"Is the competition better?"

I don't think so. At olympic distance, it's pretty much Lindquist and then everybody else. At IM, it's pretty much Badmann and everybody else. The men's races seem to be more open.

"Anybody else like this?"

I like watching Badman race, because she races like Larsen, and like Helreigel and Zack used to. She throws down the gauntlet on the bike and doesn't let up. But I don't care much about any of the other women's races.

"Could this be the first truely successful female commercialized sport?"

It's still a pretty small player. Women's golf and women's tennis are much more lucrative, if that is how you define success.