Triathlon is still cool.
Problem is
1) cost. I can afford it but I prob costs me about 10k in direct and indirect costs yearly excluding the bike. Not many can do that. My local Olympic race is charging $190 this year. I paid $225 for 70.3FL. Makes it very hard to support local races.

2) it’s difficult. People are damn lazy. Nobody wants to deal with 2-3 hrs of daily working out to be good at it and waking up at 4 or sacrificing lunch to get a swim in. Consider that a very good runner who averages 60 miles per week can do this in 8 hours, while 8 hours will get u to finish line in 16 hours in an IM.

3) the swim is a barrier and it deters people who otherwise would be willing.

I also think this series is doing it all wrong...https://www.igniteswimrun.com/minnesota

.....charging to much for entry and trying to big deal in SwimRun.....$400 for a 2 person team?

if this same event was produced locally for $160 for a 2 person team, not trying to be to "fancy" but playing up the coolness of challenge with a post race get together at the local brewery they would have a better chance of making this a success.....how did Otillio get started again???

This is a great discussion, and I bet there are elements from almost all of the posts so far that are true influencers on where the sport finds itself.

I am in Year 4. Year 1 I did a few sprints on a cheap bike with borrowed tri bars that I didn’t use because I wasn’t comfortable on them. Year 2 I did sprint, Olympic, and half. All local races. All with a great buzz. All with lots of new entrants. But there seems to be a drive always to go longer. To turn the training into a second job. To buy speed (as guilty as the next man). To slowly squeeze the fun out of it....

I did my IM in year 3 and a local full last year, but started getting into ultra running events because they are cheap, logistically easy, and it is considered fine to aim to complete at your own pace. The buzz is brilliant. People talk to you.

This year I am trying a new approach. Not going to monitor my CTL or TSS. Not going to swim in a pool once, just going to have fun. I will do events that pick my fancy, but probably local. I will spend hours racing on zwift because it is awesome, even if it isn’t proper training.

Bit of a ramble, but I do think the sport has a bit of a problem with itself. It has lost a bit of its fun. It used to be okay to have a giggle while you waited to start. I recall a competitor with a basket bike and a huge smile on her face. I think when you get hooked on this sport you get sucked towards going long, and then you become a bit of a bore, which makes you a very poor salesman for the sport to new entrants. Oh, that bloke from the office who does they triathlon thing? He has to wake up at 5am every morning to work out before coming to the office, and whenever I ask him how his race went he tells me it was awful and he spent his time pooping his pants in a portaloo.

Both my kids go to a local tri club, and they love it. They both get to race once or twice a year, but it is one of 4 sports they do, and this club exists entirely because of the efforts of 2 people. And for every 10 adult triathlon clubs, I bet there isn’t even 1 junior club. Compare that to cricket, soccer, baseball, etc....

We triathletes are too self obsessed to run junior clubs. That is, after all, lost training time.

Heck, that rambling post almost reached a conclusion right there. I have surprised myself!

In the USA, the perception(and the reality for many) is that triathlon and cycling are the lowest of the low in the hierarchy of sports. Tri and cycling are the sports you try when you are unsuccessful at the other sports. They are the sports you get into when you are trying to prove to yourself and other people that you are an "athlete." BTW, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just relaying info.

i used to think that. until lucas verzbicas came along, and became in my mind the second best runner in american high school history, behind jim ryun. off triathlon training. and i thought, well, that's a one-off. until i started to look around and saw daniel vertiz, tony smoragowicz, andy trouard, and others, including the womens, rising to the top of the running world. cycling? some years back i was talking to (world cycling champ) emma pooley, and she noted that pretty much all the top time trialists came from triathlon.

and then i reflected back to the fact that nobody ever comes to triathlon after a successful single sport career - from any country - and does well.

do you think this kid is does what he does because he can't excel in other sports?

i'm not saying a top triathlete would have been a good football player. and yes, there are good football or baseball players who would have been great triathletes. i just don't think it's quite as simple as your statement.

Sorry, I def disagree with you.

In all the 'major' track n field sports, there is a path to collegiate excellence and even (European) pro circuits that are lucrative. In contrast, pro triathletes make a pittance in comparison, unless you're top 5 in the world.

I def think that in the USA, aside from the rare anomaly, it's still 'go to the single sport and excel' for the truly talented. Even Lucas V - when he went to college, he ended up ditching triathlon to focus exclusively on track n field (whether that was a wise move is open to debate.)

Here are some ideas I have thought about to increase sustainability for events:

-plan to do the event every other year rather than annually.

-announce new event will only be done for limited years....3 years and done....offer another event in another location for next 3 years....only here for a limited time, like the McRib...get its while its hot.

i feel like we've increasingly tried to convince people that racing should be expensive and infrequent and complicated and high-commitment. i think it should be the total opposite.

-mike

good thoughts, but i think another thing that would possibly increase the popularity of racing is if racing wasn't such a big deal.

when i start running as a teen, the local running club held races in the park the first saturday of every month. they cost $2, and were timed by a guy at the finish line holding a stopwatch. no tshirts, no charity, no medals. if you wanted to show up and hammer with a few fast guys, or push a pram, or jog a training day with your friends, it was all fine. hell, when i was in grad school there was a similar series (also $2) of spring and fall cross-country races held on week nights.

following that model, most people could race at least 10x/year, plus pick a few big out of town or larger local races.

if you had simple, short, cheap local tris and dus (and whatever else - runs, rides, skis, snowshoes) you could nurture a general endurance/multisport community. the master's swimmer, or highschool runner, or skier, that has an ancient schwinn 10-speed in his garage, might jump into that kind of tri for a cool challenge. but he's not paying $350 to do a branded 70.3 that's 150 miles from home.

i feel like we've increasingly tried to convince people that racing should be expensive and infrequent and complicated and high-commitment. i think it should be the total opposite.

-mike

When I everested, I was mostly alone and there was 0 entry fee.