Thailand Ultras is on the money. There are no discriminatory barriers to women doing triathlon. IM has tried to balance spots on the basis of numbers per AG to try and ensure equitable opportunity.

This results in some AG having one slot. Opening up two race days will provide many more slots to women, but thye may not fill the race.

Equality of opportunity can be looked at many ways. Age/Gender formula used in running is pretty good:

M 48 19 min 5 K 75 %
W 48 21:30 5 K 75 %

Sounds ok. In the bold new world of equality for a World Championship


M 48 9:58 20 th in AG no slot no chance
W 48 13:30 20 th in AG slot go to WC

Equal opportunity for triathlon and equal opportunity for a WC are not quite the same thing.

Except given the two day format, that woman going to Kona has no real bearing on the man going to Kona. Separate days for men and women means there's no reason to not have equal numbers of starters.

No it doesn't

the women's AG race will get a lot slower though at FOP all the way through. And if the Mens race gets some more slots those sub 10 men might get more slots so everyone wins.

It was never a WC for amateurs. It's more akin to qualifying for Boston. It's only a WC for the pros.

Exactly!
2k slots each day.

Honest question…
Would they fill 2k slots for women? (hopefully!)

As an older male who has used Triathlon for fun and fitness with a goal, testing limits as I age, for some reason this new development has removed my ambition to return to Kona.

I doubt that will break WTC's heart.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I keep reading many comments on social media from men stating that it's no longer a WC, the field will be watered down, there is no challenge to qualify anymore, they don't want to race in Kona anymore, shaming WTC (not you Michael). Here are my thoughts on this:

• General kona slots are going from 40 to 55 in most races. Before I started doing this in 2016, there used to be 50 slots. And if I understand correctly maybe 10 years ago there were much more slots and most men and women placing in the top 3 or top 5 usually got a slot to Kona. So 55 slots will still be very challenging for the men. Will still be challenging for women in races w/o those 100 extra female slots.
• 
  
• In a race like upcoming IMAZ, there are 151 women registered in the F45-49 AG (using this as just an example). If they get 3 slots from the 55 and 10 from the 100 slots, then the top 13 women get a slot to kona. Is that so bad? Maybe, maybe not. But if someone is going to complain about a 13th place woman who gets a kona slot, I have seen the men's 50s groups roll down quite a bit. I volunteered at IMMT in 2014 helping out with Kona registration. I will never forget the men 50-54 rolling down because a friend in 11th place would have gotten a roll down but he was not at the awards ceremony.
• 
  
• And for those who have been complaining about the purity of the WC event (not you Michael), I would rather focus on celebrity and sponsorship slots given out to people who did not qualify. Get rid of them first if purity is such a big deal. You can't do the Olympics just because you are a celebrity!
• 
  
• Back to the 100 extra slots for women in some races. I personally would rather see something like 20-25 dished out over more races instead of a select few. Then most female AGs get about 5-6 slots each (including general slots). That makes up for the years where we only got 1 slot sometimes :-)
• 
  
• And if it were up to me, the top 3 or top 5 of each AG (depending on the size) would go to Kona.

---

Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I was on the big island in May. It sounded like people were frustrated with the two day format for this year and really hoping it wouldn’t become the trend. The biggest complaints were:
1. The Queen K is the way many people get to and from work. Not being able to get to work twice in a week, especially on a weekday, is problematic.
2. Many locals who used to volunteer no longer want to do so as they see their free labor as a key free input into creating a profitable race for someone else’s bottom line.

No idea how pervasive this type of thinking is, but if it becomes more widespread that can’t be good for the race or community.

From a fairness standpoint this is difficult for most people to understand but it is absolutely the right thing to do. I agree with you that providing greater access to Kona for women will grow participation by women in the sport. Eventually it will regulate to be more even with men as participation grows but for right now this is absolutely the right thing to do. At the IM WC in St. George there were about 700 women vs about 2,000 men. Unfortunately those disparities are not uncommon in long-course triathlon. Things need to change.

---

------------------
http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

The slots previously were distributed by numbers of age group participants starting.
I’m assuming that will still be the case, however, the numbers of age group men starting will come from one pool of slots aiming at the men’s only race at Kona, and the numbers of age group women will come from a different — and at some races larger — pool of slots aimed at the women’s race. And because each gender gets its own race day, there will necessarily be more women’s slots because they are filling up an entire race day.

Basically, the women’s participation gets meted out the same as the men. Two pools of slots not one.

---

Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018

That's not how I read it.

For races with 55 normal slots AND 100 women for tri slots, the 55 slots would be distributed as it's always been: normally distributed based on number of starters for men AND women. The 100 slots are strictly for women after the 55 slots have been allocated.

---

blog

That's how I'm reading it too. Again using just one Female Age group. They might get 3 slots from the 55. And from the 100 slots, they might get 10 (not sure if they will divide it equally or weight it depending on participants in each AG). So if they get 13, that is a lot. As a female, I would rather see 20-25 extra slots for women like it was done for Nice (a lot of 70.3 races had 25 extra slots for women). Then it's more like a total of 6 slots, not 13.

ETA: I think there is a lot of confusion and different interpretations on the 55 and 100 slots. Heck maybe Steve and I are not fully correct in our thinking of how this will be done.

---

Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

That's how I read it too. So out of the 55, you get 10-12 more men's slots and sprinkling of women's slots (3 to 5). Then you add a whole lot more women's slots with the 100.

Correct, normal slots split like always and women slots for women only. In cairns last year there were 185 female entrants the year before 230. The race will have 100 normal slots divided so maybe 65 male 35 female plus 65 special female only slots. So in this case a total of 100 female slots. So if they get even a little boost in entrants and have 250 female participants, 10 in 25 entrants will go to kona! 40% of the race. In the men, they had around 900 entrants, so this year with 65 slots the odds will be 7.2%, still healthy compared to last year when the race had 60 slots only total and a 6% kona chance.

So if you are a female keen to do Kona, get to Cairns, finish, and with a few slots rolling down you are pretty likely to get one.

Right, I hope somebody from Ironman clarifies, but I'm also reading it that way.

~30 to ~35 male slots and ~115 to ~120 female slots.

So, with events getting 55 slots for everyone, they will still have about 30-35 males qualify, and 15-20 females qualify from that number (as usual, based on age group). Then they will have 100 more women qualify out of the 100 slots for women (presumably also based on age-group size).

The exciting things will be seeing:

1) if the female participation increases dramatically in those races with the extra 100 slots
2) how do the spots roll down for women in those 120 slot races
3) how the two-day event format plays out in Kona (as competitive races, as a logistical tourist venue, and with the community impact)
4) if this is something they keep in the future or if the experiment is tweaked or ditched

Would be very surprised if 40% want to go. There will rather be a lot of non-taken slots.

Thats for sure! I cant see manly people who go this year going back right away after the bank account drained. And, the same goes for other who will qualify, a no answer for financial reasons will be common.

Also we have three years of qualifying racing in 2022, this years race will be one of the fastest average times in history. To get on stage this year will be an incredible achievement. In 2024 the race we will be very different .

Im not sure ironman understand the power of scarcity and how that creates value.

One race, mass start. That's how it should be.

This is clearly just a revenue decision. Same as introducing swim waves. Just another way of getting more entries under the guise of safety.

We all realise of course that women racing on a Thursday excludes half the (working) world of watching them race based on time zones.