monty wrote:
Last year 7th place overall was an amateur. An amateur who swam 82 minutes and spotted the majority of the pros a good 30 minutes out of the water. Yet still managed to beat all pros but 6. Probably another amateur or two this year will creep into the top 7.
This is about pros. It will go to the 7th place pro. They are different races. There is no debate on this issue. //
Exactly. That guy was 1st amateur and not 7th pro. They race in different races, so there is a 7th overall pro and a 7th overall AG'er, as well as each and every spot. Hell i could have been 7th overall, just in a different race, in a different state, and certainly a different distance!!!!
Please. AGs and Pros race the same day on the same course. When a pro is getting beat by an AG, they may not be losing out on money to that AG, but they are being beat, fair and square. And, you know it.
Now, this TRS stunt is about raising awareness of the lack of prize purse money. Ok, it has succeeded at that. But, it has also caused people like me to think about it a bit more. And, I am not certain WTC should be paying out substantially for the kind of performances that are on the money bubble. What people fail to see is that the proliferation of events has diluted the pro field, so the quality at each event is not high. Why should WTC pay big for mediocre performances, for performances that amateurs who swim 82 minutes are beating.
Some questions for TRS:
1 - what is the average total prize purse per IM event in 2014 vs 2004?
2 - what is the average time payout cutoff limit in 2014 vs 2004
3 - what percentage of events pay out to someone who was beaten by an amateur, ie someone who expects $0 in compensation but still is faster than those expecting to be paid for their participation?
WTC has grown events roughly at the pace of increase in participation. Supply to keep up with demand. This has resulted in about a 5x increase in events in the past decade, 5x the number of events that are paying out money. Has the growth of the pro field grown at the same rate. Are the number of pros who are running 8:10, 8:20, 8:30, 8:40 5x the amount it was 10 years ago?