The first thing you notice is the atmosphere that surrounds the event. Everything about it breathes elite racing. The start line is not composed of a few elite athletes with a lot of part-time "pros". It is entirely composed of elite, professional athletes. Athletes with Olympic aspirations, competing for very good (for our sport...) prize-money. Because of the level of the athletes, everyone watching either at the race site or at home through the Internet were treated to two very competitive races, with constant changes in the dynamics of the race, which made them both interesting and very fun to watch.
When I got back home at the end of the day, I checked how Ironman Coeur d'Alene was going. And the contrast with the ITU WCS race was evident. With extremely weak fields, both men's and women's race were far from exciting, with second place for the men being 10 minutes behind the winner and third place almost 20 minutes down (!). The women's race was a little more "exciting", but just for the battle for second place. All this for the first Ironman race of the year in US soil.
The writing is on the wall: professional Ironman racing is dying. This is not new, it's been a slow death, brought on by stagnating prize-money purses and the increased number of races, causing a watering down of the competition. But this slow death is somewhat puzzling given the growth of the sport in the last years. With its logic of maximizing the profit out of the events that runs, the WTC is showing an incredibly narrow focus that is hurting the sport as a whole. This effect might not be noticeable right now, but it will be in the future.
Going back to the ITU World Championship Series, it seems to be a risky bet that is paying off. Having the best athletes perform in great stages around the World is a great idea, and one that is advancing triathlon more and more into being a worldwide sport. The race in DC is a perfect example. Just like having the Tour de France ending in the Champs Elysees, the streets of downtown DC were the perfect backdrop to bring triathlon into the mainstream. Big kudos to the ITU and the local organizing committee.
5 comments:
If elite Ironman racing is truly dead (or at least dying), it is most certain a case of complicity by the athletes. To paraphrase, "Professional Ironman racing is dead, and we have killed it." For now, I guess I'll just blame my parents for letting me quit swimming after middle school...
Great post! It's amazing to see ITU back to track with media on it as it deserves! This elite racing feel you mentioned is amazing!
Hope WTC and the athletes find a way to bring the bright/brilliantism (does this word exist) back to pro IM racing as the WTC is now the perfect show for the amateurs/age-groupers, besides Kona, of course! Money will be the main point athletes have by their side as the prize purses are low in face of the effort put by them on training and racing also! And because the law of supply and demand with the huge number of races, athletes have also lost some field to get the money they deserve and made some races a lot easier due to lack of real pro athletes!
Keep the good news coming, Marcos
GET ME RUNNING FASTER!!! ITU HERE I COME!!!!
Paulo,
Great post. I agree 100%. The WTC had a real opportunity, but both the Pro athletes that follow it and the organization itself has let Pro racing over the full IM and 70.3 distances wither on the vine. IMH is perhaps the only full IM race that matters anymore.
SF
The mayor of DC, Adrian Fenty, races 70.3 level triathlons and does well. He gave the permits for the ITU race as well as Nation's in September. When he's no longer mayor, we might expect those races to fold up too, possibly?
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