No more triathlon for me

Get your house in order.

Tell her to wait until the USAT report is published.

Or tell her that the death rate from driving is almost as high.

Or convince her to start tri'ing so she can swim behind you to make sure you are OK.

What happens if you do it anyway?

^^ This.  The day my wife forbids me from doing anything other than cheating on her, is the day I'm gone.

Not too get too philosophical, but depending on your believes..

It is not uncommon to believe that when your time has come to pass on, you will do so.

Regardless of how it will happen.

If these are your believes then it wouldn't matter what you do, because when the bus to paradise stops at your door step you get on either way.

That had tea coming out my nose

OP, I say keep trying.  People change their minds all the time.  If you're passionate enough, perhaps you can sway her back from the dark side.

1. remind her that thousands of people do triathlons per year and maybe a handful die.  If you don't have ironman as a goal then mention it is mainly in the ironman.

2. if that doesn't work tell her you are going to start hanging out with your single friends at the bar drinking beer.

One of my friends that I hunt with his wife got kind of pissy about how much we duck hunt.  She said something to her mother in law and her response was "well would you rather him be out in some field hunting or at the bar with his friends getting drunk and chasing women."  Let's just say we haven't been limited on our hunting since that talk.

x2.

It sounds like you have larger problems (to the OP) than triathlon.  This just makes no sense at all.  My husband has a specific fears WRT swimming but we have addressed them and found ways that he feels comfortable and I can still train (though this has nothing to do with fears of death but rather personally pulling a dead body out of the water recently).  You guys need to work TOGETHER to figure something out here rather than issuing ultimatums. 

Or determine the ratio of deaths on the swim leg to participants over the last ten years. And discuss that in comparison to deaths from obesity, etc. All the deaths I've read about have been at IM distance. Is that what you're training for? If not, that is another argument.

I can't see my SO forbidding me much of anything either - I'm not sure it would occur to him, but it might be fun to see him try once -- but I understand how difficult it can be to go against your partner's wishes when s/he feels strongly about something.

Tri is good, healthy, and too time-consuming to involve a mistress other than your bike. She should celebrate.

Some things are worth fighting for, and I think this might be one of them.