The London-born 29-year-old finished the 3.8km swim, 180km, bike and full 42.2km marathon in 13h 05m 44s.
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Holness, who didn’t speak till age six but learnt to swim at three, said: “I hope I motivate other people with autism to do a triathlon.
“When I take part in Ironman races I’m like ‘why am I the only one with autism?’
“It was an epic event. I had some tummy issues that made it really hard, but I pushed through, and I am so happy to finish.
“I’m definitely going to come back. I want to do this again and podium one day!
He continued: “Now I want to go have some pizza and thank all the people of Hawaii who made today so awesome!”
Holness completed his first full Ironman of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile cycle and marathon at the European Championship in Frankfurt earlier this year having previously raced marathons and shorter distance triathlons.
He tried other sports as a youngster including archery, judo and running before putting all his energy into triathlon, with a gruelling training schedule of 24 hours a week.
But Holness truly found found comfort in the repetitive nature of triathlon training.
His dad and coach Tony said: “I call him my hero. We though autism would stop him from doing a lot of things but it’s actually been that focus and determination from autism that makes him a good athlete.
“You think of all the downsides of it but it has been the driving force.”
Sam Holness is an ambassador for ManCave