplinary theories and methods, and deepen the research on training, monitoring, and competitions. In addition, it should also follow the trend of digitalization and intelligence and focus on the selection and training of young athletes, laying the foundation for the long-term development of triathlon.
Shiyu Ding (Thu,) studied this question.