01. 07. 2026
Reading time: 3 minutes
He spends his time in the lab searching for answers to questions related to cancer and DNA protection, in his free time he pushes the limits of human endurance during the world’s most demanding triathlon races.
Most of us consider a few meetings, a project deadline, or a long commute to work as “tough”; for our colleague Martin Andrš, this means a 3.8-kilometer swim, a 180-kilometer bike ride, and a marathon to finish it off.
And it was precisely this extreme challenge that he tackled so successfully this year in Da Nang, Vietnam, that he earned a spot at the IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii, the most famous and prestigious triathlon race in the world.
In the IRONMAN Vietnam race, Martin Andrš finished 13th overall and 3rd in the 35–39 age group. He completed the demanding course in 9 hours and 35 minutes, despite high temperatures and tropical humidity, conditions that rank among the toughest triathletes face.
This result is all the more impressive given that participation in the Hawaii championship is reserved only for the very best athletes. Typically, only a small percentage of the field earns a qualifying slot. For most triathletes, competing in Hawaii is a lifelong dream.
It’s no wonder. It was on the Hawaiian Islands that this legendary race was founded in 1978, and to this day, Kona is considered the unofficial capital of the world of triathlon. Every year, the world’s top endurance athletes gather here to test their strength on a course renowned not only for its length but also for its extreme heat, wind, and humidity.
Yet the person behind this athletic achievement is not a full-time professional athlete, but a scientist. Martin works at the University of Zurich and also at the IEM CAS, where he leads the Genome Biology research group, which focuses on mechanisms that protect DNA and maintain genome stability. He studies the processes that help cells prevent damage to genetic information, the disruption of which is linked to the development of cancer.
Congratulations on this extraordinary achievement, and we wish you plenty of strength for your future training sessions and races. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that the Kona dream turns into an unforgettable experience and a great result.
