Along these lines, there are "currencies" that are recognized by society. As you said, Olympic Gold Medal, in my field an MIT degree is going give you auto credibility (although the India IIT grads seem to be getting the same treatment given how awesome they have done in tech). For those who can't achieve status by gaining a checkmark that gives them established currency (be it through intellect or sporting prowess in areas that are pre established) they need to create their own category and get out there and market the hell out of it. Running across the Sahara, 50/50/50 fall into this category.

I think the problem being a pro athlete in triathlon is that triathlon is not a spectator sport, so, in general, people in society outside tri don't care about triathlon. The people who care about pro triathletes are only the people who do triathlon. And arguably, as many of you have said, most age groupers don't care about the pros because unlike yesterday when Ironman show cased the pros as the rock stars of the sport who we should emulate, now the pros at the local IM are a bit of a side show and the main show is that "Anything is Possible"....the age grouper is the rock star for the day. Given all this it seems the best way to get noticed outside the sport by the media is (as you said) an Olympic Gold, or do something crazy like IC just did and market the hell out of the new category and resultant currency.

IC himself seems to be on a mission "to get noticed" (which is fine). He has said a few times he set the world record for most half IM's in a year and then most IM's in year but no one noticed and no one cared (which is true, we did not)....most of us did not even know there was a record for all this (I guess this falls into the "create your own category and be a world record holder in it). The most recent interview on Fox (which, by the way was pretty good), he talks about those world records (or at least the journalist mentions them, I can't remember who brought it up). Then the interview gets into 50 day journey.

When is the last time they interviewed Kienle on Fox (OK, arguably he is German, so how about someone like Tim DeBoom after he won Kona?). How often is Gwen getting on Fox after all those ITU wins?

So I can easily see how pro triathletes might feel that some guy with no speed suddenly vaults passed all of them in terms of exposure and sponsors and certainly feel a bit ripped off. Same deal with the guys running across the Sahara vs "Actually Fast Runners".

On the positive side, if he has inspire some people to get into our sport, then all the better. I personally don't care if he had an impact on childhood obesity. All of us here doing the sport today, the real people who have impact on that are youth sports coaches who are there day in and day out with kids keeping them engaged in sport. One guy whipping in an out of a state in a day will have less of a lasting affect than the high school track coach, or local soccer coach and to fight obesity, I think you need a lasting effect.

Hats off to the guy though for his mental and physical tenacity and support crew as well as their marketing (albeit some deception and misrepresentation). Pros can't mis represent what they have achieved anyway, because anyone can look up what they did, so the only records you guys can market are legit records, which sadly only a few of us inside the sport care about....so it gets hard to market Frodo's sub 8 in Frankfurt outside the sport and on the outside IC's 50 state odyssey will get more mileage and exposure. He's created a currency that general people will eat up.