On September 19, 2026, Saiyami Kher participated in the Ironman 70.3 in Cervia, Italy, finishing her third race in the taxing half-distance triathlon. She has now participated in three Ironman 70.3 competitions, making her the first Indian actress to do so.
The 70.3 format covers a 1.9 km swim, a 90 km bike ride and a 21.1 km run, back to back with no breaks in between. Saiyami's Ironman story began in 2024 at the Ironman 70.3 in Erkner-Brandenburg, Germany, which she completed successfully. She followed it up in July 2025 with a second finish in Jönköping, Sweden, making her the first Indian actress to complete the race twice. Cervia marks the third chapter, a year after Sweden.
The road to Italy was anything but smooth. Sharing her experience on social media, Saiyami said, “ 3 x Ironman 70.3. Hattrick done. ❤️ Probably the toughest one yet. Two rough months leading up to the race. Then there’s never any shortage of drama when it comes to me and races. @klm refused us from boarding because of an error from their end, our bike bags hadn’t been updated in their system. Hours of calls, uncertainty and stress, just days before the race. We finally made it to Italy, only to be welcomed by 30°C heat. A brutally hot race day, an ocean full of jellyfish, and a body that had already been through a lot.” Even so, Saiyami finished about 20 minutes faster than in her previous 70.3. "You can't control everything that happens around you. You can only control how you respond," she wrote. "Three 70.3s. Three very different stories. And a whole lot of lessons in between."
Signing off with a nod to post-race recovery, she wrote that she was now trading gels for pizza and electrolytes for tiramisu.
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